Vermont Yankee says it won't speculate on what it will do if the legislature decides next week to not relicense the plant for another 20 years.
One expert says the options for Entergy are to do nothing, sweeten the power offer for the state or file a lawsuit.
"It's easy to file a lawsuit, It's hard to win one," said Michael Dworkin, a professor at Vermont Law and former chair of the Vermont Public Service Board.
Dworkin says the plant made concessions years ago and in exchange, "they got ten years of revenues for hundreds of millions of dollars a year for ten years," Dworkin said.
An agreement forces Yankee to receive state approval for the plant to run for another 20 years.
"Frankly, I think even without the agreement the Supreme Court view says that if the Vermont legislature wanted to do this anyway, they probably could," Dworkin said.
The federal government oversees safety at the plant. Entergy could file a lawsuit arguing that state legislators are trying to take over that federal role. It means the reasons given by Vermont legislators if they deny the re-licensing are important.
"If you are primarily concerned with what the Supreme Court called the traditional state concerns about finance, reliability, sitting, need and type of facility. Then for those things there is clear state authority to act," Dworkin said.
Professor Dworkin said the state would have to prove at least some its concerns were justified and he says for many reasons Entergy probably won't win. It leaves the company not a lot of options.
"I think Entergy either needs to persuade Vermonters, including specifically the legislature, that they are an attractive business partner or else they have a very uphill fight in the courts which I don't think they are going to win," Dworkin said.
Comment Agreement
