More Nuclear Supporters than Opponents at Public Service Board Hearing

The scene at the meeting
Note the green stickers and buttons of VY supporters

Public Service Board members at head table
David Coen, Commissioner John Volz, John Burke
Court Reporter at left

For continued operation, Vermont Yankee requires a Certificate of Public Good from the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB).  The only in-person public meeting for this docket was held last night at the Vernon Elementary School across the street from Vermont Yankee.

I hoped that supporters would come to this hearing.  Sometimes plant opponents practice the politics of intimidation.  I hoped this meeting would be civil.

State Representative Mike Hebert
of Vernon and Guilford

The meeting was civil. The meeting was informative. I think one reason for the civility was that plant supporters outnumbered opponents. I have noticed that the higher the percentage of supporters, the less shouting and intimidation takes place.  Also, I give much credit to the PSB members. They ran a tight, controlled meeting. They timed the talks and did not let people go over their time.

The Brattleboro Reformer article by Bob Audette started: Supporters of the continued operation of Vermont Yankee outnumbered opponents by a margin of three-to-one. Audette quoted several plant supporters in the article: I encourage you to read it.

Plant supporters spoke of local economics and the economics of electricity prices.  They spoke of environmental impacts and family life.  They spoke of reasonable and unreasonable fears.  Over the next few days, I hope to have several of their presentations as guest posts on this blog.

               

Former Governor Thomas P Salman
speaking in favor of Vermont Yankee

Former State Representative Patty O'Donnell
Now Chairwoman of the Vernon Selectboard

Bruce Shields, President of the Ethan Allen Institute
The Energy Education Project is part of the Institute

Thank you to Stephanie Thomson of VTEP for the pictures.

Save the Date: November 7 for Crucial Meeting on Vermont Yankee

Certificate of Public Good

Vermont Yankee has its renewed license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but still needs a Certificate of Public Good from the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB).  Before deciding on the certificate, the PSB will hold only one public meeting.  This hearing will be on Wednesday November 7, at 7 p.m, at Vernon Elementary School, across the street from the plant entrance.

The meeting is designed for the public to ask questions, and express concerns about the proposed new Certificate of Public Good for Vermont Yankee.   The Certificate will allow the plant to operate for the full twenty years of its NRC license. This is a very important meeting, and the last chance for the public to address the PSB.  The formal hearing process will finish next August, with a PSB decision to follow.  The schedule is posted in this Pre-Hearing Memo by the Public Service Board.

Note: There will also be a Vermont Interactive Technologies hearing on November 19. You can attend this hearing at many places throughout Vermont. At this point, however, I would urge people to show up in person on November 7 if you possibly can do so.

The Meeting at the School Across from the Plant

It is very important that supporters of Vermont Yankee attend this meeting. This and the interactive hearing are the only ones scheduled before the Public Service Board decides. The meeting is near the plant, and many opponents turn out for meetings near the plant.

We need to show the Public Service Board that there are supporters as well as opponents. Also, when the opponents are present as a large majority, some of them tend to be rude. In my opinion, when they are part of the majority, these opponents tend to be much more rude than they would dare to be in a more balanced audience.  Their rudeness is calculated to add to the impression that everyone hates the plant.

Mark your calendars.  Support nuclear power.  Support the economic viability of Vermont!  This is a crucial meeting.

Some background

At this point, the contents of Docket #7862 are not yet on the Public Service website, a situation I blogged about in Docket 7862, Where Are You?  The Public Service Board opened this new docket because its previous Vermont Yankee dockets (7440 and 7600) could not be scrubbed of nuclear safety material. The federal government, not the state, regulates nuclear safety.

Because the new docket is not yet posted at the Public Service Board site, I have posted the material I have about the docket on the Energy Education Project site. You can find many relevant briefs and testimony at Public Service Board Docket 7862 filings.

I hope to see you on November 7!

Rallies and Protests at the Vermont Yankee Plant

Tomorrow: A Rally For the Plant, At the Plant

Vermont Yankee is holding a refueling outage. They are moving ahead to keep that clean electricity flowing, despite the uncertainties of the court case. Many of us appreciate that, and we are holding a rally at the plant gates tomorrow afternoon, at 4:30 p.m., shift change. We want the people at the plant: regular employees, contract workers, and managers who made the decision to load fuel...to see we support them! More details in the previous post, which includes email addresses and phone numbers to reach the organizers: Howard Shaffer and me.

Retrospectives on the Morning Street Rally and the Evening Plant Rally of September 12

On the morning of September 12, the Entergy versus Shumlin/State of Vermont lawsuit began in at the Courthouse in Brattleboro. Early that morning, the Safe and Green Campaign held a vigil in front of the Court House, and several pro-nuclear groups held a rally. The pro-nuclear groups included the Energy Education Project of the Ethan Allen Institute, and the Vermont Pilot Project of the American Nuclear Society. I am director of the Energy Education Project, and I blogged extensively about our rally.

The Evening Puppet Show and Protest

The morning vigil and the rally were not the only activity on September 12, however. In the evening, at 6 p.m, the Clamshell Alliance held a protest at the gates of the plant in Vernon Vermont, a few miles from Brattleboro. The protest featured a Puppet parade, radical marching band, street theater and direct action.

At first, I read nothing about that protest in the press. On the evening of September 12, all the reporters who cover Vermont Yankee were busily filing their first-day-of-the-Federal-trial stories, not racing to the plant to see yet-another-opponent-demonstration.

The Aftermath

The evening protest did eventually get covered in the press. Obliquely.

During the September 12 protest at the plant, people parked across the street from the plant at the Vernon Elementary School. As the Brattleboro Reformer wrote on September 28: The Vernon School Board is weighing a new ordinance to prevent non-school related parking on the property after receiving several complaints following a recent protest against the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Board members said Monday night that protesters, gathered at the plant’s gate just across the street from the school, were using the parking lot for unauthorized purposes.

On October 5, the protesters showed up in the press again. Susan Smallheer at the Rutland Herald (behind a paywall) wrote that (A) group of protesters, who were arrested for the first time at Vermont Yankee’s gates on Sept. 12, are due in court later this month. A call to the Vernon Police department revealed that the arrests were for trespassing on Vermont Yankee property.

Apparently, puppet shows and direct action lead to problems in the parking lot and arraignment in court. In my opinion, the parking ban will pose a bigger difficulty for the plant opponents than the trespassing charges.

Looking Forward

The Clamshell Alliance is going to be holding a rally at the plant on October 30. Here are notes from one of their recent planning meetings.

One of the points made at the Clamshell Alliance planning meeting: State of VT is an ally; don’t alienate with arrests

Oops.