The hippies took Vermont over years ago, and the years of “recreational” drug use have finally shown up in their political offspring. I’m not laying claim or exclusive rights to the discovery. There are reams of evidence on these and like-minded pages, covering years, that make the case, but I think this rises to the top. Environmentalists in Burlington have irreconcilable differences with “environmentalists” in Burlington over its biomass plant.
Throughout the last year, environmentalists have been arguing that the McNeil Generating Station, Vermont’s largest in-state power source, should be phased out. While the debate has mostly been focused on the environmental impacts of burning wood, more recently it’s turned to cost — including in a new regulatory filing the plant’s owners published late last week.
Those familiar with New Hampshire’s Burgess Biomass Boondoggle will have a head start. Burning wood is worse than most fossil fuels and expensive both operationally and in cost to ratepayers. We calculated that New Hampshire could save 135 million by paying the workers to do nothing and at living wages rather than the cost of subsidizing it all. That’s how bad it is.
Vermont’s Biomass boogie is no different, but Digger’s coverage produced some laugh-out-loud revelations, not the least of which is how much money the facility lost. Biomass bleeds money, is a significant source of emissions, which means it needs green papal dispensations. McNeil has a bunch of them.
According to the report, it is Vermont’s largest in-state power generation facility. It is the state’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but those emissions are not counted because they are considered renewable. [There’s an entertaining debate about how and why if you’d like a good laugh].
McNeil also gets other special deals, as alluded to in the headline. The energy companies that own it are excluded from mandates that would force them to supplement biomass with other renewables that cost more. This difference appears to have been sold as savings.
A credit that comes from a 1991 agreement with the Vermont Electric Power Company saves hundreds of thousands more, and McNeil exempts Burlington Electric from the Standard Offer Program, which would require the department to purchase energy from other in-state renewable energy projects.
We could have charged you more but didn’t.
The energy would have to come from generators whose electric rates are even higher, at least one of which is another VT biomass plant (Ryegate Power Station). Another major emitter of emissions (presumably uncounted in the state’s greenhouse gas inventory).
Green, indeed.
There’s a good bit of back and forth in what amounts to a greenwash pissing contest on both sides. But once you get past all the nuanced BS, given Vermont’s pathetically small contribution to GHGs (if you even think that matters), the state could save ratepayers millions and reduce emissions significantly by replacing the biomass plants with natural gas generators then not count those emissions in the state’s inventory.
If you have the power to ignore whatever emissions you choose because it’s convenient…do that! Or don’t. Natural Gas (NG) would emit less than the fake-green biomass you are burning and not counting, but that is actually in the atmosphere you claim to be protecting.
NG would result in more electricity at a lower cost, absent the intermittent demand issues of wind and solar that the biomass people insist is a reason to keep them emitting. There is no need to go fishing outside the state for power (you could end that program altogether). Heck, if making it green (enough) is as simple as saying it’s so, the New England Grid has serious needs. You could make real money instead of pretending that screwing rate-payers a little bit less is good for them (or proof of value).
Cheap energy leaves more money in the economy to create things people want and need. It invites businesses to grow and expand, adding valuable, necessary jobs (unlike “environmental lawyers,” for example). It also reduces the cost of government, growing as it has in the not-as-green-as-it-claims mountain state, which could lower taxes, not that the Democrats who got them into this mess would allow that to happen.
And sadly for vermonters, until they show up to vote for something different, this asinine nonsense will continue to get worse at their increasing expense.
