VPIRG calls for closing Vermont Yankee in 2012

By DAVE GRAM
Associated Press Writer

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group said Tuesday it had gathered more than 12,000 signatures on postcards calling for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to close when its current license expires in 2012.

VPIRG held a news conference to make the announcement outside the Statehouse, where lawmakers are expected to decide in their 2009 session whether the state's lone reactor, which is located in Vernon, should be authorized to seek a 20-year license extension.

"One of the best ways to gauge public opinion is to go out and actually talk with people, face to face and door to door," said Ben Walsh, who helped to run VPIRG's summer campaign office.

"We've done that from one end of Vermont to the other," Walsh added, "and I can tell you that from Grand Isle to Brattleboro, Vermonters are ready to make the switch from an unreliable and aging nuclear plant to a clean, local, renewable energy future."

Both Vermont Yankee and the Vermont Energy Partnership, a coalition mainly made up of business groups that has supported Vermont Yankee, later rebutted the VPIRG remarks, saying the plant had been a good source of economical power for the state and that it is low in greenhouse gas emissions.

VEP President Brad Ferland said that "because of Vermont Yankee's dependable and low-cost power, Vermonters have the lowest electric rates in the region, approximately 21 percent lower than elsewhere in New England."

VPIRG, a longtime critic of nuclear power, argues the plant is aging and unsafe, and that much of its power can be replaced with wind and other renewable resources.

Vermont Yankee supporters counter that the state would be hard-pressed to replace power from the reactor in the state's southeast corner from sources like wind.

"While renewable energy sources can and should be developed to help reduce peak load demands and Vermonts use of fossil fuel sources for electricity, they cannot replace base-load energy sources including nuclear power from Vermont Yankee and hydroelectric power from Hydro Québec," Ferland said.

Vermont Yankee spokesman Robert Williams argued that the plant is fit for relicensing because it "has been kept up to date. And it is the most reliable and economical source of power available to Vermont."

Vermont is the only state in the country in which state law gives legislators an up-or-down vote on whether a nuclear plant should be relicensed. That vote is widely expected during the 2009 session, three years in advance of when the new, 20-year license period would begin if Vermont Yankee succeeds in getting it.

VPIRG Executive Director Paul Burns said his group would be urging Vermonters to talk to their legislative candidates during the fall election season and ask them to vote no on Vermont Yankee's relicensing.

Burns said the group was encouraged with the support it had found during its annual summer canvassing drive, when group members go door-to-door, talking up a selected issue or issues in which the group is involved and soliciting memberships and financial support.

"When we decided to focus on the need to retire Vermont Yankee and support the development of clean energy resources and the jobs that go with them we didn't know how that might go in areas of the state further removed from the shadow of the plant," Burns said.

"As it turns out, this campaign has been one of the most successful we've ever run," he added. "In fact, during my time here no campaign has generated more support from the public than this one."

Vermont Yankee and its supporters say the plant is a safe and economical source of electricity, that its power is produced without significant fossil fuel emissions, that it is a linchpin of the Windham County economy and that it should be relicensed.

Among the plant's supporters is the Vermont Energy Partnership, a coalition of business and other groups.

A call to the VEP office seeking comment on Tuesday was not immediately returned.

On its Web site, the group says Vermont Yankee "has consistently provided reliable and clean power, safely and
efficiently for more than three decades. Today it provides one third of the states electricity. Vermont Yankee has been a staple of the Vermont economy, and helped to make its electricity portfolio one of the cleanest in the country."