Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Several major Burlington institutions are backing a plan to create a district heat system that would harness waste heat from the Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station.
A group of residents has been trying for decades to convince city leaders to implement this type of system, which works like an electric grid — but for heat. The idea has been formally studied at least six times, with the most recent report concluding that it didn't make financial sense.
Tags: Mayor Miro Weinberger , Burlington Electric , district heat , burlington town center , Image , Web Only
Friday, September 16, 2016
The first wind turbine project in the country to be built on U.S. Forest Service land will break ground Monday in southern Vermont.
The 15-turbine project spans across parts of Readsboro and Searsburg, just north of the state border with Massachusetts, within the Green Mountain National Forest.
Construction comes after the developer Avangrid — formerly called Iberdrola — cleared a controversial permitting process that took more than a decade.
The developer has an agreement with Green Mountain Power to purchase 30 megawatts of power for 4.8 cents per kilowatt from the project once it is constructed.
Tags: Searsburg , Readsboro , Green Mountain Forest , Iberdrola , Avangrid , Peter Shumlin , Vermonters for a Clean Environment , wind energy , wind turbines , deerfield wind project , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
The Hinesburg parcel was the last remaining piece of land along the planned 41-mile Colchester-to-Middlebury route where Vermont Gas had to secure the rights to install its pipeline. The area to be condemned is 50 feet wide and 1,987 feet long.
A group of Hinesburg residents represented by attorney James Dumont argued against the eminent domain request in front of the PSB during an August 4th meeting.
The board was not persuaded. In a decision issued Tuesday, it concluded that the pipeline "will have little or no impact on the park and its existing uses, both during and after construction."
Citing Vermont Supreme Court precedent, Dumont had argued that land already designated for a public use couldn't be seized for a different public use. But in its decision, the board reasoned that it was permissible if the public would be best served by both uses and as long as the "second public use would not destroy or materially interfere with the prior public use."
Tags: Vermont Gas , Vermont Public Service Board , Geprags Community Park , Image , Web Only
While Rising Tide Vermont members and others have protested Vermont Gas' pipeline for years, Tuesday's action was in response to a call put out on social media by North Dakota's Sacred Stone Camp, a group started by members of the Standing Rock Sioux, for global demonstrations of solidarity.
"A lot more people [than usual] are going to be coming out today because of the Standing Rock camps," said Alex Prolman of Rising Tide.
Tags: Vermont Gas , Rising Tide , Alex Prolman , Image , Web Only
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Lawyers submitted the application for a certificate of public good, a package of expert testimony and proof they'd paid a $100,000 filing fee to the state Public Service Board on behalf of Travis and Ashley Belisle, a local couple seeking to build the turbines on their property.
As part of the application, the couple made a new offer designed to appease critics. They said they would give a post-construction buyout option for neighbors within 3,000 feet of the turbines who are unhappy with the project.
"Swanton Wind is confident that if a neighbor wants to sell, Swanton Wind will be able to resell quickly any property purchased under the program," the couple said in a news release.
Tags: Swanton Wind , Green Mountain Power , Vermont Public Service Board , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Wind Works VT is a coalition of individuals and wind power developers, said Kyle Martel of KSE Partners, a Montpelier government affairs and strategic communications firm that represents the group.
Arguing that public opinion polls show strong support for wind power, the group has launched online ads to make the case that wind is a locally generated, clean and renewable source of energy critical to meeting the state’s renewable energy goals.
The individuals and developers behind the group don’t want to be identified, Martel said, “because of the way the anti-wind crowd has bordered on harassment.”
Tags: Sue Minter , Phil Scott , Wind Works VT , KSE Partners , Vermonters for a Clean Environment , Image , Web Only
Saturday, August 6, 2016
"I've never voted for a Democrat in my life," he said Friday.
But the Swanton construction executive donated $5,000 this week to an independent-expenditure political action committee supporting Democrat Sue Minter's campaign for governor. The so-called super PAC, named Vermonters for Strong Leadership, bought $120,000 worth of television ads Thursday calling her "the progressive" in the race.
So why did Belisle give?
"I think Sue Minter is probably a very good fit for Vermont, but I kind of leave it up to my team," he said.
Belisle was referring to the stable of lawyers and consultants he employs to assist in his controversial bid to build a 20-megawatt wind farm near the Swanton-St. Albans town line.
"What they did is they said, 'Hey, for the primary, each candidate needs to raise substantial funds, blah, blah, blah. Is that something you'd support — a candidate to get a governor you'd like to see running the state of Vermont?'" he recalled. "My wife and I sat down and said, 'Yeah.'"
Tags: Sue Minter , Matt Dunne , Peter Galbraith , Travis Belisle , David Blittersdorf , Anthony Iarrapino , wind , Swanton , Lowell , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 4, 2016
The meeting, which lasted all day, dealt with minutia. But the stakes are high: This is the final right-of-way that Vermont Gas needs to complete its 41-mile pipeline from Colchester to Middlebury, which company officials hope to do by the end of the year.
“This is the last piece of the puzzle in our effort to being able to complete the pipeline,” said Vermont Gas president Don Rendall, in an interview after the hearing.
Outside the building Thursday morning, pipeline protesters lay on the pavement, their faces painted chalky white and bodies cloaked in white sheets. They explained to reporters that they were staging a “die-in” as the casualties of climate change.
Tags: Vermont Gas , Vermont Public Service Board , Hinesburg , Geprags , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
That changed Tuesday afternoon, when the group announced its board had voted unanimously to back Sue Minter over two rivals in the Democratic primary. The reason for the switch: Rival Democratic candidate Matt Dunne’s revised policy statement on wind projects.
Fallout has been fast and furious since Dunne issued the statement Friday afternoon. On Sunday, it cost him the support of environmental activist Bill McKibben, who switched his allegiance to Minter.
VCV and others piled on the criticism of Dunne on Tuesday.
“We believe that Matt Dunne’s revised position on renewable energy siting would undermine Act 174, the renewable energy siting bill that was a major priority of the environmental community this past legislative session,” said Lauren Hierl, VCV’s political director.
Tags: Sue Minter , Matt Dunne , Peter Shumlin , Peter Galbraith , Bill McKibben , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only
Monday, August 1, 2016
Dunne argued that his support for allowing towns to vote down industrial wind projects is no different than Shumlin’s position. Not so, Shumlin countered.
“Anyone who says they are in line with my position on renewables, and who then comes out for a veto on renewables, is not telling the truth,” Shumlin said in a statement Monday.
Dunne issued a statement Friday that he said constituted a clarification of his views on siting industrial wind turbines in Vermont. “Large-scale ridgeline wind projects should only take place with the approval of the towns where the projects are located,” he said.
Tags: Matt Dunne , Sue Minter , Peter Shumlin , Peter Galbraith , wind power , gubernatorial campaign , election 2016 , primary 2016 , Image , Web Only