MONTPELIER — A key legislative committee voted 7-0 Thursday to send a bill authorizing the continued operation of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant beyond 2012 to the floor of the Senate for an expected vote next week.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee decided to send the bill without their recommendation as the Vermont Legislature moves closer to a vote next week on the future of the troubled nuclear reactor.

Timing certainly was on the minds of the committee, which is made up entirely of Democrats, as the bill needed to pass the committee in time for a vote Wednesday morning.

A majority of senators are expected to vote against the bill – sending a clear message to Entergy, the owner of Vermont Yankee, that the company does not have the support of the Legislature for an extended license.

"Time is running short," said Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, chairwoman of the Finance Committee, addressing accusations that lawmakers were moving too quickly on the issue. "The rest of the state needs some direction from the Legislature."

The Finance Committee spent hours Thursday afternoon taking last-minute testimony on the bill, hearing from an Entergy executive, Public Service Department Commissioner David O'Brien, anti-nuclear activists and business leaders.

Supporters of the plant said lawmakers are allowing temporary issues of tritium leaks and allegations of lying management to cloud the long-term issue of Vermont's energy future.

O'Brien, who represents ratepayers before the Public Service Board, told lawmakers a vote is premature because they don't know yet the cause of the tritium leak or the outcome of numerous ongoing investigations into the allegation that Entergy officials misled the state about the existence of key infrastructure at the facility.

Among the issues O'Brien said need to be resolved before a vote was the result of a power-purchase contract between Entergy and the state's utilities. That was a shift in position for the commissioner, who said many times last year such information was not necessary to decide the future of Vermont Yankee.

"We think that a time out is an appropriate step," O'Brien said, echoing comments made earlier by Gov. James Douglas, who has supported Vermont Yankee's relicensing, but is now asking for a delay of a legislative vote until 2011. "We don't think this is the time to take up the bill before you."

Entergy asked lawmakers to wait until a number of investigations into their conduct are complete before moving forward. Kenneth R. Theobalds, vice president of government relations for Entergy, said the state already has a "sound regulatory process in place" — the Public Service Board.

But Finance Committee members were adamant that now is the time. Cummings said lawmakers have collected testimony on Vermont Yankee for four years now. Sen. Harold Giard, D-Addison, said Vermonters have a lot of anxiety right now over the recent problems at the plant.

"I don't think Vermonters have a lot of confidence in the plant right now," Giard said. "They don't want to sleep with one eye open waiting for something else to go wrong."

Two business groups gave opposing testimony over the effect of the plant's closing on the state's economy.

William Driscoll, vice president of Associated Industries of Vermont, said lawmakers should let the Public Service Board decide the future of Vermont Yankee. Closing Vermont Yankee in 2012 will make ratepayers victims of higher electricity rates, he said.

"We are the ones who will have to live with the consequences of this decision for the next 20 years," he said.

But Andrea Cohen, public policy coordinator for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, said a strong majority of its 1,150 members believe Vermont Yankee's power should be replaced with renewable energy.

"I don't think this is a good deal for businesses in Vermont," she said. "We don't know the true price of this energy because the costs of decommissioning and storing the waste are not factored in here."

Renewable energy advocates were pleased with the committee vote. James Moore, clean energy advocate for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said "this is a situation of Entergy's own making."

"This actually reminds me of my first car that I drove into the ground," Moore said. "It always got me from point A to point B until the day it left me stranded on the highway."

Bob Stannard, a lobbyist for the Citizens Action Network, said Vermonters were told 38 years ago that the nuclear power plant had a lifespan of 40 years. The company should be held to that promise, he said.

"Entergy is not going to change," Stannard told lawmakers. "The plant, like myself, will not get any younger."

Two sets of lawmakers also heard the advice of Paul Blanch, a retired nuclear engineer from Connecticut who has advised New York on nuclear power plants. Blanch, a Vermont native, told members of the Senate's Finance and Natural Resources committees the tritium leaks are symptoms of a larger problem.

"The whole plant is degrading with time," Blanch told lawmakers. "It was designed for 40 years. I don't believe it is safe to continue with the operation of Vermont Yankee."

daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com