Lobbying and “front groups” paid of for Entergy nuclear company

Despite the dangers of running an aging nuclear plant on two fault-lines beside America’s largest population center, the NRC has shown little will towards fulfilling it’s public safety mandate. Even if the agency is unable to legally relicense the two Indian Point reactors, Diane Screnci says that under timely renewal there is no time limit on how long the reactors can continue to operate. New Yorkers could be forced to live beside a radioactive Pandora’s Box indefinitely or at least until its nuclear lid is lifted.

GERIATRIC NUCLEAR REACTORS COULD KILL US ALL, VICE NEWS, By Peter Rugh 26 June 13 “……….While the company [Entergy] has skimped on infrastructure upgrades at it’s aging plant, a report from the campaign finance watchdog Common Cause NY last month found that Entergy has spent approximately $40 million on lobbying and campaign contributions on a state and federal level since 2005 as its reactor licenses at Indian Point neared expiration. The report notes that Entegy has retained the public relations firm Burson Marstella, “self-described experts in ‘reputation and crisis management strategies,’ who have worked for such highly controversial clients as Union Carbide, Philip Morris, Blackwater, Foxconn, and Babcock & Wilcox (the firm that designed the Three Mile Island nuclear plant).”

Entergy has also set up two front groups to advocate on its behalf, according to Common Cause. SHARE (Safe Healthy Affordable Reliable Energy) targets communities of color in New York City by advocating for nuclear power as a way to reduce pollution and lower asthma rates while NY AREA (Affordable Reliable Energy Alliance) targets unions and environmental groups. Steets insisted that while Entergy executives serve on the boards of these organizations, they are independent of the corporation. Yet doppelgangers of these same groups exist elsewhere where Entergy operates reactors. Take Massachusetts, where company runs the Pilgrim nuclear plant near Plymouth. There’s a group called MASS AREA, whose publicity material nearly matches those of its New York counterpart.

Along with these astroturf groups, the report observes Entergy donated $1.25 million to local health, fire, and police departments in the area surrounding Indian Point and has given smaller allotments to “youth sports leagues, to performing arts venues, [and] to local parks.” In turn, “Many of these organizations have testified at public hearings on behalf of Entergy’s corporate citizenship in support of granting Indian Point a license extension.”

“They have so much money to spend trying to influence the public and indirectly influence the NRC,” said Susen Learner, Executive Director of Common Cause NY, “Why can’t they spend that money improving safety at the plant?”……