A U.S. District Court ruling that Vermont legislators could not close a local nuclear plant created speculation Friday about whether it could affect an agreement between New Jersey and the owners of the Oyster Creek Generating Station in Lacey to close the plant in 2019.

U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled Thursday that Entergy Corp., which owns the nuclear power plant Vermont Yankee based in Vernon, Vt., could not be closed by the state legislature.

Vermont had a law stating the plant needed legislative approval to operate for another 20 years. Murtha ruled Vermont couldn't close the plant based on a lack of legislative approval for storage of high-level radioactive waste.

Entergy sued the state on the grounds that only the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had jurisdiction over their facility and Murtha's decision supported that position. "The Atomic Energy Act makes clear that is the province of the NRC. The judge in that case ruled against the state based on the evidence before him," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

Representatives for Exelon Nuclear, owner of Oyster Creek, said they have no intention of extending operations at the plant, which is set to close in 2019. "There are no changes to that which Exelon announced in December 2010," said Suzanne D'Ambrosio, a spokeswoman for Oyster Creek.

The Christie administration entered into an Administrative Consent Order with Exelon in 2010 to close the plant by 2019. Since Oyster Creek would close early, state officials would not require cooling towers at the site, which would reduce the plant's environmental impact on Barnegat Bay.

"The ACO may not be worth the paper it was written on now," Tittel said.

Brick resident Janet Tauro of the New Jersey Environmental Federation disagreed with Tittel. "Exelon's license has been rewritten to reflect a 2019 closure and that has been submitted to the NRC."