Governor Shumlin has been signing quite a few bills of late, showing that a dose of the “one-party rule” so maligned by the party out of power can be effective. More on that list soon.
Interestingly, though, not every Democrat is singing kumbaya before the cameras – even if nobody’s lining up to throw tomatoes just yet. The back-and-forth reported on by VPR this week could be a foreshadowing of a greater, growing dynamic:
(Host) The Shumlin Administration is developing an environmental map of the state that will highlight good and bad places to site wind projects in the future.
[…] Agency Secretary Deb Markowitz says the goal is to provide wind developers with important information at the early planning stages of a project so that changes can be considered before the project is too far along in the review process:
[…](Kinzel) This approach doesn’t sit well with the chairman of the House Natural Resources committee – East Montpelier Rep. Tony Klein:
(Klein) “The mission of the Agency of Natural Resources is to protect Vermont’s natural resources it is not and has never been the mission of the Agency of Natural Resources to help developers or help anybody get their permits.”
On the merits, both parties have good points in this case. They are both right to speak up and make those cases. The new map will be helpful, and should be moved forward for all the reasons cited. Yet, this is not the first time we’ve heard fears the Shumlin administration may be inclined to give business interests primacy over environmental protection. As such, Klein does his job by firing a rhetorical shot across the bow.
But progressive Democrat Klein’s comments do not come from a vacuum. There are growing stories of traditional Democratic allies in the advocacy community being dictated to, dismissed, or even bullied if their agenda conflicts with the particulars of some of the administration’s fast-tracking priorities. Those stories have spilled into the legislature where there are murmurs that could be the seeds of real trust issues, as some Democratic lawmakers begin to have concerns about staying relevant before a Democratic administration which seems to be constructing a unique new political power elite class in Montpelier – one that does not include many (if any) legislators. It’s this environment that led to the comments from Klein.
Stay tuned.
So far, I do not see Gov. Shumlin addressing the weakening of the public voice in Act 250 that took place under Gov. Douglas.
Also, the terms of two of the District 6 commissioners who served under Douglas expired in January, but as far as I know, no replacements have been named. I would like some assurance that those commissioners, with the power they have to dispose of the environment, will represent not just businessmen (as under Douglas), but also individuals with environmental science credentials.
That being said, it does make sense in terms of long-term planning to proactively assess the capacity of the environment, in locations throughout the state, to support various big projects like wind-farms. This might serve to redirect those uses which would be clearly inappropriate for a particular location, before they even get past the concept phase.
Overall, I don’t see a problem here. I agree with Sue on this. Why shouldn’t ANR draw some lines on the map and say, “This is not a good place for wind development, and this over here is a better place”? It’s their job to do environmental assessments and define boundaries. Why not do them proactively? There’s a difference between laying out ground rules and capitulation.
Wind power is going to be part of our future power portfolio, not because it is perfect and without impact, but because coal, natural gas, and uranium will not, ultimately, be part of our future. The shortage of ground-sourced fuels is a geological certainty, not an opinion. (Ok, I could be wrong – maybe affordable electricity in winter (high wind, low sun) is not part of our future.) We should be planning for this.
The situation at Sheffield is certainly a concern, and should be dealt with, but it is an issue of project management and consistent law enforcement.