There was physical evidence Wednesday that the Statehouse has become a hostile environment for Entergy Corp., owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

The Senate Finance Committee was holding a meeting about Entergy's power price offer to the state's largest utilities. Marc Potkin, an Entergy Nuclear vice president for price marketing, was testifying.

The committee room was packed, as if often if for Vermont Yankee matters. This time, the crowd included an independent film producer who is working on a documentary, with a video camera on a tripod and a large boom mic hanging overhead.

Not long into Potkin's testimony, the film guy went to move a mic on the table in front of Potkin. In the process, he knocked Sen. Dick McCormack's coffee over and onto Potkin. It was not a highlight of hospitality in the Vermont Legislature, but Entergy these days isn't quite in a position to raise a stink. Potkin said the coffee wasn't hot.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Labels: vermont legislature, Vermont Yankee