Shut out during the shut down, as once again Entergy tries to control media access to a select few.
When independent documentary filmmaker and public television videographer Robbie Lepzer registered to film a public tour of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (VY), he expected it to be a rather standard process. After all, Entergy regularly admits the press and TV cameras for site tours. This tour, scheduled for Thursday April 29 is for members of the Public Service Board (PSB) and the media.
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Update #1
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (together, "Entergy VY"),have determined to allow credentialed media, including Tuming Tide Productions, to take photographs of or film the areas to be visited during the site visit.
[See complete Downs, Rachlin, Martin response to the Public Service Board in last attached document.] Turning Tide Productions is Robbie Leppzer's film company.
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Leppzer's shut out during shut down by Entergy has resulted in a PSB demand for information from Entergy as to why a journalist is not being allowed to film when other TV media is filming and has been filming. [Emphasis added.]
MEMORANDUM
To: Parties in PSB Docket No. 7600
From: Susan M. Hudson, Clerk of the Board
Re: Turning Tide Productions' Request to Film Site Visit
Date: April 27, 2010
On April 27, 2010, Robbie Leppzer sent the attached e-mail to the Public Service Board ("Board") requesting that the Board take action to allow Mr. Leppzer to bring television cameras to the site visit in Docket 7600 scheduled for Thursday, April 29. The Board requests that Entergy submit a response to Mr. Leppzer's request by noon on April 28. In particular, the Board requests Entergy to address whether Entergy is permitting news organizations to have television cameras, as Mr. Leppzer indicates. If so, Entergy should explain why Mr. Leppzer is being treated differently from those news organizations. The Board also requests that Entergy explain what, if any, restrictions on cameras are
necessary to ensure that Entergy fulfills its security and safety obligations.
Other parties may also submit comments by the same deadline.
cc: Robbie Leppzer
Leppzer has more than 30-years of documentary film making [see Leppzer's resume below the fold]. In preparation for a documentary film on the relicensing of VY, he has been filming testimony presented to the Legislature and its committees since January when discussion of both the leak and Entergy's request to relicense the nuclear plant began in earnest. Given that Vermont is the only state in the country to have the legal right to decide if VY should receive its Certificate for Public Good (CPG), it makes sense to me that someone would want to create a documentary about this subject. I also expect that Entergy would try to thwart such an effort.
At the very time Entergy is claiming a new policy of openness to Vermont State officials, boards, commissions, the legislature and the media, it has denied Leppzer permission to film the tour even though he is filming for CCTV Channnel 17 out of Burlington, VT in addition to his own documentary work. Leppzer may, as Entergy's Smith informed him, may take the tour, but without any film equipment, a predicament that is challenging for a filmmaker.
Entergy's action has once again put them in the spotlight in a negative way. After being shut out of filming, Leppzer contacted State Representative Sarah Edwards from Brattleboro, who is a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel. Edwards wrote to Entergy requesting that they reconsider their decision and give Leppzer equal access. Smith still denied Leppzer access, so at that time, Leppzer sent the entire packet of email correspondence, herein reproduced below the fold, to the PSB.
The PSB has given Entergy until noon today to explain why they are preventing Leppzer from filming.
More below the fold, including the entire email correspondence between Leppzer and Entergy's Smith.
I received quite a gift today when I opened up this morning's New York Times to see my son Eric Gundersen featured on the front page of the Business section! While we had heard the story was coming, one is always unsure whether or not a feature story makes it into print, and if it does, is it a news piece that hits the right tone.
Without even notifying friends, colleagues, relatives, and computer techies we know, we have been receiving emails and phone calls about the New York Times story since it first hit online last night. While the New York Times piece is specifically targeted to open government work Eric has done for the city of Washington, DC, the story is larger in its overall connection to the work his firm is doing nationally and internationally in open government, data mining, and geo-mapping.
And, while the photo features Eric and makes a mother proud, New York Times reporter Claire Cain Miller has done an excellent job capturing the issues confronting governments throughout the US. Some cities and states are willingly letting information out, others do not want anyone to touch public records except the holders, and how to design software that gives access is where firms like Eric's come into play. See the complete story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12...
Development Seed, the firm Eric founded almost five years ago has grown from a two person web design firm in his basement apartment to a 16 member firm with offices in Washington, DC.
According to Development Seed's website, Eric is
"President and co-founder of Development Seed. Over the past six years, Eric has developed communications strategies and tools for some of the largest international development organizations operating around the world, in addition to working with national public health and education focused NGOs. Eric is especially interested in improving information flows and efficiency within large organizations, alongside their on the ground operations."
The New York Times article said,
The push to publicize government data goes as far back as the 1960s, but technology has made it possible for people to use the data in ways that would not have been possible even a year ago, said Eric Gundersen, president of Development Seed, the Washington company that created Stumble Safely. The company builds data and map applications for international development programs.
"The timing now with the open data movement is really critical because there are a lot of open-source tools that really make that data usable," Mr. Gundersen said. These include the mapping tool he used to build Stumble Safely and also a site for the United States Agency for International Development that maps public health clinics.
Today's Washington Post announced that Galbraith "Is Fired in Clash Over Addressing Afghan Vote Fraud".
When Peter Galbraith was considering a run for Governor in Vermont in 2008, many critics wondered if he would have any name recognition with Vermonters and if he would be able to articulate and stand up for issues critical to all Vermonters. At the time Galbraith seemed so - well - academic. In 2008, GMD had a post entitled "Galbraith leads Pollina in WCAX poll". http://greenmountaindaily.com/...
Galbraith gave up a possible run for Governor in order to accept the position of Ambassador to Afghanistan and use his diplomatic skills to help stabilize Afghanistan's political frontier. A resident of Townshend, Galbraith, is a former ambassador to Croatia. In 1995 Galbraith was instrumental in creating the 1995 Erdut agreement, which the war between Serbia and Croatia.
Most recently, according to the Washington Post,
Galbraith had pushed the U.N. special representative in Kabul, former Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, to forcefully address the claims of fraud, and the disagreement culminated in Galbraith's abrupt departure from Afghanistan this month.
"I think there was massive fraud in the elections -- no doubt about that," said Galbraith, who is now in the United States. "It undermines the credibility of the election process. I took seriously the mandate to support free, fair and transparent elections."
Galbraith is showing himself not to be a pushover to hidden agendas and determined to fight for open government with "free, fair and transparent elections". Wish he would have been monitoring the US 2000 presidential election.
Whether it is the business of Burlington City Government, Chittenden County public safety issues, Vermont State Government layoffs all the while the Governor's favored employees receive bonuses, or the latest Bush/Cheney fiasco, open government is fast becoming obsolete.
Not so with your rights or your tax dollars. In spite of the Feingold, Dodd, Leahy, amendment, the Senate is poised to pass a FISA bill that grants immunity to telecom giants who listened to your phone calls and read your emails and without court order and without cause turned your records over to the Bush administration.
If you are a Burlington resident or business owner, you may wish to have tonight's open government task force and forum on your agenda. The meeting is tonight, Wednesday July 8 at the McClure Facility onNorth Winooski Avenue from 7 pm - 9 pm.
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