The power purchase negotiations between one of Vermont's major utilities and Entergy Corporation, owner of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, are "on pause," according to a spokesperson for Green Mountain Power. The revelation further casts doubt on whether the legislature in 2010 will consider Entergy's request to extend the plant's license.

Robert Dostis, who leads customer service and public relations for Green Mountain Power, was on my radio show Relocalizing Vermont on Thursday. Asked when Green Mountain Power had last sat down with Entergy to conduct negotiations, Dostis said, "It's been a couple months, I think, since there's been conversations. I would say the negotiations are on pause... I don't know that any side has asked for the pause; it's just not happening."

In July, Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham County, and House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, announced that they were looking for a power purchase agreement for Vermont Yankee's electricity to in-state customers by November 1, if the legislature was going to consider approving extending the power plant's license past 2012. Green Mountain Power currently purchases about 100 MW, or a third of its overall electricity, from Vermont Yankee, according to Dostis.

Also on Thursday's radio show, State Representative Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, who chairs the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, explained the reason for setting a deadline months before the beginning of the legislative session. "I don't think it will be an agreement that either me or anybody else could simply look at in the first and go, 'Mmm, that looks pretty good,' or 'That looks pretty bad.' I don't think you'll get 4.6 cents or 6 cents going forward for the next 20 years. I think...that it would take a fair amount of time to decipher what the economic benefits or liabilities really were."

Entergy's vice president for operations, Jay Thayer, cast doubt himself on its ability to meet the November 1 deadline earlier this month, though Kristin Carlson quotes him as saying, "I wouldn't be standing here talking about it, if I didn't think we could get there." (It's not clear to me from the context whether "there" is a power purchase agreement at some point in time, or one by November 1.)

Why are the negotiations paused? Klein pointed out that utilities can buy electricity on the spot market now for less than their current long-term price for Vermont Yankee's electricity. He speculated, "Entergy is not interested in locking up a large portion of their power production for the next twenty years in a depressed power market. It doesn't make sense to them. I understand it."

Dostis nodded at Klein's remark, but when asked to comment, he only said, "I'm impressed with Tony's wisdom."