Entergy Ads
Just Aren't True

Entergy, the parent company of Vermont Yankee, is currently running full page advertisements headlined "Green Not Greenhouse" in newspapers around the state. The ads claim that power from Vermont Yankee is "safe" "clean" and "green". These ads are reminiscent of the ads run nationally in publications from the New York Times to the National Geographic in the late 1990’s.

Opposition to these claims has come not only from environmentalists and antinuclear groups, but from organizations with such conservative, pro-business credentials as the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Entergy may be unaware that in 1998, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the BBB, which investigates complaints about deceptive advertising practices, ruled that the Nuclear Energy Institute’s (NEI) advertising campaign calling nuclear energy "environmentally clean" and producing electricity "without polluting the environment" was inaccurate and recommended that it be discontinued.

The claim that nuclear power can produce electricity without the production of greenhouse gases is absurd. The BBB stated, "The process currently used to produce…the uranium enriched fuels that are necessary to power nuclear energy plants emits substantial amounts of environmentally harmful greenhouse gases."

The production of the nuclear fuel is an extremely energy intensive process using vast amounts of electricity. For example, for many years the entire 1290-megawatt generating capacity of the Clifty Creek coal fired power plant had as its only customer the Portsmouth Area Uranium Enrichment Complex. Clifty Creek is ranked as one of the dirtiest electric power plants in the country. In 2000 this plant released over 8,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 42,678 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air. It also recorded substantial releases of arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxins into the environment.

Clearly the current ads are aimed at courting public opinion and ultimately legislators in Vermont rather than to attract new utility customers. Vermont legislators will be taking actions that may determine whether the license of Vermont Yankee will be extended.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will not take action against companies who make false or misleading statements in their advertisements as long as those ads are designed to influence public opinion rather than as part of a consumer marketing campaign.

In 1999 the FTC found that even though similar ads were untruthful they would not ban them since they were aimed at policymakers rather than consumers. According to the NEI website, "The FTC’s ruling was appropriate given that the industry was simply exercising its right of free speech to provide information to policymakers."

So in the final analysis it seems the only thing limiting what Entergy can print in their ads is their ability to pay.

Jeannette Bair

Hancock