“The state of the city is challenged, but reinvigorated,” Miro Weinberger told a full house at City Hall moments after becoming Burlington’s first Democratic mayor in 31 years. He was elected on March 6 by a decisive margin after a hard-fought and expensive campaign that lasted six months.

Weinberger was sworn in Monday night by U.S. District Judge William Sessions at the opening of Organization Day, a ceremonial event that also featured election of a new Council President, Democrat Joan Shannon, and members of the Board of Finance.

The council’s first action, after a brief debate, was to approve the new mayor’s choice of Paul Sisson as interim chief administrative officer.

“As we turn the page and write this new chapter for our city,” Weinberger said in a State of the City address, “I request and will value your help, your input, and your participation in giving our community the fresh start you have demanded. Please know that all of you are integral members of the team.”

VTDigger

In case you missed it, we caught three press conferences at the Statehouse on video last week. Our friends at Onion River Cable Access processed the digital files for us.

The first clip is from an announcement that the state has won more than $6.7 million in a national lawsuit against five mortgage servicing companies that have engaged in foreclosure abuses. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell explains how the settlement will affect Vermonters and takes questions from reporters on changes to foreclosure law. He also answered questions about his decision whether to appeal a recent federal court ruling that gives Entergy Corp. the authority to pursue an extended license for Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant in Vernon.

In the next segment, Gov. Peter Shumlin makes statements at a press conference about significant changes his administration and the Legislature have agreed to make to the state’s health care exchange plan. The governor decided to allow businesses with more than 51 workers to opt-out of a proposed state approved insurance system, which is to go into effect in 2014.

At the end of last week, Renewable Energy Vermont, a nonprofit group that represents solar and wind companies, called on lawmakers to adopt legislation that will make it easier for Vermonters to use alternative energy sources.

VTDigger

Editor’s note: Video footage of Professor Paul Hines’ overview of UVM’s smart grid research is available at the end of this story.

Thanks to technology, consumers are keenly self-aware. The Internet tracks our purchases, our favorite websites and our “friends.” The web gives us constant updates on the weather, sports events and instant access to the intimate musings of complete strangers via Facebook and Twitter.

What if you could track your electricity use in real time? Would you be more apt to turn off the lights and power down your computer if you knew it would save you a couple of bucks each day? Would information about just how much juice it takes to run the clothes dryer spur consumers to hang their laundry on a drying rack?

Those are the kind of hypothetical questions interdisciplinary energy scientists and utilities are attempting to answer as part of an initiative yet to be implemented known as “smart grid” technology.

The “smart grid” is a digital communication system designed to allow utilities to follow consumption patterns and gauge power outages in real time. Data would be collected from consumers – commercial enterprises, manufacturers, farms or residences — through a “smart meter,” a wireless device that tracks electricity consumed by appliances, computers, lightbulbs – anything that needs power to operate.

Utilities would “read” this digital information, use it to study energy consumption trends and change the power generation flow into the system as needed. The “smart grid” is designed to save on energy consumption and costs.

At a two-day conference in Burlington, “Powering the Future: The Vermont Smart Grid and Beyond,” experts from the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, the University of Vermont, utilities and state agencies came together to talk shop about research, development and implementation of a “smart grid” project that could revolutionize the way power is consumed and delivered in the state of Vermont. About 100 utility experts attended the invitation-only event on Tuesday; the symposium included a full slate of plenary panels and discussions on Wednesday.

The federal government awarded $69 million to the state for the development of a “smart grid” system in Vermont. The state’s 20 utilities are matching those funds and are deploying “smart meters” to 85 percent of electricity customers in the state.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who spoke at the conference, is the prime mover behind the federal-state partnership. Sanders approached Sandia National Laboratories three years ago and asked them to consider working with Vermont utilities on a “smart grid” system.

Vermont is the first state to develop an integrated electricity system for all its utilities, according to Richard Stulen, vice president of energy, climate and infrastructure security for Sandia National Laboratories. (In other areas of the country, a single utility is taking the lead.)

The collaboration between the University of Vermont and Sandia will help the federal government leverage its investment in Vermont, Stulen said.

Stulen said the level of collaboration between academia, utilities and the state is very rare. In New Mexico, he said, utilities compete with one another for smart grid projects. Stulen, who called Sanders the “sparkplug for all of it,” said the senator is the only member of Congress to lead such an effort.

“I have never seen anything like this in the country,” Stulen said. “I’ve never seen the galvanization of the state, industry and a university – with a senator behind it.”
Sanders’ original vision would have led to the foundation of a national energy laboratory in Vermont. Instead, Sandia agreed to create a “center for excellence” at the University of Vermont. The two institutions have created an exchange for experts and academicians. Together, the team of experts will develop plans to help the state deploy the system.

“What is unique here is the state’s fierce independence and desire to do something progressive,” Stulen said.

Vermont’s small size helps, too. Stulen, who called the smart grid project a “human experiment,” commeded the collaborative nature of the state’s project.

The state’s role

Gov. Peter Shumlin is an enthusiastic supporter of smart grid technology. He sees deployment of the system as a way to enable Vermonters to curb their energy use. The benefits of a more responsive electric system are twofold, he said: Residents of the state will save money on electric costs and reduce their contribution to the carbon in the atmosphere that is causing global climate change.

Shumlin, who also announced his Vermont Climate Cabinet on Tuesday, described his commitment to abating climate change through a familiar story about his family’s farm where buckthorn is thwarting the regeneration of an ancient maple grove and a pond that was once teeming with frogs is now nearly sterile.

“We are leading in the race to get off our addiction to oil, to capture jobs and to keep this planet livable for future generations,” Shumlin said. “The planet is going to be fine. It’s the folks who live in it that are in trouble.”

Shumlin told conference attendees that the state has to figure out how to make the power grid work with a more intermittent supply that includes a much larger amount of renewable energy from solar panels, biomass, methane from cows and hydro.

“The challenge of the Sandia partnership is to take the infrastructure of the past and transform it into the power of the future,” Shumlin said. “We will show the rest of the nation how to get it right. We cannot move fast enough.”

Key members of his administration – Elizabeth Miller, commissioner of the Department of Public Service, Karen Marshall, director of ConnectVT, the broadband initiative, and Lawrence Miller, the secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development – spoke at the conference about how the state will implement the new system.

Commissioner Elizabeth Miller described several key issues around effective deployment of the smart grid, including public opposition to the installation of smart meters.

“We want to avoid that resistance here in Vermont because we truly believe that this new advanced meter is an infrastructure upgrade, really, and it’s an important upgrade for Vermont to compete in the energy future in front of us,” Miller said.

Miller said initially the department had a “mandatory mentality.” In other states, where the smart meters have met with strong public resistance, the meter installations were proposed as required infrastructure upgrades. Miller said Vermont’s consumer behavior working group is considering an alternative approach to smart meter installation.

“We’re looking at whether narrow targeted opt-out programs that specifically both describe benefits to consumers and appropriately describe the costs … would allow consumers a choice that frankly tamps down concern and increases acceptance statewide,” Miller said.

Vermont is also looking to marry broadband and smart grid technologies, she said.

“In order for the meter system to communications to the utilities, you have to have a communication system,” Miller said. “One way to think of smart grid is just an overlay of the communication system on the electric system we already have.”

Utilities lay groundwork for deployment

Mary Powell, the CEO of Green Mountain Power, said the smart grid system will increase reliability, shrink the state’s carbon footprint and contain energy costs.

“Vermont was the first state to put together a whole systems approach,” Powell said. “That’s why we got our funding.”

The state’s 20 utilities will match the $69 million in federal stimulus finding for the $138 million smart grid project. Eighty-five percent, or 300,000 Vermont households, will receive smart meters (at a cost of $125 apiece).

The federal money is being administered by VELCO, Vermont’s statewide transmission utility, and it will be distributed to utilities throughout the state once the installation of smart meters and other upgrades are complete, according to Allen Stamp, program manager for VELCO.

The goal is to improve the overall reliability of the electrical distribution system through better two-way communication between utilities and power consumers, Stamp said. The state’s utilities plan to leverage the existing cell and radio tower infrastructure for communication devices, he said.

As part of the research and development phase of the smart grid project, Central Vermont Public Service and Vermont Electric Co-operative have received money from the U.S. Department of Energy to study the relationship between consumer behavior and energy efficiency.

Powell said the smart grid system will profoundly improve utilities’ customer service. “You’ll never have to pick up the phone again (in the event of a blackout),” she said. “We will instantly know you’re out of power.”

The smart grid will increase energy conservation and possibly enable utilities to avoid building new power generation plants, Powell said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with add-in posts at 10 a.m. May 18, 2011.

VTDigger

Filmmaker Peter D. Richardson talks about his new documentary, “How to Die in Oregon.” Richardson interviews dying patients, their families and the volunteers who help them obtain fatal doses of a barbiturate that enables them to hasten death. Richardson spent five years producing the film.

Oregon is one of two states in the nation that allows terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live obtain a prescription for the drugs. The diagnosis has to be confirmed by two physicians and the patient must be found competent.

Hundreds of patients have signed up for the prescriptions, according to an Oregon Public Health Services report. Secobarbital was prescribed to 67 out of 70 patients in Oregon during 1998 through 2000 – the bill was passed in 1994.

The law, which was passed in 1994, has been controversial. Advocates are pushing for similar legislation in Vermont. The bill introduced this session wasn’t taken up in the Vermont House or the Senate.

Last month, Anne Galloway, editor of VTDigger.org interviewed Richardson at a private viewing of the film in Burlington. Richardson talks about how and why he made the film. How to Die in Orgeon premieres on HBO on May 26.

Gov. Peter Shumlin said during the post-film interview that he supports a Death with Dignity bill in Vermont.

VTD’s video footage of the question and answer session is by Catherine Hughes.

The film debuts on HBO May 26.

Clip from the film

VTDigger

Editor’s note: This video footage was shot and edited by Catherine Hughes.
VTDigger.org interviewed four House members about the 2011 legislative session: Representatives Peter Peltz, D-Woodbury, Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, Diane Lanpher, D-Addison and Mike Fisher, D-Lincoln. The lawmakers talk about legislation they supported in their respective committees – education, natural resources, transportation and health care.

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Gov. Peter Shumlin addressed the Vermont House of Representatives before lawmakers adjourned for the 2011 legislative session.

Shumlin praised lawmakers for adjourning a week early and for taking up his agenda in an “extraordinarily productive” first half of the legislative biennium.

The Democratic governor said he viewed the changes lawmakers made to his proposals as improvements, and he praised their willingness to take up his agenda, which included a balanced budget that included deep cuts to state spending, new taxes on health care providers, an initiative to reduce recidivism, broadband expansion and an ambitious framework for a single-payer style health care plan.

VTDigger

Editor’s note: Videographer Catherine Hughes shot and edited this video clip.

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, talks about the achievements of the legislative session — the passage of a groundbreaking health care reform law bill and resolution of the state’s $176 million budget gap without raising income or property taxes.

Smith, who led the overrides in 2009 of Republican Gov. James Douglas’ veto of the budget and gay marriage bills and is regarded as one of the strongest Speakers in a generation, talks about his leadership style and how he works with lawmakers to build consensus.

VTDigger

Sen. President Pro Tempore John Campbell says the Legislature doesn't have the information needed to decide whether it can raise taxes or not. Photo by Josh Larkin.

The two big money bills are now in the Vermont State Senate’s court: the miscellaneous tax bill and the budget. It looks like the Senate will consider significant changes to the former, when it considers two new taxes – an assessment on water extraction and an alternative minimum tax that would hit the wallets of wealthy Vermonters who have sidestepped the state income tax.

There could be more tax proposals to come before the end of the session, given the $38 billion in federal budget cuts Democrats and Republicans in Congress agreed to late Friday night. The state has already had to make significant program reductions and raise new revenues through a brace of provider taxes in order to fill a yawning $176 million budget gap. If the congressional budget proposal takes a deep bite out of the state’s fiscal year 2011 budget, both John Campbell, Senate President Pro Tempore, and House Speaker Shap Smith have said they would have to assess the impacts on the state’s $4.6 billion budget. At this juncture, Congress has not yet released the list of cuts.

Campbell spoke with VTDigger.org last week about where he stands on tax proposals from the House, the Shumlin administration and inside the Senate. He opposes the House proposed 27-cent increase in the tax on cigarettes and a new assessment on dentists in the governor’s budget. (Nevertheless, on Thursday, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to recommend a $1 a pack increase in the cigarette tax.)

Campbell has also rejected Washington County Sen. Anthony Pollina’s proposal to place a temporary surcharge on the wealthiest 5 percent of Vermonters who will receive $190 million in federal income tax breaks this year as a result of an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.

“Pollina had suggested there be a tax on the wealthiest of the wealthy Vermonters just for a short period of time,” Campbell said. “While that has merit, when we’re looking to find major revenue sources in some really bad times — I think we were able to avoid that this year — we were able to avoid a catastrophic shortfall, if you will, so I don’t think we need to go in that area.”

Meanwhile, Campbell says two proposals from Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, could be promising — the “alt min,” as it’s called among policy wonks, and a possible tax on companies that ship water to out-of-state bottling plants.

In tax year 2009, there were 298 Vermonters who earned more than $100,000 and paid no taxes (seven of whom were millionaires), and 1,028 residents in that income range who paid less than $1,000 in taxes that year, according to information from the Tax Department. Ashe says if the state piggybacks on the federal “alt-min” tax, it could raise $13.2 million by asking “high earning, low paying Vermont filers” to pay into the income taxes.

“Most people don’t realize there are people making a whole lot of money and not paying much into the system,” Ashe said.

Under the federal alternative minimum tax, filers can only claim single exemptions regardless of family size, they cannot itemize deductions for state and local taxes on income and property and they are subject to a limit on deductions for medical expenses and mortgage interest, according to an issue brief from the Joint Fiscal Office.

The state jettisoned the alternative minimum tax in 2002 when it stopped using a “piggyback” income tax system, based on a percentage of the federal tax liability. At the time, there were concerns that middle class taxpayers would be captured under the alternative minimum; since then the feds have raised the income level that triggers alt-min rules, according to Ashe. Under the senator’s plan, the tax would be collected in the 2012 tax year.

The alternative minimum liability for 166 of the state’s millionaires (based on 2008 tax data) would be $13,955 on average. About 600 tax filers who earned between $500,000 and $1 million in 2008 dollars would be liable for about $3,700 each under the proposal.

Campbell said he believes Republicans in the Senate will support the alternative minimum because it’s a “fundamental fairness issue.”

“There are many wealthy Vermonters who want to help out in the tough times that we’re facing,” Campbell said. “We’re fortunate that there are people that really do understand that we need their assistance in trying to protect citizens of Vermont and making sure that essential services are still available – provided – to them.”

Ashe also wants to revisit the water extraction assessment, which was first proposed by Rep. Chris Pearson, P-Burlington, in the House. (His amendment failed.) Since then, Ashe has determined that a per-gallon tax on water removal from state groundwater stores would raise less than originally anticipated. It was originally thought that 100 million gallons were pumped out of the ground in Vermont each year; that number is actually 32 million, according to the Agency of Natural Resources.

Three companies extract water from Vermont sources – Vermont Heritage, Vermont Natural and Pristine Mountain Springs, according to a memo from Rodney Pingree, of the Agency of Natural Resources. Two more companies have two extraction applications in process. Of the three businesses in operation, Pristine Mountain Springs taps the most from groundwater sources – about 30 million gallons. All told, the companies remove about 32 million gallons from the state. Ashe says a 10 cent tax per gallon would raise about $3 million in tax revenues. Right now each company pays $2,700 in one-time extraction rights for the water.

“We have declared surface or groundwater a public trust and that is a part of Vermont we should and need to protect it,” Campbell said. “If someone is going to take that resource and sell it out of state for profit, I think that Vermonters are entitled to be compensated for that.”

The other “extraction” tax

Campbell said while he can support about $20 million in additional assessments on nursing homes, home health care agencies and hospitals, which have been built into the state’s Medicaid reimbursement system over the years, he opposes the governor’s push for a $3.6 million assessment on dentists.

Campbell doesn’t rule out a provider tax on dentists in the future, but he wants to wait on imposing the levy for now.

“(For dentists this year) I think there is a little bit of a fairness issue with what to expect when planning their budgeting,” Campbell said. “I think that’s something that should be looked at in future, but it’s something I’d like to avoid if I could.”

The House rejected the “tooth tax” because the House Ways and Means Committee decided there wasn’t enough data to determine the impact of the new assessment, which was tied to an increase in reimbursements to dentists who were willing to take more Medicaid patients. The committee made up the difference by putting an additional 27 cent tax on the sale of each pack of cigarettes.

Campbell says no to quick tax fix with cigs

Like the governor, Campbell is adamantly opposed to an increase in the cigarette tax unless the state needs fast cash. With income tax revenues, there is a lag between passage of a tax bill in the Legislature and collections by the Tax Department.

“Quite frankly I’m not a huge fan of the cigarette tax unless we have to raise money quickly and have to have it at hand,” Campbell said. He opposes a pack hike because of the impact it would have on retailers along the state’s New Hampshire border (Campbell represents Windsor County). “If there was a possibility of moving toward another revenue source rather than doing that I think that it’s incumbent on us to look there,” Campbell said.

Campbell is also worried about raising revenues to defray the impact of congressional budget cuts on the state’s budget in the current fiscal year and the following year. “I think next year, based on what I see for revenue projections, and also what’s happening in Washington, D.C., we’re going to need some very quick revenue, some quick capital so I foresee next year is probably the time to go to the tobacco tax,” Campbell said.

Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, described her committee’s recommendation for a $1 a pack increase as a “twofer.” The tax hike would raise about $10 million for the state – and, according to Ayer, discourage Vermonters, especially teenagers, from smoking. Her committee, she said, was most interested in the potential health benefits of raising the tax. The money, however, would not go toward smoking cessation efforts, but would be used to pay for unspecified General Fund expenditures.

VTDigger

Dr. Richard Kershen, FAHC urologist

Editor’s note: The video footage of this hearing at the end of this post was shot and edited by Catherine Hughes.

Doctors who testified at a hearing on Thursday were divided on the merits and potential pitfalls of the health care reform bill, H.202, which is now under consideration in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. The legislation creates a framework for a universal, unified health care system in Vermont.

Physicians said the bill, which is designed to contain health care costs, would have a negative impact on the state’s ability to retain and attract physicians in urology, neurology, obstetrics, orthopedic surgery, oncology, emergency care, and other specialized medical fields. Most of the doctors who testified were from Fletcher Allen Medical Center. A number of hospital administrators also spoke in opposition to the bill.

Most primary care doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses, at the hearing, supported the legislation.

The split between specialists and general physicians reflect an economic divide in medicine.

Surgeons in Vermont, for example, earn $197,000 a year on average in 2009; anesthesiologists bring hone $185,000 annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Internists on the other hand received about $137,000 that year; and primary care doctors made $133,000.

The average medical student leaves the University of Vermont with $200,000 in debt, according to several professors who testified at the hearing.

Many of the physicians, who prefaced their remarks by saying they considered themselves to be small business owners, said they supported reforms in theory. The potential reality, however, when the reforms go into effect in 2014, presents “uncertainties” that they find worrisome enough to contemplate leaving the state. They are worried about how the system will be funded, about whether the state will be able to recruit specialists in addition to general practitioners, and whether the cost containment strategies – particularly the effort to reduce administrative costs — will hurt their practices financially.

Dr. Julia Brock, a gynecologist at Fletcher Allen Health Care, said she and her husband, a gynecological oncologist, chose to live in Vermont, even though they could have made considerably more money elsewhere. “What I’m for is careful planning,” Brock said. “I don’t see how I’m going to save money (under the new system). The big take home message is: I don’t want to leave the state.”

Dr. Allan Ramsay, a professor of family medicine at the University of Vermont, said general practitioners have made financial sacrifices to stay in practice. Most are committed to taking Medicare and Medicaid patients for whom reimbursements are much lower than those who are covered under private insurance, he said.

“I have heard reference to physicians leaving Vermont because of this health care reform,” Ramsay said. “I am not surprised about this response because a colleague recently reminded me that we have all become psychologically dependent on the fee for service system. In other words primary care, specialists, administrators, and insurers are all addicted to fee for service. I have treated many patients with addiction in my 30-year career. The way to treat an addiction is by doing an intervention, which you are doing, and then prescribing a recovery program. Family physicians are ready to recover from this dependency. Those who continue to be in denial about their addiction will relapse, and find other places to work the fee for service system. Those of us who do recover will flourish in a system that makes everyone as accountable as family physicians have been for generations in Vermont.”

~Anne Galloway

VTDigger

Gov. Peter Shumlin

In his first interview as governor with Vermont Business Magazine, Peter Shumlin talks about why he ran for governor, the differences between being a governor and a legislator, his steadfast opposition to the renewed operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and his hopes for renewable energy. He reiterated his stated position that the Vernon plant is old and leaking and should be decommissioned when its license expires in 2012.

SEE VIDEOS BELOW

In Part 2 of the video he continues the discussion on renewable energy and he also discusses the public trust doctrine and how access to water will be handled and the business and economic implications of that. He also talks about his admiration for his predecessor Jim Douglas, and how they had only two major disagreements, one over marriage equality and the other over how the federal ARRA funds were spent. Otherwise, he said, they got a lot done together. Shumlin went on to say that at the end of the day, the governor must balance the budget. He said he remains opposed to raising broad-based taxes. He said that Vermonters are already over taxed and it would only harm Vermont’s revenue position to raise tax rates higher.

The interview was conducted Wednesday, March 30, by James Dwinell and Timothy McQuiston. Waiting to meet with the governor were officials from Entergy, owner of Vermont Yankee. Later that same afternoon Entergy and the Vermont Electric Cooperative, the state’s third largest electric company based in Johnson, announced a new proposed contract, which has yet to be finalized by VEC’s board, at $49 per megawatt hour for the first year of operation, starting in 2012 under a new, 20-year agreement. It includes a price-smoothing mechanism after the first year to protect both parties from wild fluctuations in the wholesale electric market.

By contrast, the deal the Vermont utilities, including Central Vermont Public Service, the state’s largest, and Green Mountain Power, the second largest, signed with Hydro-Quebec in January is for $58.07 per megawatt hour with a similar price-smoothing mechanism.

During the VBM interview, and anticipating that Entergy was going to inform the governor of a rate offer of some kind, he was asked if there was any price or deal, such as including funding renewable energy programs in Vermont, which would make the governor change his mind on Vermont Yankee.

Governor Shumlin said, “I don’t think we can be bought.”

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