Campaigns take up Vermont Yankee question
By Terri Hallenbeck, The Burlington Free Press
The way state law is written, if the Legislature
doesn’t give the go-ahead, Vermont Yankee can’
t continue operating after March 2012. Nothing
in the law gives the governor any say in it.
Nonetheless, candidates and energy activists
say, when it comes to deciding the future of
Vermont’s only nuclear power plant and the
future of its energy supply, it very much matters
who is elected the next governor.
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Peter Shumlin,
at a news conference Tuesday, argued there’s a
clear difference in the race for governor:
Republican Brian Dubie would be too willing to
take Vermont Yankee’s side when it comes to
weighing in on the nuclear power plant’s future,
a charge Dubie’s campaign denied.
“He is going to be a governor who is going to
continue to believe and trust the word of
Entergy,” Shumlin said, referring to the Vernon
plant’s corporate owner. “I have lost faith, like
many Vermonters, in Entergy Louisiana’s ability
to tell the truth.”
The dust-up raised the question of what role the
next governor will play in deciding the future of
Vermont Yankee, whose operating license
expires smack in the middle of a new governor’s
first term in office. All five Democrats running
for governor have said they want Vermont
Yankee to close in 2012, while Dubie said he
wants the Legislature to let the Public Service
Board rule on that, sounding similar on the topic
to the man he hopes to succeed, Republican Gov.
Jim Douglas.
Read the entire article here: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100728/NEWS03/100727019/Campaigns-take-up-Vermont-Yankee-question
