STATE OF NEW YORK PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION Joint Petition of Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 2, LLC; Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 3, LLC; and Nuclear Asset Management Company, LLC for a Declaratory Ruling Docket No. 19-E-0730 Disclaiming Jurisdiction Over or Abstaining from Review of the Proposed Transfers or, in the Alternative, an Order Approving the Proposed Transfers Pursuant to Section 70 of the New York Public Service Law. FORMAL COMMENTS OF THE TOWN OF CORTLANDT, VILLAGE OF BUCHANAN, AND HENDRICK HUDSON SCHOOL DISTRICT IN OPPOSITION TO JOINT PETITION FOR A DELARATORY RULING DISCLAIMING JURISDICTION, ABSTAING FROM REVIEW, OR APPROVING PROPOSED TRANSFERS Daniel Riesel Dane Warren SIVE PAGET & RIESEL P.C. Attorneys for Intervenors 560 Lexington Avenue, 15th Floor New York, NY 10022 [email protected] [email protected] (212) 421-2150 Dated: May 1, 2020 [BLANK] ii Table of Contents TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ...................................................................................................... iv INTERVENORS ........................................................................................................................... 1 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT ................................................................................................. 2 POINT ONE THE COMMISSION HAS JURISDICTION OVER THE PROPOSED TRANSFERS UNDER PUBLIC SERVICE LAW § 70 ............................................................ 7 POINT TWO THE COMMISSION SHOULD NOT ABSTAIN FROM EXERCISING JURISDICTION OVER THE PROPOSED TRANSFER ...................................................... 14 POINT THREE IN ITS CURRENT FORM, THE PROPOSED TRANSFER OF THE IPEC FROM ENTERGY TO HOLTEC IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST ............... 20 A. The Petition Fails to Adequately Demonstrate that Holtec has the Financial Integrity to Own and Decommission the IPEC. ..................................................................................................... 21 1. Holtec’s Critical Assumption that the Department of Energy Will Begin Accepting Spent Nuclear Fuel By 2030 is UntenaBle .................................................................................................... 22 2. Holtec has not Adequately Accounted for Unanticipated Costs ................................................ 26 3. Holtec’s “Contingency Allowance” Does Not Actually Account for Unanticipated Costs ...... 32 B. Holtec’s Corporate Structure, Lack of Assets or Revenue Streams, and Inexperience Make It Financially Unfit to Decommission Indian Point. .......................................................................... 34 C. At a Minimum, the Commission Must Impose Conditions That Realign Holtec’s Incentives and Return Any Funds Remaining in the DTF to Ratepayers and the Local Community. .......... 41 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 44 iii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES PAGE(S) Aer Ny-Gen, LLC & All. Nygt, LLC, No. 11-E-0701, 2012 WL 1511874 (Mar. 21, 2012) .....................................................................18 Altice N.V. & Cablevision Sys. Corp. & Subsidiaries, No. 15-M-0647, 2016 WL 3386592 (June 15, 2016) ....................................................................18 Brooklyn Union Gas Co. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 34 A.D.2d 71 (3d Dep’t 1970) .........................................................................................................8 Caithness Long Island LLC, Caithness Brookhaven LLC, Caithness Brookhaven II LLC, Caithness Energy LLC, & Brookhaven Elec. LLC, No. 12-E-0197, 2012 WL 2952758 (July 16, 2012) ................................................................21, 35 Cassadaga Wind LLC, Trireme Energy Dev. LLC, & Innogy Renewables Us LLC, No. 18-E-0333, 2018 WL 3817926 (July 17, 2018) ......................................................................12 Dynegy Danskammer LLC, No. 13-E-0012, 2014 WL 1320304 (Mar. 28, 2014) .....................................................4, 11, 12, 18 Dynegy Roseton LLC & Cci Roseton LLC, No. 13-E-0012, 2013 WL 1785508 (Apr. 22, 2013) .....................................................9, 10, 11, 12 Entergy Nuclear Fitzpatrick, LLC, Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 2, LLC, Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 3, LLC, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc, Newco & Entergy Corp., No. 08-E-0077, 2008 WL 3856764 (Aug. 14, 2008) .....................................................................21 EXelon Generation Co., LLC, No. 17-M-0302, 2017 WL 3437454 (Aug. 3, 2017) ......................................................................18 Helios Power Capital, LLC, Danskammer Energy, LLC & Mercuria Energy Am., Inc., No. 14-E-0117, 2014 WL 2987951 (June 27, 2014) ...........................................................4, 11, 12 Iberdrola, S.A., Energy E. Corp., Rgs Energy Grp., Inc., Green Acquisition Capital, Inc., New York State Elec. & Gas Corp. & Rochester Gas & Elec. Corp., No. 07-M-0906, 2008 WL 2486831 (June 16, 2008) ....................................................................21 In re Competitive Opportunities Regarding Elec. Serv., 168 P.U.R.4th 515 (May 20, 1996) ................................................................................................18 In re Consol. Edison Co. of New York, Inc., 29 P.U.R.4th 327, 1979 WL 461901 (Apr. 6, 1979) ......................................................................20 iv TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES PAGE(S) In re Consol. Edison Co. of New York, Inc., No. 01-E-0040, 2001 WL 1587290 (Aug. 31, 2001) .........................................................14, 29, 42 In re Consol. Edison Co. of New York, Inc., No. 02-M-0741, 2007 WL 1213672 (Apr. 24, 2007) ....................................................................42 In re Empire State Pipeline, 31 N.Y.P.S.C. 129 (Mar. 1, 1991) .................................................................................................43 In re Entergy Nuclear Indian Point 2, LLC, 213 P.U.R.4th 162, 2001 WL 1572710 (Aug. 31, 2001) ...............................................................14 In re Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC, And Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station), No. 15-940-03-LA-BD01, 2015 WL 5883370 (Aug. 31, 2015), vacated as moot, 83 N.R.C. 463, 2016 WL 8260626 (June 2, 2016) ......................................25, 28 In re First Wind Holdings, Inc., No. 11-E-253, 2011 WL 4942281 (Sept. 21, 2011) .......................................................................17 In re Horizon Wind Energy LLC, No. 06-E-0006, 2006 WL 344605 (Feb. 8, 2006) ..........................................................................16 In re Keyspan Energy, No. 99-F-1625, 2009 WL 3256555 (July 21, 2009) ......................................................................43 In re NRG Energy, Inc., No. 07-E-0584, 2007 WL 2089281 (July 23, 2007) ......................................................................15 In re Rochester Gas & Elec. Corp., No. 03-E-1231, 2004 WL 1206964 (May 20, 2004) .....................................................................42 Luyster Creek, LLC v. New York State Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 18 N.Y.3d 977 (2012) ......................................................................................................................8 Mach Gen LLC & New Athens Generating Co. LLC, No. 14-E-0022, 2014 WL 1713078 (Apr. 25, 2014) .........................................................16, 17, 19 New York v. Nuclear Regulatory Comm’n, 681 F.3d 471 (D.C. Cir. 2012) .................................................................................................................... 35 Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n of State of N.Y., 218 A.D.2d 421 (3d Dep’t 1996) ...................................................................................................13 v TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES PAGE(S) Noble Envtl. Power, LLC, Noble Altona Windpark, LLC, Noble Bliss Windpark, LLC, Noble Clinton Windpark i, LLC, Noble Ellenburg Windpark, LLC, Noble Chateaugay Windpark, LLC, Noble Great Plains Windpark, LLC, Noble Wethersfield Windpark, LLC, No. 15-E-0597, 2015 WL 9686498 (Dec. 17, 2015) .....................................................................16 Nuclear Energy Inst., Inc. v. Envtl. Prot. Agency, 373 F.3d 1251 (D.C. Cir. 2004) .....................................................................................................26 People eX rel. Cayuga Power Corp. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n, Second Dist., 226 N.Y. 527 (1919) ......................................................................................................................13 Red-Rochester, LLC, Red Inv., LLC, Red Parent, LLC, Ironclad Energy Partners LLC, Ironclad Energy Ventures, LLC & Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund II LP, No. 16-M-0370, 2016 WL 4161126 (Aug. 2, 2016) ................................................................16, 19 Rensselaer Holdings LLC & Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy LLC, No. 11-E-0663, 2012 WL 1066443 (Feb. 22, 2012) ......................................................................18 Sys. Fuels, Inc. v. United States, 818 F.3d 1302 (Fed. Cir. 2016)................................................................................................23, 26 TC Ravenswood, LLC, TC Ravenswood Servs. Corp. & HeliX Generation for EXpedited Approval of a Transfer & Fin. Pursuant to Lightened Regulation, No. 17-E-0016, 2017 WL 2226002 (Apr. 19, 2017) ...............................................................20, 34