Since 2007, Entergy, the New Orleans-based company that owns the beleaguered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, has been planning to spin off its six northeastern facilities into an independent company, Enexus Energy Corp. On February 24, after evidence of leaking radioactive contaminants was repeatedly found at the Brattleboro-based site, the Vermont State Senate voted against renewing the plant’s permit in 2012.
Meanwhile, in New York, that state’s Public Service Commission (NYPSC) has been deliberating whether to approve Entergy’s creation of a new company, Enexus, to take over a reactor in Oswego County and two at the Indian Point Energy Center in Westchester County, N.Y. The staff working for the NYPSC had recommended the Commission reject the plan, stating that the new company would start over $3.5 billion in debt and was not investment-worthy.
On March 2, just two days before the NYPSC staff was due to revisit the Enexus issue, Entergy came forward with financial concessions, promising, among other things, to reduce Enexus’ initial indebtedness to $3 billion and pay up to $300 million into New York State’s energy efficiency fund if future power prices rise above specified levels.
Regardless, according to Reuters, the staff repeated last Thursday that it did not think it was in the public’s interest for Entergy to create a new corporation to manage its non-regulated nuclear plants. The commission has not yet issued a decision on whether they plan to follow the recommendation.
