Orwell & Kafka roll in their graves: Federal appeals court rules for Entergy, against Vermont, in Vermont Yankee dispute!

Like a bizarre mix of 1984 and The Trial, on August 14th, a three-judge panel at the Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City ruled in favor of Entergy Nuclear, and against the State of Vermont, in the marathon battle over the fate of the Vermont Yankee atomic reactor. The appeals court judges agreed with a lower court's Orwellian determination that Vermont state legislators had really meant "safety" when they passed laws regulating energy economics, the need for (or lack thereof) Vermont Yankee going forward, and the atomic reactor's impacts on the Connecticut River from thermal water discharges, impacts on tourism and recreation, etc. 

While radiological safety has been deemed the "sole province" of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission under the Atomic Energy Energy of 1954 (never mind the agency is asleep at the Geiger counter, derelict in its duty to protect public health, safety, and the environment!), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1983 PG&E case that states retain jurisdiction regarding nuclear power in all those other areas.

As documented in the classic 1975 book We Almost Lost Detroit by John G. Fuller (about the Oct. 5, 1966 partial meltdown at the Fermi 1 experimental plutonium breeder reactor in Monroe County, MI), a half-century ago, a strongly worded dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court case United Auto Workers v. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission described the Atomic Energy Act as a dark day for our democracy. Ironically, in spite of yesterday's New York City appeals court ruling, one of the judges pointed out that Congress probably didn't intend to so undermine state's rights when it passed the Atomic Energy Act six decades ago!

The silver lining, however, is that the court did not order Vermont taxpayers to pay for Entergy's multi-million dollar legal bills. Also, the authority of the State of Vermont's Public Service Board to rescind the "rogue corporation" Entergy's Certificate of Public Good, its license to do business in the Green Mountain State, seems to be retained intact. The PSB, which can consider the company's character in its deliberations, is set to rule in late autumn or early winter. Not only Vermont's Governor and Attorney General seem determined to fight on, but so does the grassroots environmental resistance. There are diverse manifestations of that grassroots resistance, from successful petitions urging NRC to investigate the financial shakiness at Vermont Yankee (as well as Pilgrim, MA and FitzPatrick, NY), flotillas on the Connecticut River to protest Vermont Yankee's harmful thermal discharges, and ongoing non-violent civil disobedience actions, such as the Shut It Down Affinity Group's latest action on August 6th.

To paraphrase U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), recently elected to the U.S. Senate, Franz Kafka is spinning so fast in his grave, he should be hooked up to a turbo-generator and connected to the electric grid!

Vermont Digger, Vermont Public Radio, the Brattleboro Reformer, and the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus have all reported on this story.