The RES Series Part I

by Alison Despathy

A long term conflict rages on between industrial developers and Vermonters determined to protect their environments and maintain a voice in the decision making process on local projects. Vermonters care deeply about their communities and the environment and as stewards, locals are key to ensuring low impact, constructive development.

Pitted against each other in this current development battle are the renewable energy industrialists with their desire to blanket pristine Vermont environments with industrial solar panel arrays and denigrate Vermont’s ridge lines with large blade industrial wind turbines versus Vermont communities and neighbors working to protect their ecosystems and ensure that they are involved in the conversation when it comes to renewable energy siting. Most Vermonters support renewable energy AND they want to see it done properly.

The renewable energy industry lobby is fierce and heavily influential in the statehouse. Their steamrolling tactics to clear the path for development and remove Vermonters from the conversation are evident in all of their proposed legislation. A prime example is S.236, a bill written by Renewable Energy Vermont (REV) and their industry lawyers which sought to severely limit neighbor participation in energy siting projects.

This bill also attempted to remove the Public Utilities Commission aesthetics criteria for siting which holds the sound rule protections for wind turbines. Sponsored by ‘climate champion” Senator Anne Watson, S.236 greatly favored the renewable energy industry and essentially silenced the voice of locals with direct stake and interest in the placement of renewable energy projects. Fortunately S.236 was defeated as it focused solely on profit and expansion versus service and collaborative community solutions.

The existing Renewable Energy Standard (RES) sets realistic goals for energy sources and Vermont has been working towards this at a steady pace while considering cost impacts on Vermonters.

Many believe there was no need to update this current RES. However, as to be expected, the renewable energy industry represented by Renewable Energy Vermont (REV), Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) and Vermont Natural Resource Council (VNRC)– all receiving funds from this industry– lobbied hard for a more aggressive RES. Their goal was to promote their agendas and their renewable energy developer members, at the risk of affordability and ecological devastation. All additional costs would be passed onto Vermonters

Vermont does not have a carbon issue despite what obsessive, fear mongering climate activists like Bill McKibben and Peter Sterling, Executive Director at REV, would have Vermonters believe. But this messaging is great for the renewable energy industry and has led to a dangerous accelerated path towards industry goals which take advantage of Vermonters and prey upon Vermont’s environment.

Under the guise of “Vermont will be the leader,” this industry is setting up their expensive, unreliable and unrealistic renewable energy utopia which shuttles money to investors and developers from hard working Vermonters.  Industry messaging says regional benefits are for the greater good and equate to a societal benefit. With this logic it is justified for Vermonters to pay more for electricity and see their local lands used for industrial solar arrays in order for corporations and other states to claim they are renewable.

Carbon is the building block of life. The ability of the earth to cycle carbon through natural storage in mycorrhizal networks, uptake by plants, and movement and cellular growth through all life forms is a brilliant process that science is still attempting to grasp. Scientists even use radioactive carbon to cycle through forests to watch the flows- a debated practice in the scientific world but nonetheless it is happening.

Vermont is 75% forested with vast mycorrhizal networks in place. Vermont does not burn coal and coal is not a part of any Vermont utilities’ energy portfolio. As the largest utility in the state, Green Mountain Power reports 0% power production from natural gas and oil and has a goal of 100% renewable by 2030. Washington Electric and Burlington Electric are already 100% renewable. Carbon emissions are clearly not a problem in VT. Efficiency and reductions in use make sense and result in cost savings and Vermont has programs in place that provide services to all Vermonters to achieve these goals.

Despite the prevailing narratives and false promises, any additional ‘carbon free’ energy added to the grid is not replacing fossil fuels on a global scale. The global energy demands including that of fossil fuels have amplified to keep up with the increased need for extracting and refining minerals such as the lithium, cobalt and copper essential for electrification. This all out quest for minerals destroys lands, poisons water, wrecks communities, promotes child labor and compromises the health of many in the Global South as countries and states like Vermont attempt increased electrification.  The environmental and social injustice associated with the mineral demands for renewable energy and electrification is devastating.

Add to this situation the massive power requirements for ubiquitous cloud computing, artificial intelligence, interoperable data capabilities, super computers, data storage centers, crytpocurrency. smart technology and Vermont’s total energy use doesn’t even come close to this power hungry technology exponentially expanding and using any and all possible energy sources. Also, the amount of water used to extract minerals such as lithium and cool super computers and data storage facilities is yet another major strain on natural resources and communities.

With the passage of H.289, the supermajority has decided that Vermonters must pay more for basic comforts and necessities such as light, refrigeration, heat and business needs. Meanwhile Big Tech, Big Data, and the renewable energy industry continue to massively increase their power use for the development of their products and services in this fourth industrial revolution. Data Centers alone are predicted to consume up to 9% of electricity in the United States by 2030 with a growth forecast of over $150 billion by 2028. It is estimated that about 47 GW of additional power will be required for data center growth by 2030.

This twisted logic equates to the justification that insane amounts of power to create and run the 4D, virtual reality, digital world are acceptable but real world needs for basic living in Vermont will unnecessarily cost more for Vermonters. Again we see corporate markets dictating priorities, hiring their lobbyists and nonprofits to implement their plan and legislators in Vermont falling for it at the expense of the people.

Data is a highly valuable commodity. Emerging industries such as predictive data modeling, data tracking for personalized marketing, and risk and management practices for industries such as insurance, real estate, and banking are built upon data. It does not matter how much energy it takes, the infrastructure to ensure the success of corporate data markets and the digital economy will not be compromised in its ability to thrive and deliver.

Instead Vermonters will be compromised as H.289 forces higher costs for electricity.  And this is on top of already climbing electrical rates around the state.

There is nothing here that even looks like energy or fossil fuel reductions. At its core, H.289 is a play by the renewable energy industry to expand markets, increase their piece of the pie in the booming energy sector and legislate that Vermonters pay more for their ‘clean energy’.

Grid Strategies, a consulting firm for the energy sector published a report stating that for the first time in many decades, electricity increases in the US are expected to grow by up to 15% over the next ten years. The demand for power supplies for data centers, generative artificial intelligence, clean energy products and cyptocurrencies are driving this surge in power. ChatGPT consumes up to ten times the amount of power used by Google search and AI currently uses 4.3 GW of global power and is expected to increase five fold by 2028 with global revenues at $420 billion by 2027.

Goldman Sachs has estimated a $50 billion investment opportunity in US power generation for data centers alone. No wonder renewable energy is hitting heavy at the Vermont statehouse, steamrolling Vermonters one law at a time to make way for their industry to get in on the game and this windfall profit opportunity.

H.289, the revised and ‘On steroids’ Renewable Energy Standard, recently vetoed by the Governor, forces a destructive pace and impulsive goals that bring economic and ecological risks to Vermont. The shortsightedness of the supermajority to not recognize these risks or offer safeguards is representative of the larger problem Vermonters face with supermajority compromised legislation favoring special interest at Vermonter’s expense.

The author is a clinical nutritionist in St. Johnsbury.

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