Vermonters for a Clean Environment received a Happy New Year present from Governor Howard Dean, who offered a prediction for the coming year that "There will be no gas pipeline along the western side of the state" in a Rutland Herald article on January 1. Thank you, Governor Dean. VCE considers this a good sign, but until the project developers announce that they have abandoned their plans in Vermont and NYSEG removes their lines from the maps of Vermonters' properties, VCE will continue to oppose this project.

Vermont Energy Park Holdings, doing business in New York state as Glenville Energy Park, LLC, filed its preliminary plan last week for a $300,000,000 natural gas power plant for Glenville, New York. Previously announced as 810-mw, the filing shows a 520-mw facility that would create 25 jobs according to part owner Tom Macaulay. [Times Union, 12/31/99] It is the 14th power plant proposal to have filed a pre-application or application in New York.

Under New York law, the affected community will be eligible for $300,000 in Intervenor Funding from the applicant at the time of the filing of the complete application, usually 6 to 9 months after pre-filing. The preliminary application is 2 to 3 inches thick. The application for a 1080-mw power plant proposed for Athens, NY was 9000 pages long, in seven volumes.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta, Canada expects to file an application next month for a new, 1500 mile long, $2 billion pipeline that would bring natural gas from the Arctic Circle to connect with existing pipelines in Canada [Wall Street Journal, 12/31/99]. "Without the new supply, TransCanada could suffer dwindling profits in coming years, analysts sayŠAlready developed fields in Alberta and British Columbia don't produce enough gas to fill the existing TransCanada mainlines and the Alliance pipeline."

"The area's potential is enormous. The parts of Canada's Northwest and Yukon territories that lie north of the Arctic Circle hold nearly 70 trillion cubic feet of marketable gas -- almost enough to supply the entire U.S. for three years."

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. owns the largest share of Iroquois Gas Transmission System, the gas supply that Energy East/NYSEG/SVNG and Vermont Energy Park Holdings plan to use for their Vermont power plant project.

Vermonters for a Clean Environment objects to the development of natural gas supplies and pipelines in environmentally fragile areas above the Arctic circle. We oppose burning Arctic natural gas in power plants in Vermont to create electricity for New York and Boston for the short-term profit of multi-billion dollar, multinational energy companies.

We support the responsible development and use of renewable energy sources and encourage energy efficiency and conservation. We acknowledge the potential environmental benefits that can result from the prudent use of natural gas to convert oil, coal, and nuclear power plants.

The state of Vermont is not prepared to deal with an energy project of the magnitude proposed by Vermont Energy Park Holdings, Energy East, and Iroquois Gas Transmission System. Without Intervenor Funding, the towns and cities in which the project is proposed to be located are apparently expected to cope with thousands of pages of technical material at their own expense and make decisions that are in the best interests of their communities. This is an unimaginable burden to place on our hard-working town governments.