It has made the headlines here and in Boston: Entergy, the parent company of Pilgrim nuclear power plant is, at long last, considering closing it down. The gist of the story: after years of faltering performance plant has recently been ranked as one of the worst in the nation. If the cost of making the antiquated plant less of a risk, it may not be worth it to keep on operating.
Encouraging news. It’s what the great majority of us have wanted for quite a while and what some of the most dedicated have worked for for over 30 years.
Encouraging. But also what an insult. Only financial concerns are cited in the decision, not the fact that this public utility so-called has been for years a business-non-grata for most of the people the company purportedly serves . That all Cape and Island towns and our elected officials demanded years ago that the plant close.
What are we the people, chopped liver?
Would it hurt so much for Entergy to admit: “Oh, and we are aware that almost all the people affected want us to close. That’s part of our decision. The fact that we are so widely feared (especially by Cape Codders, for whom there has been all these years and cannot be an evacuation plan in case of meltdown)–well yes, it does rather undermine our sense that we exist not just to make money but to serve the public. It definitely hurts that the vast majority don’t want us to be doing what we are doing. We’re only human.”
It would be nice to hear that we are at least a part of the picture for them (along with bottom line).
I wouldn’t even mind a bit of spitefulness–“Now you won’t have Pilgrim to kick around any more,” etc. It would be only human.
But you’re right. That doesn’t sound much like a company, does it? Although they are made up of nothing but fellow humans, “human” is not the way I’d describe how such a company operates.
Same true of course for Eversource, which, despite all the outcry against spraying poisons on the power lines right-of-way, pursues its plan with blinkers on, oblivious to widespread opposition.
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