Vermont Yankee: Where are all the state's rights tea party hypocrites when you need them?

[garybeck]

Last week a federal court ruled that federal law pre-empts the state from regulating a nuclear power plant over safety concerns.

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant can continue to operate beyond March, a federal judge ruled Thursday, slapping down a state law that tried to shut down the facility.

The ruling, which all sides saw as a victory for Vermont Yankee and a defeat for the state, still leaves some decisions about the plant’s future in the hands of the state Public Service Board, legal experts said.

U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha, who heard the case in September in Brattleboro, agreed with Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp.’s arguments that federal law pre-empts the state from regulating a nuclear power plant over safety concerns. Vermont’s efforts, Murtha said, were replete with references to safety.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012120119032

I would think this is a classic case of state's rights vs. federal, one that the Tea Baggers rant about frequently. "The federal government is too big! Yadda Yadda Yadda!" Clearly, the citizens of Vermont want VY shut down, and the state government voted to shut it down. But I guess big business and destroying the environment trumps an issue as quaint as state's rights, for the tea baggers anyway....

[KansDem]

1. They're resting up from their fervent stands against "too much Big Government"

...in opposing "Bush v. Gore" and the federal crackdowns on state medicinal-marijuana clinics.