The RES Series Part II

by Alison Despathy

“The Renewable Energy Standard update (H.289) increases the potential for Vermont to be used as a plantation for solar and wind development to serve MA and CT. We could see more large projects gobbling up fields and forests that do not sell power to Vermont utilities. H.289 keeps the developers in the driver’s seat for choosing sites, which may or may not be advantageous from a community or grid perspective.” Annette Smith- Executive Director, Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE)

With the Governor’s recent veto of H.289- the updated Renewable Energy Standard, Vermont Daily Chronicle sought an interview to discuss this bill with a dedicated Vermont environmentalist, Annette Smith, Executive Director of VCE.

For 25 years, Annette Smith has been working hard to promote genuine environmentalism in Vermont. She has shown up at Act 250 Hearings with jars of contaminated drinking water coming through the pipes at a mobile home park due to a nearby quarry blasting and leakage of gasoline contaminants into the water supply including MTBE and benzene. Annette has walked acres and acres of prime agricultural land and rich, biodiverse forests throughout the state with Vermonters concerned about the loss of their local ecosystems as industrial scale renewable energy projects are considered.

She has helped countless communities and Vermonters navigate the complicated intervenor process at the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). This process is designed to allow for regulation of utility rates in Vermont and is overwhelming for many who want to engage in meaningful interactions about the siting of local energy projects, but do not know where to begin.

Equipping Vermonters with knowledge and guidance to successfully interact with the well funded, aggressive, even vicious lawyers representing the renewable energy industry is high priority work for Annette at this time. Smith described these situations as “The brutal PUC process in which people get tortured trying to have a say in what goes on in their communities and how the environment and the state’s natural beauty are affected.”

As these developers drool over Vermont’s sacred spaces and envision industrial solar fields and the mountains of profit that await them, Annette and VCE have been watching their moves closely in order “To advocate for the well being of all Vermonters and strive for the protection of the natural world, land, air, water, wildlife, people,and especially the web of life.” as is their intended mission.

With her diligent commitment to Vermonters and the environment, in 2016 Annette Smith received the Vermonter of the Year award for her dedication as a citizen advocate.

Renewable energy is an industry and there is tremendous profit to be made in this emerging sector. Many are in favor of renewable energy and understand its role but like all industries it must be put in its place and not allowed free reign at the expense of the environment and the people.

Currently the supermajority is allowing the industry to run the show and H.289 epitomizes this destructive pattern.  It will be essential that action is taken to prevent Vermont from being preyed upon by this latest group of hungry developers as this industry works to expand its role, presence and profit in Vermont.

For years, Smith has been advocating for the renewable energy industry to engage in collaborative conversations with communities to develop plans that work with Vermonters and the environment. Back in 2017, Smith was integral in facilitating this exact process with J.P. Carrara & Sons and their gravel pit expansion plans in East Middlebury, VT. This stakeholder process based on collaboration versus contention led to a plan that the company and the community were happy with because it addressed local concerns and prevented future problems.

Despite VCE attempts, the renewable energy industry has refused to participate and instead has solely focused on using the legislature to pass bills to do it “their way or the highway”. They have also employed an army of lawyers to use to their advantage. A Vermont blanketed in industrial solar arrays and wind towers, no questions asked, is their bottom line and concerned Vermonters, often through the help of Annette Smith, are demanding to be part of this conversation to make sure that renewable energy in VT is done properly.

Smith explained that, “This RES update was a missed opportunity, it was the time to change the dynamic to assure that any new solar development is in the right place in terms of the grid and is supported by communities.”

When asked her opinion on the dangers of H.289, Smith focused on the fact that, “Without addressing the siting of solar and wind and how it affects forests, fields and the natural environment, this bill is a formula for conflict rather than cooperation and for losing more nature, fragmenting forests and destroying many of the things that we value that do more to address the changing climate than fields of glass panels sited in the wrong place.”

Smith was the only witness to provide testimony regarding siting in the committees reviewing H.289. The significance of this missed opportunity is in full effect as three industrial scale, plantation-style solar developments—hundreds of football fields in size– are under review at the PUC or in the process of submitting applications, and threaten communities and ecosystems. 

Hundreds of acres including prime agricultural land and diverse healthy forest systems in Panton, Fair Haven and Shaftsbury towns have been targeted to host these massive solar panel arrays owned by a Connecticut commodities investor who clearly understands markets, profit potential, the value of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), where to find relatively, affordable land and Vermont’s supermajority and their special interest sympathy.

A renewable energy credit represents one MW hour of electricity generated and delivered to the grid from a renewable energy source. Industrial solar arrays generate RECs to be sold for top dollar on the market. Tier 1 of H.289 would require utilities to buy these expensive renewable energy credits in order to offset any power use generated from nonrenewable sources in order to make the portfolio look good on paper. This cost will be passed to the ratepayers. This aspect of the law is an underhanded and indirect method of subsidizing the renewable energy industry and making Vermonters foot the bill.

At the statehouse, the renewable energy industry and their lobbyists, nonprofits and non governmental organizations have created a funnel of money to their pockets directly away from Vermonters. They are allowed to get away with this because the supermajority has succumbed to the propaganda and lobby pressure and is allowing Vermonters to be grossly taken advantage of by this industry.

Most disturbing of all is the fact that if you ask a Democratic legislator why they voted for H.289, there is a good chance you will be told—as I have by many–that they want to support renewable energy siting in Vermont and carbon free energy sources. But sound bytes and selling points without details are dangerous and many have fallen for the industry messaging versus the actual impact of H.289.

The reality is the existing RES and the Department of Public Service RES both offer these goals and encourage responsible renewable energy siting in VT at a much lower cost. In stark contrast, H.289 is dangerously aggressive, expensive and does not serve Vermont. The fact that this bill passed the supermajority shows how deep the rhetoric, propaganda and industry influence is at the statehouse. This is exactly what happens when an industry is placed in charge of creating legislation.

The author is a clinical nutritionist in St. Johnsbury.

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