Illusion vs. Reality  
By Ralph Colin

There are those among us for whom their twisted concept of the way they would like things to become is their reality and for whom the way things really are is a mere illusion. By living in a world of self-concoction and with the application of a distorted form of logic or reasoning, they arrive at certain conclusions which test one’s ability to understand exactly how they reached their findings. Perhaps such is the case with Jerry Skapof whose letter to the editor in the Manchester Journal two weeks ago really challenges the belief that he may be in his right mind.

To those for whom a contract may be viable only for so long as it is convenient or desirable for and to them alone, it is easy to propose solutions which fly in the face of both reality and a previously agreed to modus operandi. I refer specifically to his rather outrageously advanced support of the Shumlin Anti-Business in Vermont bill, which would currently apply, for all practical purposes, only to the Entergy Corporation and would arbitrarily increase the tax on the energy generation derived from the company’s operation of Vermont Yankee in the town of Vernon. The company now sells 80% of its generation to CVPS and other electric companies at a rate of 4-cents per kilowatt hour as provided in the contract to which the company and the electric distributing companies agreed in 2002. That agreement was further ratified by the General Assembly, including the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the Douglas administration in 2003. The current going market rate charged by most other generators is 7-cents pkh. Sen. Shumlin’s bill would tax Entergy at 100% of its generation at the higher rate thus imposing taxes on the company on income which it never received and it would increase Entergy’s taxes by almost 300% from around $5 million dollars per year to $15 million dollars per year. It should be added that in this case neither of the relevant legislative committees had the opportunity to review the legislation. It went from a voice vote in the Senate, an extremely rare and unusual procedure in itself, to the Committee on Conference at which it was altered and then it went to the House which passed it after only three hours of debate.

Mr. Skapof and his doyen, Sen. Shumlin, both Robin Hood wannabes and proponents of class warfare, suggest that it’s okay to pass legislation, regardless of its purported objective, designed to punish an individual company on the grounds that the company is too profitable and that its headquarters are out of state .The fact that it previously entered into a contract with the state government which would be unilaterally abrogated by the state if the bill was allowed to become law and that the passage of such legislation is, in all probability, unconstitutional, is of no consequence to these individuals for whom their only concern is that their viscerally arrived at prescriptions should be accepted by the citizens of our state. Further, the consequences of such a law, were it to become signed by the Governor or allowed to pass without his signature after the prescribed period of time, would be catastrophic for other existing businesses in the state because it would be a clear signal that the state was unwilling to abide by its agreements and that they, the other businesses, could (or would likely) become targets for the assessment of similar punitive taxes if some other Populist, would-be demagogue decided that the companies were too profitable. The imposition of such a tax is further proof that in our state, the most heinous crime of which one (or a corporation) can be accused is that of being too successful. There could, and probably would, be a great likelihood that many of the largest employers in Vermont, including such companies as IBM, G.E., IDX and others, some of whose permanent situation in the state is already tenuous, would give serious thought to pulling up stakes and settling elsewhere. How do you think that would affect your personal taxes, Mr. Skapof?

Moreover, if as a result of Sen. Shumlin’s anti-business law, Entergy, which generates 33% of the energy necessary to fulfill Vermont’s needs, decided that it had had enough of operating in a antagonistic environment and just determined to pull the plug in 2012 when its current license expires, all of us might find ourselves sitting in the dark once the sun settled below the horizon each day and wouldn’t it be cataclysmic if we were all deprived of watching "American Idol" and Oprah on the telly? Unintended consequences? You bet, and that, my friends, would be a dose of reality that those who live in the make-believe universe of their own creation are willing to impose on the rest of us in order to satisfy their particularly and narrowly conceived notions of the way the world should be. 

Mr. Skapof’s emotionally charged and factually inaccurate letter alleges that the passage of Shumlin’s anti-business bill would attract and benefit small businesses which is, on the face of it, both unlikely and untrue. Furthermore, his argument that Entergy should be taxed for storing spent fuel rods near its plant is totally irrelevant. It is not by choice that Entergy and other nuclear generators must so store these rods; for several decades, the Federal government, whose responsibility it is to provide safe storage for this material, has refused to do so. According to his cockeyed analysis, perhaps Mr. Skapof would suggest that the State of Vermont tax the Federal government for its negligence. More probably it is just another example of proposals made by some individuals whose self aggrandizing and politically motivated based agendas are created in the nether world of ignorance and envy and whose doctrines for governance, were they to be subscribed to by the residents of our state, would become recipes for economic and personal disaster. One should think twice before accepting the schemes of people like Sen. Shumlin and Mr. Skapof.

Ralph Colin, East Dorset