WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNALS
NOVEMBER 28, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 48
10 | CANCER CENTER
26 | AFTER IBM westfaironline.com
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
Court ruling gives NYS review power in Indian Point relicensing BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH rdeffenbaugh@westfairinc.com
A know what the federal government might do. We’re all sitting on needles and pins.” “If there’s any future change, we will adapt and evolve with the best interest of our customers at the core of every decision we make,” said Access Health CT CEO James Wadleigh. “As for right now, it’s business as usual.” One potentially bright spot has been Trump’s apparent backing off from his plans to completely get rid of Obamacare; since his election, he has indicated that he may keep the law’s provisions that allow children up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ plan and prevent insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. “That’s a good sign,” Wyman said. Access Health is seeing unparalleled activity with its fourth annual enrollment period, which began Nov. 1 and runs
unanimous decision in New York’s highest court will likely deal a blow to efforts by the owners of Indian Point Energy Center to relicense its two nuclear reactors in Buchanan. The state Court of Appeals on Nov. 21 ruled against Indian Point owner Entergy Corp. and said the company was not exempt from a review by the state Department of State to ensure that Entergy’s federal license renewal was consistent with New York’s Coastal Management Program. Entergy had argued it was not subject to the state’s coastal regulations, as they took effect after the reactors were already running. The court ruling settles a back-andforth legal battle that had been bouncing around state courts for three years. A state Supreme Court judge in late 2013 ruled that Entergy’s federal license renewal application was not exempt from review for its consistency with coastal management policies. But that lower court ruling was reversed one year later by a state Appellate Division judge in favor of Entergy. The state appealed that decision and now the state Court of Appeals has ruled in its favor. The court found that Indian Point’s reactors failed to meet any of the exemptions that would remove the state’s right to review compliance with its Coastal Management Program. The court’s decision may further complicate the ongoing relicensing process by the federal government for the Buchanan plant’s two reactors. Indian Point’s Unit 2 reactor’s license expired in 2013 and Unit 3 in 2015. The reactors have continued operating while the federal Nuclear Regulatory
» ACCESS HEALTH CT, page 8
» INDIAN POINT, page 8
LEGACY SEE PAGE 6
Above: Jake Siegel, one of the original Siegel brothers, sits with a companion in front of the family’s store and its original misspelled sign. Inset: From left, Don Myers, David Nevins, Brad Nevins, Doug Nevins and Jeremy Nevins stand in the space that will soon house Siegel Bros. Marketplace.
Enrollment up at Access Health CT despite uncertain future BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
T
he state of Access Health CT, Connecticut’s health insurance exchange, is uncertain — but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily in trouble. As the Business Journal previously reported, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, who also serves as chairperson of the Access Health CT board, released a statement assuring
consumers that the exchange was still in business and would continue to operate until further notice. The statement came in the wake of the election of Presidentelect Donald Trump, who during the campaign repeatedly said he would “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, the massive legislation under which the exchange was created. Speaking to the Business Journal more recently, Wyman doubled down on her earlier declaration, adding: “We honestly don’t