Republicans want to strip VT legislators of voice on VY nuclear plant

[kristopher]

They are going to fail, but that doesn't stop them from going to bat for their backers.

http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site02/story.php?articleno=3151&page=1

Hebert introduces bill to remove Legislature’s power to vote on VY’s Certificate of Public Good

By Olga Peters/The Commons

VERNON—Freshman Rep. Mike Hebert, R-Vernon, stands by his position that the more qualified Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Vermont Public Service Board, not the Vermont Legislature, should determine whether the nuclear power station should be allowed to run for another 20 years.

On Feb. 22, Hebert, a member of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, submitted a bill (H.331) that would strip the Legislature of its authority to decide the fate of Vermont Yankee.

Under current Vermont statute, an affirmative vote from both houses of the Legislature is needed before the Public Service Board can issue a Certificate of Public Good to Vermont Yankee to operate past the end of its current license in March 2012.

...In February 2010, the Vermont Senate voted 26-4 against permitting the Public Service Board to issue the 39-year-old power plant its Certificate of Public Good.

[bananas]

1. Republicans hate Democracy