Entergy Corp., a New Orleans company is considering selling off its Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The company has been fighting to relicensing it the plant for another 20 years but its 2012 expiration is approaching fast and the state is giving the company a hard time because recently the plant has been leaking nuclear material. With the current state of the economy the value of natural gas has become depressed and the company has faced a decline in returns because it trades at market prices rather than regulated prices to match the new demand. Marc De Croisset, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets & CO., says that new ownership could have better luck getting the plant a new license. The Chairman of the company assures that they have been successfully resolving any issues with obtaining a license and the company has been securing long term deals with local electric companies. This coupled with an 8% profit rise in its third quarter shows that the company has been successful with managing this issue.
This article reveals a startling trend in the energy industry that when oil and gas declines alternative energies will also decline. Without extraneous support coming from outside of the free market alternative energies are unlikely to surpass oil and gas until we physically use up all of our resources or they become so scarce the price skyrockets. The article also reveals that even in the face of radioactive waste being released into the environment the energy industry is very secure. In most industries this would be a PR nightmare however it doesn't seem like it has really effected the company at all.
~Tom Langevin
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703805704575594723506042644.html?mod=WSJ_Energy_leftHeadlines
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