As Ye Sew, So Shall Ye Reap

Dear God,

On August 11, 2007 we here at Entergy (Vermont Yankee's corporate owner) assured the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel that "funds reserved for decommissioning the power plant would be sufficient regardless of whether that happens in 2012 or 2032." (That's quoting from a Brattleboro Reformer article that is no longer available for free online.) At that meeting, we did express a preference about decommissioning. We said that we would like to do it slowly, letting the plant sit idle for as many as 60 years before we started.

Then, in mid November, Margaret Gunderson of Fairewinds Associates, Inc. published a report showing that Entergy has not contributed to the decommissioning fund in the 5 years that it has owned the plant and, furthermore, that the fund has $26 million less than it used to have. An on-schedule decommissioning would be impossible, Mrs. Gunderson predicted. Well, she forced our hand, and by November 15, we had admitted to the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory Panel that she was right. We couldn't actually afford to decommission in any way other than the "really, really, really long wait" one for which we had expressed a clear preference.

In the meanwhile, we here at Entergy made plans to spin Vermont Yankee and a few other plants off into a separate, tax-free entity. We did not make clear (and still haven't) whether we will use the distribution proceeds to reduce debt or to reward shareholders through a stock buyback program. At any rate, we have certainly not announced plans to earmark distribution proceeds for Vermont Yankee decommissioning.

You know, Lord, a lot of people have phobias about math. And a lot of people have phobias about dying in a nuclear holocaust—or even in a gentle nuclear leak. So there's a kind of "shut your eyes and assume a fetal position" response that is typical of members of the general public, especially when we talk about math and radiation all in one sentence. We count on that reaction. But surely someone soon is going to wake up, move their knees away from their chests, and say, "Hey! It seems to me there's some huge chunk of Entergy money soon to be lying around that they have to decide how to spend--and this at the very time when the Vermont Yankee decommissioning fund that Entergy promised was fully funded could use some help."

And if the people say that, Lord, A + B is going to start to equal C and we here at Entergy may be expected to live up to our promises.

I know, I know: "For as ye sew, so shall ye reap." You don't need to tell me. I'm the PR guy.

Amen,

Fake-Rob