The chairman of the Vermont Republican Party is attacking Attorney General Bill Sorrell and his fellow Democrats over their efforts to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.
GOP chairman Jack Lindley says Sorrell's pursuit of the appeal was for political reasons, and that the real push for closing the plant came from Governor Peter Shumlin and Democrats in the Legislature.
The criticism from Lindley came two days after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Vermont laws aimed at closing the Vernon reactor when its initial license expired in 2012 were pre-empted by federal law.
Sorrell says the 2010 vote in the Senate to close the plant was supported by three Republicans. And he says he's duty bound to defend laws passed by the Legislature.
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