Monday September 27, 5:03 pm Eastern Time Connecticut Utility Pleads Guilty By DONNA TOMMELLEO Associated Press Writer HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Northeast Utilities pleaded guilty Monday to violating federal nuclear-safety and clean-water laws and agreed to pay $10 million, including the biggest penalty in the history of the nuclear power industry.

Prosecutors said the utility's offenses included releasing pollutants into Long Island Sound and supplying deliberately inaccurate information on employee license applications.

http://biz.yahoo.com/apf/990927/utility_gu_3.html --------------------------------------------------------------------

NERC and the utilities have said we can trust that U.S utilities will be Y2K-OK. Do you trust NERC and the utilities? Will the lights be on? The water, etc.? Will the Nukes be safe? If there are going to be outages, how extensive will they be?

Regards,

Tom

-- Tom (Y2KOhno!@Yikes!.com), September 28, 1999

Answers

In my personal fantasy about how things 'should' be changed this is one of them. Allowing business of any kind that pollutes the earth/water/air and endangers the life quality of human/animal/plant in the surrounding environment should face more than a monetary penalty. There should be degrees of consequence; to include prison terms, demands for active redress (as in clean up the mess you made -- now, not ten years later), and actual closure of the business.

-- Shelia (Shelia@active-stream.com), September 28, 1999.

Do they quailfy for Eco-terrorist status?

Big story locally about eco-terrorism in the West, just a couple of days ago. I don't agree with green ppl's imbalance on the issue either, but I don't believe 'all' the acts purported to have been spawned by these groups in the last two decades, compares to a small percentage of damage by one of the "biggies" like Northeast Utilities.

Money talks, bull**** walks

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), September 29, 1999.

Gee, seems to me that a $10 million fine would mean a hefty rate hike, huh?

I liked the suggestion of having them clean it up. I envision the actual members of management, and the board of directors out there cleaning....

Closing them down, on the other hand, would create hardship for the area they service, I imagine. Unless there is a secondary source of power, I don't see that happening very quickly. Be nice, though.

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), September 29, 1999.

I've got such mixed feelings about nuke power. What really bothers me about this is:

"supplying deliberately inaccurate information"

The pollutants part is minor, compared to what could happen if an operator really screwed up.

This is kinda a rock and a hard place. Think about all the crap in the air from coal plants. Think about the "limited" supply of oil and gas. We do build the nukes pretty well in this country, and even a major screw-up should end up "safe." I almost hate to say it, but if we do have oil problems, or coal/transportation problems, the nuke and hydro plants may be the only thing to save us from the Y2K monster.

I really do hope they are being honest.

I hate this crap...

Tick... Tock... <:00=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), September 29, 1999.