Vermont Gives Hydro Quebec Renewable Energy Label

[phantom power]

It was not surprising that, only weeks after the Vermont legislature voted to close the state’s 40 years old nuclear power plant, Vermont Yankee, Vermont’s largest utilities announced that they were in negotiation with the utility giant Hydro Quebec over a new long-term power contract.

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What was surprising, however, was that the Vermont legislature, in an unanimous vote, agree to change the state’s definition of renewable energy, under pressure from Hydro Quebec. Under Vermont law, only hydroelectric projects under 200 Megawatts (MW) were eligible for renewable status. Lawmakers asserted that Vermont would get a better deal in the new contract if it agreed to make the change; the Chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, Ginny Lyons (D-Chittenden) went so far as to say the contract would be “in jeopardy” without the change. Lawmakers agreed to take a narrow legalistic view of the statue, and to ignore the spirit of the law, which was intended to spur the development of small renewable energy projects. “It’s bad for local renewable-energy generation, bad for jobs in Vermont. It undercuts that marketplace,” said Jake Brown of Vermont Natural Resources Council, which opposed the move.

This is a public relations coup for Hydro Quebec, which can now aggressively market its power around the northeastern United States, having a green stamp of approval from the greenest state in the union. But this is not the first time that Vermont has helped Hydro Quebec to peddle its energy to other New England states.

What was also surprising is the degree of amnesia that has set in around this issue. No one seems to recall what a bad deal the Hydro Quebec contract was for Vermont for many years. Or that the Public Service Board ruled that the decision to enter into the contract prematurely, was “imprudent” -- it had been revealed that the utilities locked into the contract before a decision was required to pre-empt the mounting public opposition. When Vermont utilities were negotiating a long term contract with Hydro Quebec in the late eighties and early nineties, critics of the contract maintained that a 30 year commitment to large power purchases from the utility giant would burden the state with an energy surplus that would discourage the development of energy conservation measures and alternative technologies, and would stifle Vermont’s economy. Almost as soon as the ink was dry, the predictions proved true: energy conservation programs were cut, and electric rates went up. The decision to import power from Hydro Quebec was costing Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) alone $48 million a year in excess energy costs. Every year throughout the nineties, utilities filed for rate increases that were attributed to the costs of the contract. Vermont utilities were obligated to buy power that was not needed and much of it was sent back to Quebec at a loss. The state’s second largest utility, Green Mountain Power (GMP) even proposed, as a means of unloading its surplus, a plan to offer reduced rates to customers for increasing their electric consumption. The Department of Public Service publicly applauded this proposal, even though it flew in the face of conservation objectives.

http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/environment/2012-vermont-gives-hydro-quebec-renewable-energy-label