Tag Archives: Vermont Public Service Department

If You Want Renewable Energy, You Have No Business Voting for Phil Scott

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Last week, Gov. Phil Scott reached another landmark. Not in a good way, and not that anyone noticed. He vetoed two bills, S.230 and H.710. According to the Vermont State Archives, they were his 63rd and 64th vetoes*, which means he has issued more than three times as many vetoes as any other governor in the history of the state. (Howard Dean is in second place with a measly 21, and he was in office longer than Scott.) That fact should not be overlooked when this guy professes a devotion to working across the aisle and getting things done and (cough) not being a politician.

*As of this writing, VSARA lists 62 Scott veto messages but has not officially posted S.230 and H.710. Just in case anyone follows the link and tries to fact check.

This post concerns the latter veto, which borders on the inexplicable — even for a veto-crazy chief executive. The House passed H.710 on a lopsided 108-30 vote, and it was so uncontroversial in the Senate that no one asked for a roll call. It passed without a recorded vote.

You may recall H.710 from the outrageous objections made by Republican Sen. Steven Heffernan, Addison County’s extremist-in-moderate’s-clothing. Mind you, Heffernan wasn’t arguing against the bill; he merely wanted to postpone its effective date by two years so its potential impact could be studied further. His completely imaginary concern was that Vermont farmland was being gobbled up by giant solar arrays, and H.710 might accelerate that trend. Despite his objection, he didn’t offer a “No” vote, nor did he request a roll call.

His concern, as I reported earlier, exists solely in his own mind. The actual amount of farmland given over to solar is vanishingly small.

But wait. That thought, or something even more insidious, also exists in the mind of Phil Scott. Because he whipped out his veto pen and consigned H.710 to the dustbin of Stuff He Doesn’t Like.

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Is GlobalFoundries Too Big To Deny?

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They probably call this a “campus”

It may not be “an offer you can’t refuse,” but GlobalFoundries has done its best to put state government over a barrel on electricity costs. Vermont’s largest private-sector employer wants to cut ties with Green Mountain Power and form its own utility. It would buy its power on the regional wholesale market.

If it gets its way, the utility would not be subject to Vermont’s renewable energy standards or a variety of other laws and regulations. This isn’t a little thing; GF accounts for 8% of Vermont’s electricity consumption. If GF gets its way, we’d have a harder time reaching our greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Unless, ha ha ha, it voluntarily complies. Ha.

The case was filed last spring before the Public Utilities Commission and got a flurry of media attention at the time. Since then, it has followed the PUC’s customarily meandering process with filing after memo after legal brief after rejoinder. But things are about to heat up. And there are any number of indications that the Scott administration is in the bag for the GF petition.

Which is no surprise, since underlying all of this is GF’s persistent, non-specific rumblings about competitiveness and costs and well, wouldn’t it be a shame if something happened to your big shiny employer?

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The Best Indictment of the PSD/PUC Renewable Process Is Its Own Documentation

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From the PSD Hearing Officer’s report on the Richville Road project

I’ve heard from several enewable energy developers that the Public Service Department and Public Utility Commission make it extremely difficult to site new energy projects in Vermont. The best evidence for this is a document from within the PSD itself. It shows a process that seems designed to stymie renewable energy development. Since climate change is no longer deniable, this is entirely backward and counterproductive.

The document is a Hearing Officer’s recommendation regarding a proposed 500 kW solar array that would be built by MHG Solar on Richville Road in Manchester Town. (There’s a good story about it in the Bennington Banner.) The Officer goes through page after page of project compliance with PUC standards… and then decides it shouldn’t be built, based solely on some remarkably flimsy esthetic considerations. This, despite the fact that an independent aesthetics consultant hired by the PSD found that the project would not have an undue adverse effect on aesthetics.

The MHG proposal is a textbook example of how to site and design a solar installation. The plan is well thought-out and takes into account every possible objection, and yet the Officer is recommending denial.

The PUC has yet to make its decision. In fact, the commission has scheduled a site visit for this Friday. It may be the developer’s last opportunity to overcome the Hearing Officer’s report.

The Officer’s entire 40-page report (downloadable from the PSD’s website) reveals an apparent bias against renewable energy. If this is typical of the PSD/PUC work product, it’s clear that a thorough reform needs to take place.

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