Nancy Burton, Green Party candidate for attorney general.Christine Stuart photo.Nancy Burton, the Green Party’s candidate for Attorney General and environmental advocate said Tuesday that Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s stand on the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant has not gone far enough. She said while Blumenthal has intervened or has been a party in most lawsuits against Millstone, he has yet to shut it down.
“There’s no question he has the power,” to shut it down, Burton said standing across the street from Blumenthal’s offices in Hartford. She said under the state’s environmental and consumer protection laws the attorney general has the power to seek an injunction against the plant’s parent company. She said attorney general could advocate its closure under public nuisance laws or argue it has created a public health emergency by polluting the public’s air and water supply. Despite a recent lawsuit filed by a whistleblower who claimed the plant disarmed its security system during periods of high winds because it caused thousands of false alarms, the state still approved a permit that allows the company to store spent nuclear energy in an above ground storage container, Burton said. She said this allowed the company to continue operating unit No. 2, which would have been shut down had there been no place to store the nuclear waste. “This is not the best way to protect the public,” she said. But Burton, the full-time director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, said her platform includes much more than Millstone. Another issue near and dear to Burton’s heart is judicial reform. Following a petition to the Connecticut Supreme Court to investigate an alleged pattern of judicial misconduct by three Superior Court judges, Burton was disbarred in 2001 by now-retired Superior Court Judge A. William Mottolese. The decision to disbar Burton was upheld by the Connecticut Supreme Court in a decision written by then-Chief Justice William J. Sullivan. Burton maintains Mottolese contrived bogus charges and believes she will eventually be vindicated. She is eligible to apply for re-admission to the bar prior to Election Day and currently is licensed to practice in New York. Burton said Tuesday that she will work to get the legislature to approve a law that makes it a “crime for anyone who becomes aware of judicial misconduct to fail to report it.“In addition if elected she will advocate for the following: abolition of the death penalty, universal health care, an energy policy which would radically reduce consumption and spur development, elimination of barriers to third-party participation, support of action by the Governor as Commander-in-Chief of the Connecticut National Guard to recall troops from fighting in the war in Iraq, and legalization of illegal drugs as an alternative to the failed drug wars. Burton will challenge Democratic incumbent Blumenthal in addition to state Rep. Robert Farr, who is the Republican’s endorsed candidate in the race.Burton was joined Tuesday by the Green Party’s candidate for governor, Cliff Thornton and Mike DeRosa, Green Party candidate for secretary of state. This is the first time the party has run a full-slate of candidates in a statewide election. 