Generic Thumbs Edition.

The Washington Electric Co-op, for declaring its opposition to a proposed three-year moratorium on new utility-scale wind projects. WEC has a solid track record for supporting renewable energy and being responsible to its customers. It’s small and local. It was sensitive enough that it chose to install wired “smart meters” rather than the wireless type. In its statement,  WEC says a wind moratorium “would be a serious, regressive and damaging mistake.”

WEC notes that we are already feeling the effects of climate change, in a statement issued during our dramatic mid-January thaw; and says that Vermont’s clean energy goals cannot be met “without incorporating some commercial scale wind projects into our landscape at selected and appropriate locations.” And regarding the allegation that Vermont is charging willy-nilly into wind power at the behest of big corporations, WEC says this:

Since 2002, three Vermont Governors have each established an open process for discussing wind siting issues, establishing criteria and encouraging public input. Although the commission established by Governor Shumlin is still at work, the efforts conducted by the Douglas and Dean administrations have been heeded and respected as projects have been considered. Vermont has now been considering, planning, debating, legislating, implementing and regulating wind generation for well over ten years. Vermont should not and has not “rolled over” for developers of wind projects, and the projects that have been approved have been subjected to tough rigorous review.

I’m sure the anti-wind folks will have a ready explanation for WEC going over to the dark side, and I’m sure I won’t buy it.

 Jim Deeghan and the credibility of the Vermont State Police, the latter now under repair. The disgraced former state trooper has pleaded guilty to taking more than $210,000 by faking time sheets, work reports, and traffic tickets. And also, according to the Freeploid, “not forwarding case paperwork for prosecution,” which would seem to suggest that some reported crimes were tossed in the dumpster by Deeghan. Yikes.

Authorities are stoutly insisting that Deeghan was a single bad apple. As far as we know, that’s true. But we also know that the system was unforgivably open to this kind of fraud. Given that, plus the loose talk that tends to circulate in an environment like a State Police barracks, the state has to count itself awfully damn lucky if Deeghan was, in fact, the only one to pad his overtime.

I’ll also give a tiny “Thumbs Down” to a rather ludicrous statement from Colonel Tom L’Esperance, VSP Director:

L’Esperance said he believes the 30,000 calls for state police service since the Deeghan case was uncovered in July shows Vermonters still have faith in the department.

Yeah, sure. Those Vermonters had so many options to choose from when they needed to report crimes.

And while we give a “Thumbs Down” to Deeghan and the VSP’s stunningly lax timesheet system, there’s an accompanying “Thumbs Up” to the Freeploid’s Transparency Tracker, Mike Donoghue, who should now be able to get access to all the documents that had been withheld pending resolution of the case. Given the Freeploid’s devotion to the cause of transparency and the irresistible juiciness of l’affaire Deeghan, I think we can look forward to lots and lots of articles from the keyboard of Mr. Donoghue.

After the jump: An honorable departure, a questionable one, treasure in a cornfield, and more gubernatorial fumbling on gun control.

Longtime Freeploid reporter/editor/etc Candace Page, who has announced she will retire in the spring. Page spent most of her career at the Burlington Free Press; 33-plus years in all. For the past seven years, she’s covered the environmental beat. The Freeploid’s story announcing her retirement summed up her accomplishments like this:

The winner of numerous journalism awards, Page is regarded at the Free Press and beyond as possessing an extensive knowledge of the issues she covers, and of her native Vermont; cultivating a rapport with sources from all walks of life; and being a “consummate storyteller” with a deep command of the language.

Couldn’t agree more. We wish her all the best, and thank her for her long and valued service.

 The freely revolving door between government and private sector, for allowing unseemly spectacles like this:

Karen Marshall, who spearheaded Gov. Peter Shumlin’s universal broadband expansion efforts, will be the new president of VTel Data Network. The company, based in Springfield, Vt., received $116 million in federal stimulus grants in 2011 for broadband expansion in rural, underserved areas of the state.

Nothing against Marshall, but it just looks really bad when you have a top Administration official leave public service for an executive job with one of the companies she dealt with. What’s worse, as VTDigger reports, the announcement came less than two weeks after the Shumlin Administration had announced a $5 million grant to VTel. Marshall insists that her contact with VTel regarding possible employment did not begin until after the grant was announced. If true, it all happened incredibly quickly; executive moves like this are usually a matter of months, not days.

There may be nothing at all fishy going on here, but the optics are terrible. It doesn’t reflect well on the credibility or independence of the Shumlin Administration. Methinks we need a few more ethics laws.

Jesse Rodriquez of West Camp, New York, for pioneering a potentially lucrative market for Vermont agriculture:

Vermont State Police who arrested a man on drug and traffic charges have found 2 ounces of cocaine in a cornfield after a brief chase.

Yeah, Rodriquez left his car and ran into a cornfield, where he tried to dump his drugs before he could be arrested. But hey, sounds like a delightful way to spice up the old Corn Maze business. “If you stash it, they will come.”

The Keene, NH-based contractor, Baybutt Construction, for screwing up a whole bunch of projects on both sides of the Connecticut River. Baybutt is apparently on the skids; it’s been failing to pay subcontractors on a variety of jobs, and its headquarters is scheduled to be part of a foreclosure sale on February 1 — generally a bad sign for the future viability of a commercial enterprise.

Here in Vermont, Baybutt was the contractor on a renovation of a state office building in Brattleboro, and the town library in Rockingham. Last week, the Rockingham Selectboard voted to terminate its contract with Baybutt because of its failure to pay subcontractors or to secure a required performance bond.

The contractor’s apparent implosion has put several projects on hold, and left numerous subcontractors holding their respective bags. I haven’t seen a total figure for its outstanding obligations, but it’s likely they run well into the seven figures. Double yikes.

Our best buddy Governor Peter Shumlin, for continuing to flail unconvincingly around the issue of gun control. Yeah, he still insists upon a 50-state solution because “if states have different laws, you’re going to have different outcomes.” Not sure what he means by that; elsewhere he has argued that state-by-state doesn’t work at all. If different laws result in “different outcomes,” doesn’t that mean the state laws do have some effect after all?

Beyond that, he’s making it just a tiny bit clearer that he really isn’t in favor of any significant new national gun regulation either. Mass shootings, he told VPR, are caused by “factors other than gun laws”:

“It isn’t as simple as putting a particular gun lock on, or banning a particular weapon or banning a particular magazine. It’s more about looking at what we have become. Our approach to violence, our approach to mental health treatment, our glorification of violence.”

Again, the Gov is offering a slightly softened version of National Rifle Association dogma — shifting the blame away from guns and ammo, and toward mental illness and a culture that glorifies violence. Yeah, good luck reforming our entire culture.

Further, Shumlin refused to take a stand on potential measures like an assault-weapons ban or tighter background checks because “none of [those] things… will solve the problem.”

Uh-huh. So what you’re looking for is a measure that will completely solve the problem once and for all. Nothing halfway; nothing that would merely make it harder for someone to shoot up a school.

Maybe we should apply that same principle to the War on Terror, eh? Airport security is out because it “doesn’t solve the problem.” Homeland Security? Shut it down; it “doesn’t solve the problem.” Military missions and drone strikes? Uh-uh; they “don’t solve the problem.” What we need, if we are to follow Governor Shumlin’s reasoning, is a measure that will separate mentally ill terrorists from deadly weapons and change the cultures that glorify violence.

I can hardly wait to hear him try to dance around Joe Biden’s recommendations.