The discussion of Montpelier’s district heating proposal has taken an ugly turn in the last few days, and it has nasty implications for politics in the capital city. Aside from the merits of the heating plan, we should all be concerned about what this means for city politics.
The issue relates to a proposed city bond to take the next steps toward creating a biomass district heating system for downtown Montpelier. The plan will provide energy from local, renewable resources to heat Montpelier’s capitol complex, two of Montpelier’s three public schools, and the City Hall and other municipal buildings. In addition, the plant will include hookups to enable downtown businesses to get locally generated heat for their buildings.
Economically, the plan is a no-brainer. Out of a total cost of approximately $20 million, Montpelier is proposing to contribute $2.75 million. The plant will include an upgrade of the boilers at the state’s electric plant that will increase energy output, reduce emissions, reduce oil usage, and will be able to use locally-collected waste wood.
Montpelier will be able to repay the loan and pay for all the fuel for the plant for what we’re paying right now for heat. If the plant is built it will provide heat at a price equivalent to about $3.00 a gallon. How long do you think you’ll be paying $3.00 for fuel oil? Hint: those times are gone already.
And, to top it off,this is an economic development project for the city. We keep hearing that Montpelier is not business-friendly, but the plant will have excess capacity to provide low-cost heat for downtown businesses.
So I think this is a good plan, and I hope any Montpelier voters reading this will get out tomorrow and vote for it, but I also want to talk about the uncharacteristically nasty way the opponents have tried to defeat the plan.
If you’ve driven around Montpelier in the last few days maybe you’ve seen the anonymous red and white lawn signs suggesting that our street paving needs are more important than the need for the district heating plan, as though there’s a tradeoff: buy the biomass plan or repave our streets.
The thing of it is, that’s just not true. Whether we build the district heating plant or not, Montpelier taxpayers will be paying over $300,000 in 2011 dollars for heat for the foreseeable future, and that cost can only go up as time passes. If we build the plant, we’ll have a guaranteed annual payment of that same $300,000 (actually between $305,000 and $331,000) for the next twenty years.
No tradeoff. We’re just taking what we’re now spending on fuel oil and buying a new heating plant and buying the fuel for it for the same price. We’re going to spend that money no matter what–voting no doesn’t free up a single dollar for street paving.
Then there are the robo-calls. All across Montpelier today, voters got robo-calls against the proposal. The calls were anonymous, with no attribution of the voice on the phone or who paid for it. Rumors around town were that the calls were from long time Montpelier Republican Jack Lindley, and when I talked to him he confirmed that he had made and paid for the calls. He did not dispute that the calls were without attribution.
So we’ve got the combination of an anonymous yard sign, an anonymous robo-call, and misleading messages from the opponents. It’s really not the way we do things in Montpelier, or at least not the way we ever used to do things.
We have a City Council election coming up next year and if this is the way things are starting out, it has the potential to be pretty ugly.
…as to where the opposition is coming from. Do they all own heating oil companies or something? Why would they take out the GOP playbook for something like this?
I have proof.
When crude spiked in 2008, this meant gasoline, heating oil spike. It topped out at $5./gal for gas, heating oil was a bit less for pre-buy. Our home used 700 gals per year I think. This would have meant an additional $1500 that year. I & my husband recognized that the days of oil as primary source of energy were gone. Period. We could have afforded the heating oil for our home that year but the cost would not have been sustainable. It would have depleted his IRA in a few years.
He bought a chainsaw & related equipment plus a used woodstove. He has a friend who is a logger as he once was who supplies him w/trailer loads of logs which he cuts & splits into cordwood.
It cost us $1000-$1200 for everything, so we saved way over the increase plus what we were paying. He bought a new splitter & chainsaw last year for a few grand-still a savings over oil, just alot more work. We have since had weatherization, a savings of @ least 20%. We could have saved more but ran out of money for the additional things we wanted to do. If we added a solar panel who knows what the savings could be & we are but one example.
He also bought a Prius that same year since he drives for a living & has saved thousands in gas despite the increased cost over lets say a Corolla.
The cost of oil & gas is now prohibitive for all but the wealthy & those who are able to pass the cost on to the consumer.
Welcome to the Republican Party.
This is how they do things everywhere else in the nation, Vermont is simply getting it late.
How do we stop this invasive species?
Professional 4$$holes must be publicly called out and shamed. When someone like Lindley, who confirmed he intentionally lied and ensured that his lies were unattributable, does something that is “not the way we ever used to do things”, there must be an immediate public response.
But I suspect it’s too late for VT anyway. This is the SOP of movement Conservatism that has taken control over the entire Republican Party.
I’ve been taken to task in these forums for lumping Good Republicans in with the Movement Conservatives, from people that still cling to the desperate hope that the GOP is not 100% evil and still has some redeeming qualities.
I say no. It’s too late. If you are still a registered Republican than you have already agreed to the worst of the GOP agenda: criminalizing Islam, starting wars strictly for profits, stealing billions of dollars from the taxpayers, cutting taxes on the obscenely wealthy to intentionally ruin the economy, selling off all of American manufacturing to the Chinese, etc.
If you still register Republican you agree to and support what Lindley did. The only way to redeem the Republican Party in Vermont is to loudly agitate against people like Lindley, to refute your neighbors when they recite lies told to them by un-Vermonters, like Lindley, and to go to every party meeting to fight this encroaching TeaBaggerism that is creeping into Vermont.
Remember, folks, by today’s Republican standards, Governor Aiken would be far too liberal to even be a Democrat!
“We’re going to spend that money no matter what–voting no doesn’t free up a single dollar”
I’ve been trying to say this exact same thing the the residents of Woodbury who are eager to close down the school. They all seem to believe that if Woodbury closes it’s school their property taxes will drop significantly. There is NO data to support that assertion. In fact everything I’ve seen shows that taxes will either stay exactly the same, or even go up a bit.
The only definite change in Woodbury is that the tax payers will no longer have any representation as to how their school tax dollars are spent.
Why are Republicans so incredibly willfully ignorant?
voted at 6:30, machine said 1397 if i remember right… which for a non-townmeeting non-candidate election ain’t bad.