It is gratifying to see the powerful results of our media outreach and its impact on public opinion about Louisiana-based Entergy and its insidious campaign to wrest profits from Vermont Yankee [“A great story,” Arts, May 2].
Entergy's secret three-part strategy was first uncovered and revealed to the media by NEC's Raymond Shadis. The strategy: 1) Purchase the plant for pennies on the dollar; 2) Boost the power output by 20 percent; and 3) Procure a 20-year license extension.
Ray was also the first to bring media attention to Entergy's evident policy of deferring maintenance to maximize profit. And it was Ray's revelations, amplified by the expert testimony of Arnie Gunderson, Paul Blanch, and others who correctly depicted Entergy's management, lobbyists, and spokespeople as unreliable and self-serving.
Throughout the campaign, we walked a fine line: praising the workers at VY for their dedication and hard work while demonizing management for their arrogance and manipulative public relations, lobbying, and secret profit-making strategies.
The verdict on VY's license extension is still out, but the war for public opinion has been won in a classic David and Goliath confrontation between the tiny, underfunded New England Coalition (along with their allies like the Citizens Action Network) and Entergy, the giant out-of-state, out-of-touch corporation with deep pockets which almost got away with its rapacious money-making campaign in Vermont.