Green Mountain Power Corporation Nuclear Decommissioning Trust

The trust must follow IRS Section 468A rules for nuclear decommissioning funds, which cap contributions to a government-approved cost study and restrict asset allocation to investments consistent with safe harbor guidelines. Equities are typically limited, with portfolios skewed toward investment-grade fixed income and treasury securities. The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation and the NRC hold joint oversight authority, and any deviation from actuarially sound asset-liability matching would risk tax penalties and regulatory intervention.

Green Mountain Power Corporation, a regulated Vermont electric utility serving roughly 270,000 customers, established the trust as part of its minority ownership in the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. GMP is itself a subsidiary of Northern New England Energy Corporation, which is ultimately controlled by Montreal-based Énergir, formerly Gaz Métro. The trust, however, is legally segregated from GMP's corporate treasury and is governed under a separate trust agreement that senior creditors of the parent cannot access.

The trust does not maintain a dedicated internal investment staff. Portfolio management is outsourced to one or more institutional asset managers selected through competitive procurement, overseen by a trust investment committee operating within the GMP corporate governance framework. The committee's fiduciary duty runs directly to the trust's statutory purpose — future site restoration — not to GMP's shareholders or ratepayers, a structural tension that shapes manager selection toward conservative, transparent strategies.

The trust is explicitly self-liquidating. Once the Vermont Yankee site is restored to NRC standards and the license is terminated, the trustee will distribute any surplus according to a regulated formula, typically returning excess to ratepayers and co-owners. This finite time horizon — likely spanning multiple decades given the SAFSTOR decommissioning approach chosen for Vermont Yankee — imposes a duration-matching requirement unusual among institutional investment pools.

No, the trust is legally required to maintain arm's-length separation from GMP's corporate assets. Real estate holdings like the Rutland Solar Project Land and the Colchester headquarters are corporate assets of GMP, not assets of the trust, though the trust may carry indirect exposure to energy infrastructure through commingled institutional mandates. Direct self-dealing between the trust and its sponsoring utility is explicitly prohibited under NRC regulations.

The trust does not publicly disclose its current asset value. Independent estimates place the portfolio in the $100 million to $200 million range as of the mid-2020s (Altss estimate), reflecting GMP's minority stake in Vermont Yankee and the partial drawdown of assets for early decommissioning activities approved under the SAFSTOR plan. No formal audited figure is available because small trusts below certain thresholds are exempt from detailed SEC reporting.

Vermont law effectively prohibits new nuclear construction within the state, a policy reinforced by legislative action in the years following Vermont Yankee's retirement. The trust itself is unaffected by the ban — it exists solely to manage the legacy decommissioning obligation of the now-closed plant — but the political environment underscores why this trust is a terminal entity rather than a revolving investment pool.