( – promoted by odum)
Yes, I know, it’s a shock. From the Times Argus website, posted late this afternoon under the rather direct headline Douglas Flip-flops on Yankee:
Gov. James Douglas today called for lawmakers and regulators to delay taking action on the future of the troubled Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in the hope that the owners of the Vernon facility can regain public trust and perhaps later win a new operating license.
Further:
“We have got to restore that confidence so we can make sure the plant” will continue to provide power, jobs and other benefits to the state, Douglas said.
He added that it seems to him “less and less likely” that a vote by lawmakers will take place this year and that the company had to change its slate of top managers.
This is a clear indication just how badly VY is doing in the court of public opinion and the halls of the State House. I can think of only one reason Douglas would call for postponement: he knows he can’t win right now or anytime soon.
After all, last year, when some Dems were talking about delaying action on VY renewal, wasn’t Douglas dead set against delay? Something about how Enexus needed to know ASAP whether they’d be able to operate past 2012, and the state couldn’t wait any longer to plan for future energy supplies? Now, it seems, delay is the best way “forward”.
What exactly comprise the “other benefits” he has in mind? Glow-in-the-dark trout? Three-legged ducks?
Well put piece.
The short being: “the vote now would be a vote against VY, which would mean these guys who’ve given so much money to me and my buddies wouldn’t get a chance to make millions more themselves, which would mean they wouldn’t be giving more to me and my buddies, which would be bad…. so give them and their lawyers and their PR guys time to “fix” public opinion so that we (they) can keep making millions off of you (us)”
They only people who want VY are people who make money off of it. Shocking.
Close the fucker.
Notice he said Vernon and not Entergy or evenVermont Yankee he’s so careful.
The decision gets kicked down the road.They hope for a nice sympathetic NRC report or finding that calms the raging sea enough to wangle a better outcome later.
This also saves Dubie from having to go any further out on the limb against Yankee at this time.
Dubie can “me to” with the governor’s new position through the election.
Seems simple to me. Line up a special vote immediately. Shove it down his and Dubie’s throats…make him veto it, then override the veto (if it’s subject to Veto at all…someone here could elucidate, I trust).