Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Bethany Barry Menkart, who lives in Forest Dale.
Is the disappearance of CVPS, the sole privately owned Vermont utility, into a merger with Green Mountain Power and Gaz Metro really in Vermont’s best interest?
The merger is touted as beneficial to Vermont and the CVPS stockholders, but who will ultimately profit? The actual ownership is nothing small and local, but a serpentine mass of huge Canadian corporations, starting with Gaz Metro, a Quebec corporation, which owns GMP. GMi owns 70.99 percent of Gaz Metro, and Valener owns the remaining 29.9 percent. Noverco Inc. owns GMi. Caisse de Depot et Placement owns 61.1 percent of Noverco through Trencap LP. Enbridge owns the remaining 38 percent. Enbridge had 80 liquid pipeline spills in 2010, including 1 million gallons in Michigan, and is involved in the XL Pipeline.
Confused? Justifiably so – it’s extremely complex, convoluted and unpublicized by Mary Powell (GMP) and Lawrence Reilly (CVPS), both new players in Vermont energy; Reilly is also chairman of the board of Vermont Yankee, bringing nuclear power into the mix through Entergy, in partnership with Koch Industries.
The plan also includes gas: Valener and Boralex own Vermont Gas Systems. Northern New England Energy Corp. owns GMP and Portland Gas Systems. But Gaz Metro owns all of them, so our gas companies are already owned by Canadian corporations. One wonders how long this plan has been in the works – put in place by the 1%, while we, the 99% Vermonters, are the last to know and stand to lose the most?
This electric utility merger would be a major consolidation of the Vermont energy infrastructure (gas and electricity), and ALL placed into Canadian ownership. What if GMP, Gaz Metro, GMi, Valener, Noverco and Trencap get gobbled up by yet another giant foreign corporation, perhaps in China, Dubai or elsewhere, so that the ownership and interest would be even further removed?
We Vermonters will be subject to decisions made by Canadian shareholders. Do we really want to lose control over our own power? GMP needs CVPS, as CVPS has many more customers and covers more areas across Vermont than GMP, but CVPS does not need GMP. It has operated very successfully on its own for many years, respected for its integrity and service. Once CVPS is gone, it will be gone forever. Boulder, Colo., is moving forward in the process of taking control of their own power company — Vermont, on the other hand, is moving backwards by losing ours.
It’s not too late, as the merger may be terminated if the acquisition is not consummated by July 11. Contact the PSB, read the 211-page document, do your own research online, and decide if we want Vermont’s electricity in Canada’s hands, or if we choose energy independence and conservation. Speak out, and fight for energy independence for Vermont!
