Jasper Craven deserves kudos for his well-researched and insightful look (Vermont Digger, April 13) into political forces driving the rather incongruous choice of Burlington Airport for the Air National Guard’s F-35 program..
With three surrounding cities opposing the F-35 plan, a considerable grassroots opposition force, and all the issues of locating in the midst of a bustling city, one must really ask…why?
Mr. Craven’s article synthesizes the interest factors into a landscape of political blackmail, over which Governor Phil Scott bashfully presides.
Like so much that unseats environmental and ethical concerns these days, jobs are at the heart of the matter. More precisely, it is the threat of jobs disappearing.
It’s the kind of political blackmail we’re regrettably used to from DC, but it’s pretty disheartening to the good people of Chittenden County, Vermont.
We have only the word of interested (and therefore conflicted) parties to the siting, that failure to locate the F-35 at Burlington airport would mean an end to the Air National Guard’s Vermont mission. If we are to believe, as we are told, that the Vermont Air National Guard is considered to be an elite within the force, this claim seems rather counter-intuitive.
To politicians who have grown accustomed to short interest cycles driven by frequent elections, it’s sufficient just to dangle the possibility of job departures in order to recruit their support for the most dubious of enterprises. This, in a year when Vermont unemployment stands at the remarkably low figure of 2.8%.
One has to ask whether we can ever shake this bugaboo in order to do the right thing, if we can’t do it when unemployment is so low.
Despite the fact that joblessness is the Republican cudgel, in Vermont, it holds sway over our Democratic DC delegation as surely as it does our Republican Governor. This means that business interests, represented in this case by Ernie Pomerleau of Pomerleau Real Estate and Frank Cioffi of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation, hold greater sway over politicos than do their constituents who must actually live with the product of their ambitions.
Business interests are putting their money where their (collective) mouth is:
In recent weeks, Pomerleau has purchased, through his company, Pomerleau Real Estate, seven paid stories in the Burlington Free Press that highlight the stories of Air Guard members. An eighth so-called advertorial will be released in the near future.
Cioffi’s GBIC is also doing its part to pitch the project and dismiss voices of opposition as little more than cranks:
GBIC has produced numerous reports promoting the F-35 in recent years. In 2012, it commissioned a study that projected no decline in home values from the F-35 basing, a claim that was challenged by real estate appraiser Steve Allen. He said the data set used was “extremely small” and therefore “statistically unreliable.” In addition, the study included home purchase data by the Federal Aviation Administration, which offered top dollar to residents.
A week before Scott’s Pentagon meeting, GBIC sent a detailed memo to Air Force Secretary Wilson providing background on the F-35 basing in Vermont. The GBIC memo appeared to downplay the state’s opposition to the planes, characterizing F-35 opponents as “a core group of perennial protesters, many of whom are longtime anti-military political activists.
“Vermonters overwhelmingly support the Air National Guard,” the report reads.
“We are proud to have been selected for the basing of the F-35A.”
Say what?
Beyond all the legitimate issues about process and quality of life, which continue to roil the community at large, there remains an overarching question that has yet to be answered. It is likely to remain unanswered for strategic reasons, but the people of Chittenden County, and indeed all of Vermont, should not be expected to accept the siting without an answer.
That question has many parts: ie. what role will nuclear weapons play in the Vermont deployment of F-35, should it ultimately come to pass; will nuclear weapons be stored at or near Burlington airport; if so, how many and in what state of readiness; how will they be transported to and from the base; what is the likelihood that armed nuclear weapons will fly through Vermont’s airspace on a non-emergency basis; and what provisions will be in place for dealing with an F-35 crash in Vermont, even, heaven forbid, a “dirty” accident (nuclear radiation release) in the beating heart of Chittenden County?
I would say that there is a 100% chance that we will never have answers to these questions, but will be expected to simply accept the Air National Guard’s greater wisdom on the nuclear issue.
Well, I for one, do not.
