Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, discounted the threat. "If we reacted to every threat a mile away we would stop passing legislation," he said. "This is an extremely profitable asset. It's in their stockholders' interest to keep this plant running."
Freeps
The bill requiring Entergy to pony up now for a decommissioning of the Yankee plant which will occur ... well, it can't happen soon enough to suit many of the supporters of this legislation. Yesterday would be fine and tomorrow would be barely tolerable. The bill did not pass by a veto-proof margin. But if the governor does veto it and the veto does stand, this will merely amount to stomping down this particular grass fire. Next year, it will be time to vote on relicensing Yankee. One wonders what kind of odds you could get, right now, that the plant will be open and generating electricity in four years.
Senator Shumlin is sanguine about the short run. It is hard to read his remarks otherwise. The implicit message is: "Don't be alarmed. They aren't going to shut the plant down any time soon."
Maybe. But not everyone thinks in the short run ... or the next election cycle. And if we are assured by Senator Shumlin that we have nothing to worry about now, does that mean we have nothing to worry about the future?
And, by the way, if we are to avoid legislating on the basis of threats that are "a mile away" then why are we passing laws to minimize Vermont's contribution to global warming?
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