ENTERGY GIVES NUCLEAR FLEET A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Entergy gave its nuclear fleet a ‘vote of confidence’ yesterday during its 2013 fourth quarter earnings call, saying it would continue to own and operate the plants for the “foreseeable future.” With the growing economic competition from natural gas as well as a harsh energy policy towards nuclear, many utilities are taking a hard look as to whether its nuclear fleet can continue to operate financially, but Entergy, which previously announced the premature shutdown of Vermont Yankee at the end of 2014 due to economic reasons, said it will continue its nuclear fleet operations. “We continue to believe the rationale that separating merchant risk from a utility holding company remains valid,” Entergy Chief Financial Officer Drew Marsh said. “To that end, we have looked at a number of alternatives to accomplished this over the last several years. Our conclusion based on what we know today is that we intend to own and operate this fleet for the foreseeable future. We know there is a lot of uncertainty on this point so we felt it was important to let you know that based on our current point of view we have made no decisions to close any other plants and are not actively considering selling any at this time,” he said. Marsh went on to say that this is the company’s stance right now, but if the environment changes in the future, Entergy could change its stance.