Burlington Free Press, February 29, 2000
Commentary

Vermonters beware, the state is ruining our environment

Annette Smith
IT'S MY TURN

Congratulations to the Free Press for bringing the Dean administration's efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act to the public's attention. The state has not informed the public about this effort.

However, the editorial (Feb. 20) is mistaken when it says opponents are wrong to think the NOx waiver is tied to two power plants proposed for southwestern Vermont.

Vermonters for a Clean Environment has found ample evidence that the state's pursuit of the waiver is tied to the Dean administration's support of the power plants -- which were planned for years prior to their public announcement in 1998. In 1994, "Vermont Electric 20 Year Plan" said, "Before, during and after the Champlain Pipeline proposal, the Rutland area has been the focus of discussions about a large gas-fired generating station." In a newspaper interview in October, 1998, developer Tom Macaulay said of the power plant project, "It's been in the works for about nine years."

Indeed, the NOx waiver has come to light specifically because the subject keeps appearing in paperwork surrounding this power plant project. public Service Commissioner Richard Sedano and Natural Resources Secretary John Kassel both acknowledge that the power plants will benefit if the NOx waiver is approved.

The Dean administration wants this power plant project and is willing to sacrifice the environment to make it happen.

Sedano was pitching it in November, 1998: "We're committed to doing everything we can to make this a positive project. Unless there's a fatal flaw, we've got to be able to make this thing work."

From the beginning, this billion-dollar project was too big and moving too fast. State biologists wrote last March, "The applicants have tight deadlines and apparently the state has committed to trying to work within their time constraints." The plan was for the power plants to be up and running by Nov. 1, 2001. Pipeline and power plant developers spoke publicly about their confidence that they would receive all necessarry permits as a result of their discussions with state agencies.

We have learned about our state's protection of the environment. The pipeline route is planned to run through massive and pristine water supplies. The power plants will evaporate 7 million gallons of water a day -- compared to Killington ski area's use of 7 million gallons of water per year.

The air pollution division cannot tell us how much NOx is currently being produced by federally-defined major sources. Without knowing current emissions, the public will have a difficult time commenting on the proposed waiver.

The attorney general's office is not complying with the Freedom of Information Act request by Vermonters for a Clean Environment about the NOx waiver. They say it will be seven weeks from the date of request to the receipt of the paperwork. They are withholding most of the file, claiming attorney-client privilege. The client is the Natural Resources Agency.

We were wrong about something, though. We thought that state government worked for the people of Vermont. This project has destroyed our faith in the state's protection of the environment and its citizens. Not once has Gov. Howard Dean come to southwestern Vermont to listen to our concerns.

It is time the rest of Vermont awakens to what is happening to our clean air, our pure water, our land and our people. We think that once you do, you will be as outraged as we are.

Annette Smith is executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment. She lives in Danby.