Giving credit to the Antis

It was a cold day in February, 2005, during the NRC public meeting for North Anna's Early Site Permit.

One antinuclear sage in attendance had the proverbial "good news" and "bad news" for the shareholders of Dominion. The good news was that the Dominion would never build a new nuclear power plant at North Anna, the bad news was that it was going to cost the shareholders a lot of money in the process. Another antinuclear prognosticator added,

"Dominion does not even know the reactor design it wants to build. Why? Because the minute they mention that they have a reactor design, Wall Street will think it's an intent to construct, and they will short your stock."

And, as if these antis were descended from old Nostradamus himself, a strange thing happened today, November 20, 2007. Just take a gander at this headline:

Dominion Hails Approval of Early Site Permit for North Anna Power Station

And sure enough, as I write this, Dominion shares (NYSE: D) are trading at about $46 dollars per share, when yesterday they were trading in the low $90s.

Coincidence?

Thankfully, Dominion gave everyone two shares for every one they had before to offset this change in stock price. Who would have known these two events would happen on the same day? Was this a strange coincidence or are we witnessing a miracle?

Thanks to Delbert Horn for pointing out this sagely wisdom of antis. He also adds the following information:

Dominion Stock price on 2/17/05: $72.01
(date of predictions made at NRC public meeting)

Stock Price on 10/17/07: $89.19
(Announcement date of GE large parts order)

Stock price on 11/19/07: $91.03

Stock price on 11/20/07: $46.03
(Day of stock split and ESP approval)