Oct. 12--BRATTLEBORO -- Despite the Department of Public Service's assertion that recent concessions made by Entergy will benefit Vermont ratepayers, the company's plan to spin off Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant into a new subsidiary is bad news for the Green Mountain State.

"Entergy claims this will help them better serve the people of Vermont," stated a press release from Greenpeace USA, which called the spinoff, "The next bad idea from Entergy."

On Thursday, Vermont's DPS forwarded its recommendation to the state's Public Service Board that Yankee should be allowed to continue to operate past its license expiration date of 2012.

Entergy, which owns and operates the power plant, has applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the operating license of Yankee for another 20 years, from 2012 to 2032. In addition to NRC approval, Entergy must also receive a certificate of public good from the Public Service Board and the OK from the Vermont Legislature.

In January 2008, Entergy filed with the Public Service Board for approval to spin off Yankee into limited liability corporation.

Yankee is one of five power plants Entergy wants to place into its new subsidiary, which is called Enexus. Those other plants are Pilgrim in Massachusetts, Palisades in Michigan and Fitzpatrick and Indian Point in New York.

Each of the plants will become a limited liability corporation under the umbrella of Enexus.

"Rather than

benefiting the public good and the people of Vermont, Entergy has come up with yet another scheme to benefit its stockholders," stated Greenpeace.

If and when the spinoff is approved, Entergy will offer $3.5 billion in shares to the general public. That money will go to pay off Entergy debt and to reward stockholders.

What this means, said Jim Riccio, Greenpeace's nuclear policy analyst, is that Enexus will have more debt than equity.

"The only source of income for these LLCs would be the sale of electricity," he said. "So if they're forced offline for some reason, they'll have trouble paying off their debt."

And because Enexus will have more debt than equity, said Riccio, it will put tremendous pressure on the company to keep its aging reactors running and producing power.

"As the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators has pointed out, this has already resulted in increased risk at nuclear power plants," said Riccio.

According to INPO, "pressure to continue operating was not observed to be a significant operating event causal factor prior to deregulation, but since has been identified in approximately half of the most serious SOEs.