Activists are asking the public to join them at a rally on June 23 and June 24 outside the federal court in Brattleboro, where the trial of Entergy v. Shumlin will be held both days from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Peter Shumlin is governor of Vermont. Entergy is the Louisiana corporation that owns the problem-plagued Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The reactor is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone’s throw from New Hampshire.
In April, Entergy sued Shumlin because the state senate, representing the people of Vermont, ordered Entergy to close Vermont Yankee in March, 2012.
Vermont Yankee, which started up in 1972, has been dogged by problems in the past few years, including a fire that could be seen from miles away and a flood when hundreds of thousands of gallons of water poured out of a collapsed cooling tower. Vermont Yankee is the same make and model (General Electric Mark 1) as the reactors that are spewing deadly poison into the air and water in Japan.
The name of the federal court case initiated by Entergy is Entergy v. Shumlin. Governor Shumlin has lived almost his entire life in Putney, near Brattleboro. In February 2010, as president of the state senate, Shumlin led the legislative vote to close Yankee. In November, he was elected governor. Closing the reactor was a centerpiece of his campaign.
Entergy wants a federal judge to force Vermont to let Entergy run Vermont Yankee until 2032.
The trial will begin June 23 in the courtroom upstairs from the post office on Main Street in downtown Brattleboro. The rally will be on the sidewalk in front of the post office, said organizer Debra Stoleroff. She works for the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance.
VYDA is an all-volunteer group. Another group that’s working to close Vermont Yankee is the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.
VPIRG has full-time, paid staff.
Stoleroff said that anyone who wants to carpool to the rally should contact Nancy Rice by phone at (802) 728-9318 or by e-mail: rice@innevi.com.
Stoleroff said, “VYDA and other organizations are currently planning actions leading up to and following March 21, 2012. This is the day that Vermont Yankee’s license to operate expires. If you are interested either in supporting or engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, now is the time to get educated and involved. We are hoping to have an action planning camp sometime in July or August. If you are interested in forming affinity groups for actions, attending the camp would be a great way to get informed and involved.”
Her e-mail address is debra@vtlink.net.
Massachusetts attorney general, Martha Coakley, said in May that she will actively support Shumlin in the trial of Entergy v. Shumlin.
On June 16, the five members of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (who are appointed by President Obama, whose election campaign received funding from the nuclear power industry), refused to say whether they had voted in secret on June 15 on whether to ask the U.S. Justice Department to actively support Entergy in the trial of Entergy v. Shumlin. The NRC gets 98 percent of its funding from the industry it “regulates.”
On June 16, there was a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is a member of the committee. He asked the NRC members about their involvement in Entergy v. Shumlin.
“My understanding is that there was a vote yesterday at the NRC on the issue… of whether or not the NRC should be involved in this case,” Sanders told NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko. “Can you tell me what the vote was, Mr. Commissioner?”
Jaczko and the other four commissioners refused to answer. They said the vote was secret.
Obama also appoints, and decides whether to promote, federal judges—including the judge who will decide Entergy v. Shumlin.
Dr. Mike Rotkin is a nationally known expert on the relationships among powerful corporations, grassroots movements, and the federal judicial system. He teaches at the University of California, and was elected mayor of Santa Cruz (population 57,000) five times. In an interview with Valley Post, Rotkin said Vermonters, and residents of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, can influence the judge’s decision in Entergy v. Shumlin. “Judges would like to maintain the illusion that the judicial process is never influenced by political considerations,” Rotkin said. “The reality is quite the opposite.”
Rotkin said people must act collectively if they want a judge to stand up to a powerful corporation. Preferably this should be done in highly visible ways, such as participating in marches and rallies. But signing petitions and writing letters to the editors of newspapers that judges are likely to read can also be effective.
“Nothing has a bigger impact on judicial decisions, from the local municipal court to the U.S. Supreme Court, than the judges’ understanding of what the public wants to see them do,” Professor Rotkin said. “In Plessy v. Ferguson in 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court validated segregated schools. In Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in 1954, the same court overturned that decision. What changed was public opinion and the willingness of African Americans and their supporters to speak out and demonstrate against segregation.”
More information on Vermont Yankee, and the grassroots movement that last year led the state to order Entergy to shut the reactor, is at http://valleypost.org/2011/03/25/600-vermont-yankee-protest-vigil. Eesha Williams’s report first appeared at valleypost.org.
