A New York State of Mind

Dear God,

The New York Times headline of August 26 was "Indian Point Plan Could Tax Taxpayers," and that sounded like bad news for the citizens of New York. But really what was being announced was good news, far better stated by The Journal News headline of, "Indian Point Spinoffs Won't Cost New York Taxpayers, Attorney General Says." The JN text: "The plan by Indian Point's operators to spin off into a new company its nuclear reactors there and in three other states will not cost New York taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, as had been feared." The reason: Entergy announced on August 25 that it had agreed to pay the New York Power Authority as much as $3232 million in the revenue sharing it had originally promised.

Dear Lord, do you think such a thing could happen here? Could Entergy, for example, agree to top off the Decommissioning Fund as originally promised? $432 million would just about do it. I remember that the Vermont legislature passed a bill specifying that the Decommissioning Fund be fully funded by Entergy before the spinoff could be considered--and that Jim Douglas, the governor of Vermont, vetoed the bill, fearing that Entergy would get mad, take its football, and go home. I guess he should have just held out, because clearly Entergy is in the mood to play ball, or at least to write checks. Or, actually, at least to promise yet again to write checks that it either will or won't write.

Maybe if we whined appealingly?

Which brings to mind ... well, I was going to say "a joke" but I've probably offended people with my jokes. Actually, what has come to mind is a vivid metaphor.

Man walks into a bar. He growls to a woman (no, she's not necessarily a blonde), "Yum. Everything about you looks good. I'm going to rape you and take your boots."

The woman whines, as appealingly as she possibly can given her abject terror, "Oh, no, sir. Please don't rape me and take my boots."

Man says, "Ok. You can keep your boots."

If only Entergy would let Vermonters have the fully funded Decommissioning Fund they once promised. Then we could probably get the license renewal, and that is, after all, where the bulk of our lust is directed.

Amen,

Fake-Rob