Editor’s note: Paul Lefebvre is the author of “Perimeter Check: Essays from Vermont’s Upper Kingdom” and a staff writer for the Chronicle in Barton, which has given Vtdigger.org permission to publish this story.
MONTPELIER — If a renewable energy bill now before the Legislature passes, the Sheffield Wind Project would not be fighting an appeal in Environmental Court.
That’s because a provision of the bill would take all wind farm appeals out of the hands of the Environmental Court and consolidate them before the Public Service Board (PSB).
Action is expected to intensify this week on a comprehensive renewable energy bill drafted earlier in the session by the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee. Only unlike most pending legislation, a Senate committee will take testimony on a bill that has yet to pass the House.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, who heads the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee said Tuesday that by taking testimony on the bill now, her committee will expedite the legislative process.
Once the bill makes it through the house, the Chittenden County senator said, “We’ll be able to hit the ground running.”
Among those scheduled to testify before her committee this week are Jim Volz, chairman of the PSB and Judge Thomas Durkin of the Environmental Court.
Also taking testimony on the bill this week will be the House Committee on Ways and Means. The push to get it onto the House floor may hit a snag there as at least one member of the committee said he wanted appeals to remain before the Environmental Court.
“I’m going to kill that if I can,” said Rep. Bill Johnson of Canaan, speaking in a recent interview about his interest in keeping the Environmental Court involved in the process.
The most notable goal of the bill is to consolidate and expedite appeals to renewable projects like wind farms by putting them exclusively before the PSB.
That way, noted Representative Tony Klein of Montpelier, developers will realize “we have in Vermont a one-stop shop.”
As chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, Mr. Klein has touted the bill as an attempt to improve the state’s image as being friendly to wind developers.
“What’s been going on is not great,” he said, noting that Vermont is lagging behind its neighbors in Maine and New York, when it comes to getting wind farms up and running.
Besides consolidating appeals in the hands of PSB, the bill originally would have given developers of projects above 1,500 feet a right to petition the PSB for a waiver on obtaining storm water discharge permits from the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR).
Currently, ANR is a party in the Sheffield Wind suit in Environmental Court for allegedly failing to protect high elevation waters in its storm water discharge permit.
As initially offered by the bill, a waiver to the permit would have been granted providing that alternative measures provided by the company were deemed acceptable by the PSB.
But that provision fell by the wayside following a spirited exchange during a recent committee hearing between ANR Secretary Jonathan Woods and Representative Jeff Young.
Delays were causing a potential loss of credit and grants for the state’s renewable energy policy at a time when Vermont should be moving ahead, noted Mr. Young, a St. Albans Democrat.
“How can you help us get there?”
“We are on the side of defending good science,” replied Secretary Wood, who noted that development on high elevation sites is relatively new.
Representative Young pressed on, saying that the state has a sense of urgency to get moving on renewable energy projects and bring a wind farm on line.
“It doesn’t do us any good if it takes ten years to build one,” he said.
But the secretary said his agency has no interest in designing a one-size-fits-all permit process.
“Our standards surpass those of other states, and one that many people are proud of,” he said, reiterating the agency’s mission to protect the state waters.
The exchange appeared to have a modifying impact on Representative Klein.
“I’m not so sure it’s a bad thing we take this much time,” he said, speaking of the process Vermont uses to review developments before issuing permits.
On his recommendation, the permit waiver was eliminated and the bill presently gives ANR a deadline of February 1, 2011, to update its manual on storm water management.
Before all representatives get a chance to vote, the bill will have to pass muster before two more committees — the Ways and Means Committee and the Judiciary Committee. And if and when it passes in the House, more changes are likely to come from the Senate.
Unlike Representative Klein, Senator Lyons said Tuesday that when it comes to siting wind farms, Vermont needs a comprehensive policy.
She said she would like the bill to contain language that would bring utilities, the PSB, and other stakeholders together to identify the four or five best places to site wind farms in the state.
“And that would be it for the next 15 years or so,” she said. “We don’t need to cover the entire state.”
In the interest of consolidation, the present House bill would also place appeals to municipal decisions on such things as curb cuts before the PSB.
Senator Lyons said she would leave the appeal where it currently resides, in the hands of the Superior Court.
