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The Utah Coal Lockup: A trillion dollar Lippo payoff? By: Sarah Foster When the President signed the Executive Order designating 1.7 million acres of land in southwest Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, his action placed the area off limits to mineral extraction and development. The New York Times reported that the monument encloses the largest coal field in the nation, the Kaiparowitz Plateau, which contains at least 7 billion tons of coal worth over $1 TRILLION. Kentucky-based company Andalux Resources, which holds leases on 3,400 acres in the area, was planning to open a huge operation (underground, not...

The Super Bowl power outage on Sunday happened after electrical monitoring equipment “sensed an abnormality in the system,” according to the power provider for the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Entergy, which provides power to the Superdome, along with 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, said in a statement Monday that the change triggered a partial electrical shutdown. Entergy’s service area includes 400,000 customers in southeast Texas, including homes in Beaumont, Port Arthur, The Woodlands, Huntsville and Conroe. The only customer affected by the problem was the Superdome, Entergy spokesman Michael Burns told FuelFix. “Shortly after the beginning of...

Fannie Eugene drove to Entergy's new complaint center in Mid-City on Saturday to see when power might be restored at her house in the Lower 9th Ward. "My husband has emphysema, so it's getting harder by the day," said Eugene, 60. She hoped to find out if relief was in sight soon. "So I asked them, 'Are you working in my area?'" Eugene said. More than half the city's households still lack power. But she received no real news at the complaint center, which is located at 3400 Canal St., she said. "They're just open," she said. "They don't know...

ore than 1,000 people turned out Saturday on the Brattleboro town green for a rally to show support for decommissioning the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, one of the oldest nuclear power plants in the country. The event included speeches by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin, both of whom are calling for the state's wishes to be honored and for the 40-year-old Vernon reactor to be shut down. New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. owns the plant, whose state permit expired in March. The Vermont Senate voted to decommission the plant. But the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the plant...

Trace amounts of a radioactive element found in fish near the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have now been found in bass in an opposite corner of the state, apparently clearing the plant of any tie to the contamination, a state health official said. Initial testing took place after Entergy Corp.'s Vermont Yankee, located in the southeastern town of Vernon, reported in 2010 that radioactive material had leaked into nearby groundwater. Low levels of Strontium-90, an isotope produced by nuclear reactions, were found in fish caught in August where groundwater from the plant runs into the Connecticut River, state authorities...

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Attorneys and witnesses have wrapped up the first day of a two-day hearing before a federal judge in Vermont over whether the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant can continue to operate while a protracted legal fight plays out over its future. Entergy witnesses told lawyers that if the plant is forced to shut temporarily, it will lose about $20 million a month in revenue and may shut down permanently rather than wait for the legal fight to be resolved. Entergy lawyer Kathleen Sullivan said Vermont lawmakers tried to hide that they had nuclear safety in mind when they...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The owners of Vermont's troubled nuclear plant sued state officials Monday to stop them from closing the plant down next year, setting up a court fight about who has jurisdiction — the state or federal nuclear regulators. Entergy Corp. has a new federal license in hand for the Vermont Yankee power plant, but state officials are vowing to shut it down next year. The company's federal lawsuit says Vermont's law giving it the power to block relicensing violates the Atomic Energy Act and the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. Vermont contends it has the power...

In a major victory for environmental advocates, New York State has ruled that outmoded cooling technology at the Indian Point nuclear power plant kills so many Hudson River fish, and consumes and contaminates so much water, that it violates the federal Clean Water Act. The decision is a blow to the plant’s owner, the Entergy Corporation, which now faces the prospect of having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build stadium-size cooling towers, or risk that Indian Point’s two operating reactors — which supply 30 percent of the electricity used by New York City and Westchester County —...

(CBS) WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. An electrical fault and fire in a transformer yard forced the automatic shutdown Friday of the Indian Point 3 nuclear power plant, officials said. The fire, which was quickly extinguished, was outside the nuclear area of the plant and there was no release of radiation, said Diane Screnci of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "The plant is stable and reacted normally," she said. "There's no impact on public health and safety." Nevertheless, the plant, which is on the Hudson River in Buchanan, about 40 miles north of New York City, declared an "unusual event," the lowest of...

The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pledged to boost oversight of the Indian Point nuclear plants after the apparent leak of a radioactive isotope, aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday. Clinton, D-N.Y., met with NRC chairman Nils Diaz, who told her he would announce in coming days ``enhanced oversight ... with respect to both the leaks and the emergency notification system,'' said the senator's spokesman, Philippe Reines. Diaz didn't spell out exactly what the enhancements would be, but they could include additional reporting requirements and closer monitoring of the site. The NRC and Entergy Nuclear Northeast,...

NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Utility operator Entergy Corp., which provides electricity to much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, on Friday said its New Orleans subsidiary has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Entergy New Orleans filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, saying that the storm "dealt a body blow" to the unit, destroying facilities, disrupting revenue, and impairing the ability of its customer base to pay bills. The company asked the court to approve debtor-in-possession financing that includes $200 million in loans to...

...The straightforward generosity of the corporate sector has been well reported. [D]onations had exceeded $200 million. Besides cash, companies have handed out free drugs, suspended finance payments on cars and mortgages and helped emergency personnel with equipment. As interesting, though, has been the application of corporate best practices-- from supply-chain management to logistics-- to a natural disaster. The private-sector planning began before Katrina hit. Home Depot's "war room" had transferred high-demand items -- generators, flashlights, batteries and lumber -- to distribution areas surrounding the strike area. Phone companies readied mobile cell towers and sent in generators and fuel. Insurers flew...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- For the first time, a fake terrorist attack was included in a drill of emergency plans at a nuclear power plant near New York City, with crews grappling with a pretend crash of a 767. Tuesday's fake crash set off an ever-worsening cascade of simulated events for Indian Point plant operators and emergency responders. By the time the drill ended, a containment building was portrayed as filling with radioactive steam and portions of surrounding counties had been "evacuated" and residents advised to swallow anti-radiation pills. The actual residents, however, had no part in the drill. Plant...

Late Final December 06, 2003Does Howard Dean Have An "Enron" Problem? Excerpts: Did then-Gov. Howard Dean's administration approve a $180 million sweetheart deal to the boys at Entergy, at the same time utility executives were pumping campaign contributions into his then-fledgling campaign for president? And did that deal wrongfully stick Vermont taxpayers with high electricity rates for ten years? They are questions Dean may find himself having to answer on the campaign trail, as he repeatedly invokes the Enron scandals in an effort to link the Bush Administration to "Ken Lay and the boys at Enron." The Dean Administration's Public...

Entergy Corp., the second-largest U.S. nuclear-power generator, is facing new opposition to its Buchanan, New York, plant: Paul Tudor Jones and other hedge-fund managers are joining environmentalists who want the facility closed. Sept. 11 showed the threat of a terrorist attack on the Indian Point reactors is too great, given their location near 20 million people in the New York City region, Jones said in a speech this week before analysts and investors a block from the World Trade Center site. The plant should be shut within five years, said Jones, who manages $8 billion. Financial support from hedge-fund managers...

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. 19406 No. I-03-005 February 12, 2003 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov NOTE TO EDITORS: Given the high interest in the Emergency Preparedness situation at the Indian Point and Millstone nuclear power plants, the attached letter on the subject, from Chairman Richard A. Meserve of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Sen. Hillary R. Clinton, is being provided. February 12, 2003 The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton United States Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Clinton: I...