Renewable-energy bill becomes law; Despite objections, Douglas declines veto
Although he listed a string of reasons why he didn’t like it, Gov. Jim Douglas let a renewable-energy bill become law Wednesday without his signature.
The bill sets favorable rates for small-scale solar, wind, hydro and methane energy production that supporters say will encourage those projects and eventually drive down their cost while generating business and jobs within the state.
“This bill does more for small-scale and community-scale renewable energy than anything that’s been passed,” said James Moore, clean-energy advocate for Vermont Public Interest Research Group. “This helps businesses, schools, farmers, towns.”
Douglas surprised many by allowing the bill to become law — rather than vetoing it — after he had criticized it for months. Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, said the Legislature had the votes to override a veto, and the governor recognized that.
Douglas spelled out his complaints about the bill in a two-page message to the Legislature, arguing that the prices it set were too generous.
“I believe this bill … fails to recognize the current viability of renewable energy in a competitive setting and will needlessly increase costs to Vermont consumers so as to subsidize this one favored business sector,” he said.
Douglas acknowledged, however, that the bill allows the Public Service Board to review and adjust the rates. “I am confident that the board will implement fair and balanced pricing for the benefit of Vermont’s ratepayers,” Douglas wrote.
The bill sets rates up to six times higher than going electric rates — 30 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar, 20 cents for wind and 12 cents for farm methane, but allows the Public Service Board to determine if those prices are reasonable and adjust them.
House Natural Resources and Energy Committee Chairman Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, said market rates will increase as Vermont reaches the end of power contracts with Vermont Yankee and Hydro-Quebec, and renewable rates will decrease as the technology becomes more common and less expensive.
By Terri Hallenbeck
Free Press Staff Writer
28 May 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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