Updated: Breaking News: State and Vermont Yankee Make a Deal

The Deal

The State and Vermont Yankee have a deal about closing Vermont Yankee, announced this afternoon. I have read the breaking news report at WPTZ, and watched Shumlin's press conference as described in  Vermont Digger and embedded below.  Thank you to Digger for posting the conference so quickly!

The deal seems to have hard-edged parts (yes, I understand what's happening) and soft-edged parts (hmmm, open to interpretation here).  I share my opinions below, but I also share the press conference video, so you can form your own opinions.

Hard-edged parts of the deal:

1. Entergy will file a decommissioning plan with the NRC in about a year, although it can legally take up to four years to do so. This plan will include an estimate of the total costs of decommissioning.
2. Entergy will pay $2 million dollars a year for the next five years, some of which will go into the Clean Energy Development fund, and some of which will go into helping displaced workers in Windham County (or at least, something about Windham County--unclear).
3. Entergy will put another $25 million dollars into the decommissioning fund.
4. Entergy will attempt (it can't promise) to move all fuel into dry casks within about seven years. 
5. When the money in the decommissioning fund has grown to the level needed for decommissioning (see #1 above), Entergy will start decommissioning activities within three months. It will not just keep the plant in SAFSTOR for sixty years or so.
6. The state and Entergy drop all lawsuits against each other.

Update: According to the Brattleboro Reformer, "lawsuits are over" does not apply to the generation tax lawsuit which will be heard in Vermont Supreme Court.

http://www.reformer.com/ci_24783693/entergy-and-state-reach-grand-bargain

Second Update: An article in my local paper seems to have a different take on the generation tax--that Entergy will pay the tax-to-date and the state won't expect the tax going forward?  I am sorry, but we will have to wait till after the holidays to get this straight.  Here is the article, originally from the Rutland Herald, but it may be behind a paywall.
http://www.vnews.com/news/state/region/9934425-95/shumlin-vt-yankee-reach-deal

Soft-edged parts of the deal:

1. Entergy agrees that it will "Greenfield" the plant. Actually, Entergy agreed to this in the memorandum of understanding when it bought the plant in 2002. "Greenfielding" means site remediation beyond what the NRC requires for decommissioning.  However, what does greenfielding mean in practice?  Level and reseed the ground? Entergy had always agreed to do that.  Or  does it mean "dig up every foundation to a depth of 40 feet, at great trouble and expense"? Entergy has never agreed to that.
2. Who is agreeing here? I mean, I think it is great to see Governor Shumlin up there explaining the deal, but what about the PSB? Will they be willing to agree to this?  Will they be annoyed that their quasi-judicial process isn't processing?
3. Who is not-suing here?  I can practically hear the howls of "Shumlin betrayed us" from the intervenors.  I suspect more lawsuits will come from that direction.
4. Did the state promise "no clever new taxes on the plant or fuel"?  If they did, I didn't see it in the press conference.  

My Current Opinion:

It seems to me a good-enough agreement.

1. Entergy didn't promise anything it can't perform (such as promising to decommission within ten years or something like that).  
2. Entergy supplied enough Danegeld to allow Shumlin to tell his supporters he made a great deal for the people of Vermont, so he doesn't lose face and he may abide by the agreement.  
3. But Entergy didn't provide too much Danegeld.  After all, the state wanted $12 million a year to make up for the generation tax, though they knew they couldn't actually obtain that amount.

I am sure we will hear more about this, and I bet some intervenors are getting their legal briefs ready, even as I post this.

Meanwhile, the press conference that announced the deal:

Why the Rush to Industrial Wind Isn't Good for Vermont: The Press Conference

At a press conference Thursday two Vermont senators announced proposed legislation for a three-year moratorium on new industrial wind development on Vermont's ridges. Rob Roper of the Ethan Allen Institute made four-minute video at the conference: it has some amazing graphics of wind development.


 

Two recent articles also cover this press conference:

Brattleboro Reformer: The Local Ridges

An article by Mike Faher in the Brattleboro Reformer describes the press conference, and connects it to the town of Windham's fight against industrial wind on its local ridges. (The town of Windham is in Windham County, which is also home to the town of Vernon and Vermont Yankee.)

Eight pro-wind groups made a lengthy statement against this proposed legislation. The groups include the local Sierra Club,  Citizens Awareness Network (their website is nukebusters.org), and  the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance. The Reformer article says:  In the groups' press release, Kilian characterized wind-power opposition as "the extreme voices of those who refuse to take responsibility for our energy future."

(Snark warning  I just LOVE it when nuclear-opponents-and-wind-promoters insult people that way. Winning people to your side by name-calling.  Go for it, guys! Do some more of this! End snark.)

Vermont Digger: The Governor's Opinion and the Bill Itself

An article by Andrew Stein in Vermont Digger includes a video of the conference, a link to the draft bill itself, and an interesting correction (the correction, IMO, is not the reporter's fault...)

Here's the correction: Gov. Peter Shumlin said on Friday that he is still vehemently opposed to the idea of a moratorium on utility-scale wind development. VTDigger originally reported that Shumlin indicated earlier this week that he was not completely opposed to the idea.  

The Digger article has a lengthy comment stream, including many comments by my friend Willem Post. Post is a world-wide authority on wind power and its problems. He has many excellent posts on wind power  on The Energy Collective website.  Thousands of people follow his posts there. He is also an occasional guest blogger on this blog.

--------

Rob Roper made the video above. Roper is President of the Ethan Allen Institute, and the Energy Education Project (I am director) is part of the Ethan Allen Institute.

I blogged about this press conference a few days ago: A Wind Moratorium Press Conference in Montpelier. That earlier post includes information about Vermont Electric Cooperative and wind power.

Some Results from our Press Conference

I guess we really won't know until we see what kind of coverage we get, but I wanted to post about our Montpelier press conference yesterday. At this conference, the Coalition for Energy Solutions announced and released our evaluation of VPIRG's report on replacing Vermont Yankee with renewables.

First of all, it was a gorgeous day. Just before our conference, the Race to Replace (Vermont Yankee) took off from the Statehouse steps. These were forty Middlebury College students riding to insist upon clean, affordable, renewable energy. (Well, it works for them.) I took some pictures as the bike riders indulged in the dangerous process of eating bananas, completely careless of the radiation consequences.

The bike ride had invited all the gubernatorial candidates to speak, and the five Democratic candidates came. I listened to them all bash Vermont Yankee. Some, like Matt Dunne, were upbeat about the challenge, and the great future Vermont would have in leading the world in renewables. (Did I mention that I know Matt's wife, Sarah Stewart Taylor? It is typical of both of them to be upbeat. I gave Matt a copy of our report.)

Other candidates, like Peter Shumlin, preferred to attack. The tritium, the aging hulk, the out-of-state owners who will not fund de-commissioning, how you need someone who will hold their feet to the fire.

Vermont Digger videotaped most of it. Here's Shumlin if you want to see him.

Meanwhile, I continue to learn how things work. Turns out that the two legislators, Senator Peg Flory and Representative Patty O'Donnell, did not introduce us at our press conference. They did not consider themselves to be sponsoring this press conference, but they were enough in favor of it to reserve the room for us. (They probably hadn't even had a chance to read the report.) If an ordinary citizen reserves the room, a legislator can "bump" the person from the room and reserve it herself. In that case, our press conference would have been sunk. We thank Representative O'Donnell for making the reservations that ensured we would be able to use the room.

The conference itself went well. All the Coalition members were there, and we all spoke, which made it run a little long. Some of the press were there, and Anne Galloway of Vermont Digger recorded part of it. (Some of the video may appear on the Digger website.) James Moore of VPIRG was also there part of the time. (Moore wrote Repowering Vermont.) He hung out in the back of the room and left early.

It was a busy day in the Statehouse, as the legislature tried to take care of the overdrawn unemployment fund, the state budget and...well...everything. The floor vote bell chimed almost constantly. We heard that other reporters would probably review our report later, when things stop hopping in Montpelier. The legislative session is supposed to close next week.

Meanwhile, the Brattleboro Reformer covered our report. As I am posting this, there are 21 comments, many positive toward the report. (And thanks to Rod and David who wrote comments.) I will keep you informed as more articles are published.

Montpelier and more

Tomorrow, the anti-Vermont Yankee walkers are holding a press conference in Montpelier at 12:30 at the State House. I blogged about this a few days ago, including a link to parking areas in the city. I will be there.

My original sign will not be there, alas. I called the Vermont Sergeant At Arms, and big signs are not allowed within the State House. Signs have to be "no wider than you are and only 12 inches tall."

I go to potlucks, and I obey rules about signs (true dedication). I made a new little sign that meets these criteria. It says Yes Vermont Yankee, of course.

If you aren't going to Montpelier, you might enjoy reading two excellent blog posts that illuminate some of the topics I have covered recently.

One about tritium and bananas. The drinking water limit for tritium protects you against the radiation you would get if you ate a banana. The second half of the post is about tritium.

The other about steam dryers. Excellent explanations about yet another way the anti-s mislead people.

Just think. You will be all warm and toasty, reading interesting blogs, while I brave Montpelier ( low of zero, high of 22 degrees, cloudy and probably windy). I'd love to see you there, but frankly, it also sounds like a good day to stay home.