Burlington, Vermont - "We think we have strong arguments to bring an appeal," says Scot Kline with the Vermont Attorney General's Office.
Though, he won't say what those arguments are.
"This isn't really the right time to be getting into the weeds of what we think we are going to be arguing," says Kline.
Saturday morning Attorney General Bill Sorrell filed an appeal he hopes will shut down the Entergy-owned nuclear power plant for good.
In January a federal judge ruled in favor of Entergy Nuclear, the company which owns the Vernon based nuclear power plant. The Ruling stated the plant should be allowed to operate past March 21, 2012, the date its state license expires.
This time their getting help from a firm in D.C.
"We're meeting with them this week and their roll will be determined relatively shortly," says Kline.
Communications Director for the Vermont Energy Partnership Guy Page says the state is just wasting money by appealing.
"The real losers here are Vermont taxpayers," says Page.
Entergy is a member of his partnership and he says it'll cost the state around $400,000 (confirmed by the AG's office) to appeal and if the state loses they'll be required to pay Entergy's legal bills. That could be upwards of $4 million.
"Continuing these appeals are likely to keep the cost rising to Vermont taxpayers," says Page.
He says shutting down the plant means around 600 people will lose their jobs.
"High quality, good benefits, good salary jobs," explains Page.
In the meantime, Kline says those employees will continue to work.
"The plant will continue to operate until there's a decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals," says Kline.
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