Press Release - April 5, 2000

Text of a press release, April 5, 2000

Press Release

April 5, 2000

$1 Billion Utility Project
Gas Pipeline and Power Plant Project
The Latest Facts

New Information Raises New Concerns:

The $1 billion gas-fired power plant and gas pipeline project is moving forward out of public view.

Opposition to the pipeline route between Bennington and Rutland has caused power plant and pipeline developers to look at other routes. Through extensive research, VCE has learned of a new plan to build a natural gas pipeline from Montreal to the south, through Whitehall, Fort Ann and Saratoga. This line would connect with Iroquois Transmission Company's planned gas line to Glenville Energy Park's 520 mw power plant in Glenville/Scotia, New York. A gas line from Whitehall into Vermont, under Lake Champlain, is planned to fuel the power plant in Rutland. From Rutland to Bennington, the natural gas line through private property is still planned for construction.

Three power plants, one in New York and two in Vermont, are being planned for construction. They would add more than 1000 tons of toxic pollutants to Vermont's air -- and impact the Lye Brook Class 1 Wilderness Area -- and would be the largest source of air pollution in the state. The New York plant is moving forward at a fast rate with scoping documents submitted, the selection and refinement of emissions, water supply, and fuel use technologies ongoing, and the drawing of agreements and stipulations to be included in the final Article X Application. Part of the effectiveness of projects planners is their ability to have the project declared interstate by federal lawmakers. Thus the States of New York and Vermont are relegated to intervenor status and written out of most meaningful review until the application is fully prepared and submitted.

A pipeline along the eastern side of New York raises new concerns because of increased potential for more merchant power plants along the pipeline route whose emissions would directly impact the entire state of Vermont.

Vermonters for a Clean Environment Inc., a non-profit coalition of citizens in Southwestern Vermont, will continue to work to bring the full details of this massive project to the attention of the people of Vermont.

Annette Smith
Executive Director, Vermonters for a Clean Environment, Inc.