| According to Terri Hallenbeck of the Burlington Free Press, House Speaker Shap Smith said Friday that the House may vote about the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant following the town meeting break. See BFP "We may vote on continued operation," said Smith, D-Morristown. "If there is a vote from both bodies that they believe Vermont Yankee should not continue to operate, that's a pretty clear indication there will not be continued operation." While some Republicans and Governor Douglas have attempted to paint the legislative push against relicensing Yankee as some type of partisan bickering on the part of the Democratically controlled legislature or the proclivity of gubernatorial candidates, it is clear that such statements are simply last ditch efforts on the part of the lame-duck Douglas administration. This lame-duck administration is clearly out of touch with the interests of the general public and most of its legislators, as well as Vermont's own statutorily mandated guidelines established in 2008 regarding the public trust water resource statute. According to Jon Groveman legal counsel for VNRC, "In 2008, the Vermont Legislature passed, and Governor Douglas signed, a bill declaring groundwater to be a public trust resource." see public trust House Natural Resources Chairman Tony Klein, a Democrat and Vice Chair Republican Joe Krawczyk are showing real statesmanship by working together to craft bi-partisan legislation that protects Vermont's environmental resources as well as protecting Vermont against the economic repercussions of Entergy's poor operation of Vermont Yankee. |
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