A rambling train of thoughts about the universe and our micro solar system consisting of our dear Sun and other planets in a magnetic dance while we hurtle through space on the face of a rock and stare at flat screens where we attempt to connect while we detach.
In
November, Attorney General Maura Healey released a study that concluded
additional natural gas pipeline capacity is not the best solution to meet the
state’s long-term energy demand needs.
Grid operator flags pipeline constraints, growing role of
renewables
BOSTON,
JAN. 26, 2016….With New England increasingly dependent on natural gas and the
region moving to a “hybrid fleet” featuring more renewable power generators,
power prices and system reliability are directly tied into the ability to move
lower-priced gas supplies through pipelines and into the region, according to
grid operators who provided an annual overview of the system on Tuesday.
Gordon
van Welie, president and chief executive officer of ISO New England Inc., told
reporters during a “State of the Grid” conference call that natural gas-fired
power plants produced 49 percent of the electricity generated in New England in
2015, but the system is stuck in a “precarious position” in the wintertime when
demand for natural gas rises for both power plants and residential home
heating.
With
Beacon Hill lawmakers gearing up for a major energy policy debate, van Welie
clarified that ISO New England does not favor any fuel or technology or
transmission or pipeline project, does not buy or sell electricity and has no
financial connection to the natural gas industry.
In
part due to the production of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, New England
can take advantage of wholesale energy prices that are competitive with other
states if they are able to address pipeline constraint issues, he said. But
under current conditions, prices rise and the system is constrained for 30 to 50
days per year when temperatures dip into the teens or lower, he said, noting
there have been “hardly any issues” in recent weeks marked by mild
temperatures.
“No
one can predict what the weather will be in the long run,” van Welie said,
adding that natural gas-fired power generation is also required to ensure “fast
and flexible” energy and grid reliability as system operators learn more about
the reliability of wind and solar sources that are growing in popularity.
“The
generation fleet is shifting to a hybrid fleet from a system based almost
entirely on large-scale oil, coal, and nuclear generators located near large
population centers,” van Welie said. “This hybrid grid will continue to include
large generators, but they will be mostly natural gas power plants located near
large population centers and wind facilities in remote locations. Increasingly,
our resource mix will include distributed generation, such as solar panels
located at customers’ sites, and resources that reduce demand, such as energy
efficiency measures and companies that can lower their power usage when
needed.”
Oil
and coal plants are retiring “in large numbers,” van Welie said, but still play
an important role during peak demand periods in the winter. He said natural gas
and wind energy would replace retiring plants and discussed the need for
transmission improvements to pull wind and hydro power from sources in northern
New England and in Canada and deliver it to more populated areas in southern New
England.
Natural
gas pipeline projects have run into resistance from residents along the proposed
routes, elected officials and environmental groups. Asked about his confidence
level that projects will get approved, van Welie said it’s hard to gauge which
ones will make it through siting and contractual hurdles. “I think something
will come to fruition,” he said.
Investors
and market-based competition are working to fill gaps in power demand and a
pay-for-performance system going into effect in 2018 will further mitigate
reliability risks, van Welie said.
In
November, Attorney General Maura Healey released a study that concluded
additional natural gas pipeline capacity is not the best solution to meet the
state’s long-term energy demand needs.
Healey,
whose report puts her at odds with Gov. Charlie Baker’s desire to increase
natural gas capacity, said that while new pipeline capacity would have consumer
price benefits, it would also carry significant up-front costs with risks for
ratepayers of long-term commitments to pay for new infrastructure. The study,
funded with grants from the Barr Foundation and the John Merck Fund,
demonstrated “that a much more cost-effective solution is to embrace energy
efficiency and demand response programs that protect ratepayers and
significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” she said.
New
England’s power system features 350 generators and 31,000 megawatts of
generating capacity, including 15,000 megawatts of generation added since 1997.
The system’s all-time peak demand was 28,130 megawatts on Aug. 2, 2006. About 80
percent of the generation capacity added since 1997 runs on natural gas and 65
percent of all proposed new generation would use natural gas.
Other
points raised by van Welie during the conference call:
—
State policy requirements are also driving up the demand for wind and solar
power, and energy efficiency improvements are driving down peak demand power
levels.
—
The need for natural gas supplies will not be offset by hydropower coming down
from Canada, although that new source of power would help. It’s “important,” van
Welie said, to ensure that hydropower will be available to New England when the
system needs it.
—
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, which last year announced its plans to
close, “was driven out of the market by low natural gas prices.”
—
While most solar power is based on “behind the meter” sites off the grid, the
grid overseers are seeing an aggregate effect on the power system during
daylight hours, van Welie said.
I
ask you all to consider what it would be like if a giant corporation came
knocking at your door, informing you that you had to acquiesce to them cutting
down your trees and creating a 50 foot wide swath through your land...land that
used to be forest and pasture, so they can put in their pipeline to carry
fracked gas through it, so they can make more profit and create the need for
more fracked gas.
Add
to this, your fear of gas explosions, and the prospect that you will no longer
ever feel safe in your home of more than 20 years again. Imagine that you
politely declined their offer but that makes no difference to this giant
corporation or our own government because the government has decided this
pipeline that perpetuates and expands the need for fracked gas is actually good
for Vermont and Vermonters.
Such
is the fate of several Monkton residents and if you thought you might get
involved but were waiting for the right time, the time is this Thursday, January
28.
All I could do was sit in my chair and type my heart out. meg
My
heart is with the few targeted property owners who oppose the pipeline And are
defending their Property Rights. Since when did the town start giving the go
ahead permission for permits before the applicant has the right to be there? How
can one or two selectmen, a governor, a newspaper, a paper mill, the PSB (Gods)
and a college just decide...there, there, that's the route we are giving the
Canadian energy monopoly. Landowners be damned. Landowners lawyer up (oh, that
is mean...expensive...Singularly painful). I try to keep updates on my blog
listed under Fracking http://traveloguefortheuniverse.blogspot.com
I
also have a lot under Vermont property taxes, Get used to it, people. You do not
own anything, all of you. You rent from the town and state who have the power to
make your life very complicated. If you all stand by when the PSB process tries
to pull another land grab for big power, then you too may be subject to the same
oppression.
the snow reflects the light, the clouds, mountains, all play together, the air fresh, the pipeliners ready to cut a path through this area, it's just wrong
I started following Boogs Malone on twitter, This video caught my eye... Watching it, made me think, remember, think, imagine. As the big storm rakes the East coast of the U.S. Vermont is cold and quiet Watch this video, Because. meg
When I moved to Vermont 35 years ago, it was the Green Mountains that drew me in, anchored me, gave me a direction. Before you know it, They want to Pave Paradise, And Put up a Parking Lot For Wind Turbines, and Solar Fields of Mirrors surrounded by chain link fencing. The Vermont Public Service board, PSB, "They" say, go ahead, put ugliness everywhere, wind mills along the spine of the green mountains of Vermont.The ugly wind mills cause health problems, property depreciation, dead birds. The same handful of PSB deciders decided the now $150+ million fracking pipeline
was good for Vemonters who will pay for it.
(the original purpose was for the pipeline to go to New York, under Lake Champlain. The paper mill decided costs were to great. Funny, many of us citizens opposed, spoke out. We were not counted)
The Governor is a scattered thinker, unfortunately. He talks about his farm, his burning brush, as if it is as natural as the driven snow. Addison County has burning police for that outlawed activity. He talks about renewables, fossils, coal, wind. He effectively killed nuclear, our reliable little plant that cushioned our electricity needs, oh, and it’s by his little brush farm.by his friends. Now, his other friends, Canadians, want Vermont as their own little money tree that could. Like a fairy, a Canadian monopoly was born. Each company slyly maintaining their own name. Green mountain power, Vermont Gas. The fairy pointed to the lake, mountain and valleys. Poof. Windmills on the spine of the green mountains, Valleys: Solar mirror fields,Gas pipelines the length of the state, and a big power line running the length of Lake Champlain. While the brush fire smoke blows out to sea. The Governor is proud, Landowners broke, forlorn, robbed, tourists Photoshop the windmills out…how it used to look. As I struggle to pay ever rising taxes on our fallow farm so the town won’t sell it for taxes, I am compelled to tell the future to my grandchildren. The Bad Vibrations started in 2016 or so. They drove people mad, or sick. They drove people out. Oil prices dropped like a stone but we were forced to buy outlawed fracked gas from carpetbaggers. Oh, and with divestment, I lost my state disability, retirement pension. Off to the cinder block high rise. That’s how Grandma and Grandpa lost the farm.
Thanks for wading through the imprecise ramblings of a clearly
superior race. Attorneys without boundaries. Someone profits. No doubt.
Everyone everywhere must comment. New Hampshire under seige from
the south.
If there ever is a shift in policy, all the dissenting comments will
be transparent as glass. Unlike the muddy, ever shifty rationalizations of
the psb.
Mary Gerdt
On January 16, 2016, at 9:12 AM, Barbara Wilson
wrote:
Hi all: I haven't
read the entire report - I jumped to the "Recommendations and Conclusion"
sections only:
"While we do not recommend specific structural changes, we
do believe that internal changes could be implemented to provide greater
transparency to the public of why the Department takes specific
positions."
"As this report makes clear, there is no one structural model
that is optimal, and each model has tradeoffs. We have not proposed specific
reforms as we do not believe that there is an inherently better model for
Vermont ratepayers. This does not mean that there is not room
for improvement; while some of the comments received stem largely from the
particular positions that the Department takes in Board proceedings, there is
also a clear indication that the Department should do better in conveying the
rationale for why the Department has taken a particular position. In the
complexities of weighing the "public interest" in a given proceeding, we
believe any advocate should be accountable to the elected officials and the
legislative body, and we believe the Department structure as it exists can
and should accomplish this responsibility in an informed and transparent
manner, which, while not pleasing to everyone all of the time, can stand on
its analysis and relate credibly to all those who express interest."
No surprises here. The bottom line: We
(the DPS) know better than the public what is good for Vermont and possibly we
need to educate people better on why we are making the decisions that we (the
DPS) do. I am thinking that they only way to respond to this is for a lot of
Vermonters to send letters to their state representatives. Providing comments
to DPS is useless in my mind. Thoughts?
Thank you for writing to me about
Vermont Gas Systems' natural gas expansion project in Addison County.
I believe that climate change is one
of, if not the, greatest challenges we face as a society, and it is crucial that
Vermont continue our leadership on this issue. To this end, Vermont recently
signed an agreement with five other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic to work together
to develop market-based policies to further the reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions we have already seen from the success of the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative (RGGI). Furthermore, in my State of the State address, I urged the
Legislature to send me a bill that divests state funds from coal companies and
ExxonMobil. Owning stock in these companies is not a business Vermont, should be
in any longer.
I also believe we also need more
smartly-sited renewables to power Vermont and help secure our energy future. I
believe we should continue to build renewables on a Vermont scale, and we should
give an economic advantage for locating solar on rooftops, brownfields,
landfills, and other already developed lands where we currently have
transmission capacity. Homegrown is Vermont's energy future.
With regards to the expansion of
natural gas service to Addison County, the Public Service Board has extensively
reviewed the environmental and economic aspects of the project and determined
that it should go forward. I agree with the Board's decision and appreciate
their thorough review and analysis.
Thank you again for your message. I
believe that if we work together, we can effect meaningful change on climate
issues, and I will keep your letter in mind as I work with the Legislature to
achieve our energy goals. Please don't hesitate to reach out if I can be of
assistance in the future.
Sincerely, Peter ShumlinGovernor109 State Street, PavilionMontpelier, Vermont 05609"
========================================================================
This was a damn sad day for the fracking, pipeline opponent.
My brave neighbor submitted this letter in response:
Ms. Hollenbeck implies that only landowners and environmental
activists agree it’s irrational to continue unnecessary pipeline expansion. The
PSB received thousands of public comments on VGS’ application. 95% were
negative. Last year, International Paper, for whom the pipe was upgraded at
significant cost to consumers, balked at VGS’s new price; the project no longer
made business sense. Last summer, 500 ratepayers wrote to DPS saying they
couldn’t afford higher heating bills to pay for new pipelines. On 12/17/15, 150
prominent Vermonters from business, faith, farm, and academic circles wrote
Governor Shumlin saying market and climate developments led to one conclusion:
Construction must stop now. By 1/8/16, 1350 more leaders, ratepayers, and
average Vermonters had signed.
Expect rate shock when temporary drops in
fuel prices and an unseasonably warm 2015-2016 give way to 31-32 years of
sustained rate increases (“hypothetically” 12% per VGS) for expansion to
Middlebury. For construction to Rutland, customers will see 1% added to rates
and 1-2 more years of payments for every $10 million VGS spends. Some might see
rate reductions, but many of the 17% in VGS territory over 65 will never see
rates come down again. They’ll only catch the pipeline’s damage to Vermont’s
farmlands, natural resources, and climate. Just before the holidays, the cashier
at a Williston retailer asked me whether I lived in the area. I told her I was
back home helping my Mom deal with Vermont Gas. Her response: “Oh. The pipeline.
Everyone’s fighting that around here. No one wants it.”
yesterday I watched this and smiled, a lot. i looked up and it was quarter past noon, no longer sunday morning, no matter, Kris made my day... Rtafilm.com
You tube surfing pays off, Suggesting to me, This wonderful link to two my favorite singer/guitarists. This is part of a film, Return to Austin. Check it out...
It has got me out of a lot of jams and presently keeps
me moving forward.
Pharma Plus Dedicated Doctors
Create winning medications, combinations,
Always trying to minimize side effects, I hope.
If you think it's easy or profitable for Doctors to write prescriptions, then you don't know 90% of Doctors.
It's just more paperwork.
Patients often seek out a solution to their ailment (or they wouldn't pay the copay to visit).
Don't figure all pharma is responsible for all the bad in healthcare.
At the same time, do accept there may be alternative therapies, ointments, poultices, tinctures, elixirs, topicals, ingested, teas, and on and on.
As the Vermont legislative year began, the politicians were hot and cold on the alternative ancient healing herb, Cannabis.
Sounds like the cold ones have never been on
"The Rack" of MS Pain.
Sounds like they aren't going to ask me what I think.
So, here goes a little statement into the blogosphere (it was also sent to the ms society-no response...I asked my bc case manager and she said medical director doesn't believe in it...there are at least 50 different sets of laws and standards, diagnoses eligible, licenses, blah, blah) :
I don't understand your position on Cannabis. There is plenty of research.
Please help medical users gain legalization in all states. Decision between
Doctor and patient. Often as a last resort. The pain is excruciating, spasms
debilitating, depression heavy. Please help. Natural products, effective, as old
as civilization itself.
JOINT STATEMENT OF TOXICS ACTION CENTER AND
JUST POWER RE: VERMONT GAS PIPELINE RULING
January 8,
2016
MIDDLEBURY, VT – The Vermont Public Service Board today issued a
ruling stating that it would not reconsider the certificate of public good
issued in December 2013 to Vermont Gas Systems, Inc. (VGS) to expand its
transmission pipeline into the heart of the state.
The decision comes in
the wake of news earlier this week that over 1,400 businesses, organizations,
faith and community leaders, and individuals predominantly from Vermont signed a
letter requesting that pipeline construction be stopped where it is at 11 of the
41 total miles. (See press release, letter, and signers at this link: http://www.toxicsaction.org/news/tac/1400-sign-letter-end-gas-pipeline-project)
Even though the deadline for signing passed, the tally has continued to go up
and is now 1,500.
For the last few years, Toxics Action Center staff and
Just Power volunteers have followed the Board proceedings closely, carrying out
extensive fact checking on VGS’ claims and review of the Department of Public
Service’s (DPS) and other parties’ analyses. We’ve found everything ranging
from obvious math errors to repeated instances of contradictory and misleading
statements in VGS’ testimony and exhibits.
DPS is the public’s sole
representative in utility cases. We’ve been alarmed by DPS’ blind support of
VGS, including the shifting of goal posts to accommodate VGS’ cost increases and
delays. In light of DPS’ unwillingness to enforce project conditions and
regulations, we have little confidence that VGS’ pledged rate cap will hold.
Ratepayers will not be able to enforce the agreement, and we have yet to see DPS
do anything but VGS’ bidding since review of this pipeline began four years
ago.
Today's decision sheds light on the broken regulatory process. The ruling
relies on vague statements from VGS about how
it might mitigate exorbitant rate increases necessary to pay for the
project and notes that those options will be addressed in a future rate case.
However, VGS could have filed a rate request already. Instead, the company, with
ardent support from DPS, extended its Alternative Regulation Plan and deferred
the costs of the first 11 miles of pipeline until next year. In other words, the
latest cost increase could have been reviewed on the basis of facts. Instead,
customers are left with continued uncertainty about cost increases that will
affect them decades into the future. When DPS protects the utility rather than
the public the regulatory process as a whole is broken.
In 2011, VGS
received special dispensation from the State to pre-charge customers for what
VGS said would be a distribution line serving businesses down Route 7 at a total
cost of $60-70 million. Today, with a price tag of $154 million, rate increases
that could exceed 15%, almost no price difference between fracked gas and
oil, alternative home heating options dropping in price, available compressed
natural gas for commercial customers, and a dangerously
high-pressure transmission line that cuts through prime agricultural land and
sensitive wetlands, the project and the conditions around it are simply
unrecognizable.
With so much at stake for Vermonters’ safety, health,
and economy, we today call on the Board to reverse its decision and appoint
independent counsel to represent the public immediately. Vermonters deserve a
fair and thorough review of this large-scale utility project. Under these
circumstances, the only way the public good can be served is through
effective representation by independent counsel – whether before the Board or
before the Supreme Court on appeal.
I am anti-pipeline in Addison County, Vermont, USA
I am part of a group that is anti pipeline.
We own a piece of swamp.
Like a lightbulb, my thoughts illuminated.
If you mess with one part of the swamp, it's all connected,
you mess with the whole swamp.
So the first section is a little correspondence I exchanged with the town fathers.
What follows is more about reasons we are anti pipeline, and ways you can get involved.
I had hopes of posting all the recent press releases, and it became overwhelming.
This took precedent,
So much of the legal motions are expensive distractions.
Citizens suffer.
meg
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Me: On 12/14/2015 6:03 AM, Mary E. Gerdt wrote the town:
I read the minutes.
What parcel is the Nature Conservancy conveying?
Costs, impact on town?
Did you discuss?
I am also concerned we may not have been notified officially about the proposed pipeline impact on our swamp lot.
Mary Gerdt
P.s. while I don't expect to see my name mentioned as "public comment",
I don't appreciate being ignored or not counted.
Mary Gerdt
Them: I don't know of any swamp lot owned by you that would be affected by the Vermont
Gas pipeline. The 10.3 acre parcel you own on the south side of Rotax Road is
some 2200 feet from the proposed Vermont Gas pipeline which is on the far side
of the Latrielle property from your parcel. If you believe that your parcel
will be affected by the Vermont Gas pipeline, you should contact Vermont Gas.
Thank you for your interest.
Regards,
Stephen
-- Stephen Pilcher Selectboard
Chair Town of Monkton, VT(M)
802.598-1931spilcher@monktonvt.com
"All the world is my
teacher" Notice - Under
Vermont's Open Records law, all e-mail and e-mail attachments received or
prepared for use in matters concerning Town business or containing information
relating to Town business are likely to be regarded as public records which may
be inspected by any person upon request, unless otherwise made confidential by
law.
Many
of you might be wondering what's up with the pipeline project Vermont Gas has
been planning for the last three years. Although Michels Corporation, the latest
pipeline contractor VGS has hired to build this project has been installing
pipeline under Route 116 north of Hinesburg at the Rocky Ridge Golf Course, the
Certificate of Public Good (CPG) from the VT Public Service Board that VGS needs
in order to finish this project, is still in jeopardy and VGS is doing so at
their own risk. It may end up being a pipeline to nowhere.
I
am attaching a video made by Ivor Hughes, a Monkton resident, who is among many
who are concerned about the Monkton Swamp...an area where VGS plans to HDD under
in order to avoid having to trench it through the sensitive wetlands. (if they
retain their CPG) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usrZ68I_E6o&sns=em
You
may have heard that VGS has agreed to reroute the pipeline around our farm. We
believe this change of heart by VGS is not only because of our own resistance,
(although we would love to believe they are finally taking no for an answer,
they obviously are not doing so with other landowners and are in the process of
condemning their land) but more because of an order from the PSB they would have
had to HDD under our entire property which was included in the Board's order of
December 2013. Now, with the bad experiences VGS has had wth HDD in the first
section of pipe, it would seem that the new contractor has instructed VGS to
find other ways through areas that have previously required HDD in order to save
money and time. What will happen at the Monkton Swamp?
Many
of you may have seen a group of people blockading a driveway on the Monkton Road
near the end of Pond Road last Wednesday. A bunch of concerned citizens
disrupted the first hearing the PSB held to condemn the Peysers land so VGS can
build their pipeline (all this without having permission to finish the project!)
We then prevented a site visit from happening by blocking the PSB and DPS access
to the Peyser's land.
It
has come to this folks. Time to put our bodies on the line and fight for what is
right.
There
is much you can do even if you don't want to put your body on the line. You can
sign a letter to the governor here: http://action.vpirg.org/site/R?i=bPt2d5hoJgzlYXVYMEkrhQ You can donate money to Rising Tide or 350VT. But for heaven's sake...do
SOMETHING!!! It's time.
Sorry
for the dual postings, but I just saw an article about a similar gas pipeline
situation (albeit a much larger pipeline) in New Jersey where the pipeline was
supposed to be HDD'd under some sensitive wetlands, but now, because they "hit
some dense rock in that area and could not get through", they are planning on
open trenching through those wetlands.. What will happen if the VG pipeline hits
some of that famous Monkton Quartzite???
all I can do is post links to local press, and what our Stop the Pipeline group sends.
