Anti-nuclear protesters reach capitol
By DANIEL BARLOW VERMONT PRESS BUREAU
MONTPELIER - Anti-nuclear activists totaled around 70 when they left Brattleboro earlier this month for a march through freezing winter temperatures to the Statehouse.
When they arrived in the city early Wednesday afternoon - 126 miles later - their number totaled in the hundreds, flooding the Statehouse with a message that hasn't been that loud since same-sex marriage supporters lobbied lawmakers in 2009.
Betsy Williams of Westminster West, one of the organizers of the "Step It Up To Shut It Down" walk, said about 175 people took part in the march, some joining for a day and some for longer stretches. Participants included toddlers and Vermonters who are in their 80s, she said.
"We don't have the tens of thousands of dollars that corporations have to put on slick television commercials," Williams said, referring to the "I am Vermont Yankee" ad campaign by plant owner Entergy Nuclear Vermont, which features its employees. "What we do have is our hearts and minds and our connection to the land and our neighbors and our communities."
Wednesday's press conference -which filled the Statehouse's Cedar Creek Room and flowed out in the nearby hallways - was the latest in a series of demonstrations by both sides of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant relicensing issue as lawmakers consider voting this year whether the facility should operate beyond 2012.
In the last week there have been Statehouse press conferences featuring union officials representing Vermont Yankee workers and local officials from Vernon, where the nuclear plant is located, expressing support for 20 more years of energy from the facility.
But the turnout for Wednesday's anti-nuclear press conference easily dwarfed those two events.
"This is the face of Vermont Yankee," said Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, the chairman of the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee. "It's not just about the people who work there, it's also about the hundreds of people who live and work near Vermont Yankee."
Democratic lawmakers have not yet decided if they will hold a vote this year on continued operation of Vermont Yankee (Klein said Wednesday that the evidence to facilitate such a vote - a power contract between Entergy and the state's utilities - would be necessary).
Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, a gubernatorial candidate, got a hero's welcome with the crowd Wednesday as he proclaimed that it is "in the best interest of Vermont not to renew the license of Vermont Yankee and that's how I'll vote."
Shumlin, who lives one town away from Vermont Yankee, told the crowd that the price offer of 6.1 cents per megawatt hour that Entergy has put on the table is too expensive. He also said that the company's decommissioning fund - money set aside to shut down and clean up the site - is $600 million short of its goal.
But Shumlin said his greatest worry is Entergy's plans to sell Vermont Yankee and five other nuclear power plants to a spin-off company called Enexus. Shumlin said the new company will be a "shell corporation with no money."
Entergy officials have said that they might close Vermont Yankee in 2012 if the Enexus deal is not approved by regulators in Vermont and New York.
"A company that starts out being $4.7 billion in debt has a very questionable future," said Shumlin, who compared the business plan to those of AIG, Lehman Brothers and FairPoint Communications.
House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, was less forceful than Shumlin in his statements, but he added to the chorus of criticism over Entergy's decommissioning fund, saying he doesn't want his kids to ask him "25 years from now why 'you didn't do something to make them pay up and why are we paying for it now?'"
Rob Williams, a spokesperson for Entergy Nuclear Vermont, said "the walkers are entitled to their views and we support their right to make their opinion known - even if it comes in the form of a lot of walking in a cold snap."
"For our part, we firmly believe that Vermont Yankee is a good candidate to run for another 20 years, and recent safety and reliability audits that have been conducted confirm that," Williams wrote in an e-mail. "We're focusing on our task at hand: running the plant safely and reliably."
Nancy Braus of Putney, a Brattleboro bookstore owner, was among the two dozen of so Vermonters who made the entire 126-mile trip. Braus said the trip was a rewarding experience as schools, churches and Vermonters took the walkers into their homes, fed them and encouraged them to continue on.
Braus said the actual walking - anywhere from seven to 16 miles each day - wasn't too hard because she is in shape and active.
"Even in blue collar towns like Springfield we had people coming out and supporting us," Braus said. "It's not just in Windham County. We saw people all over the state rooting us on."