A public records request by VTDigger.org shows a handful of lawmakers as well as environmental groups have weighed in on the issue in meetings with the department.
VELCO is currently in the midst of proceedings before the Vermont Public Service Board that will determine its makeup. VELCO is owned by electric utilities in proportion to their share of the state’s electric load. The state’s two largest utilities, Central Vermont Public Service Corporation and Green Mountain Power, filed a petition with the board to merge in September. The combined company, owned by Montreal-based Gaz Metro, would control 78 percent of VELCO. The utilities proposed transferring a one-third ownership share to a public trust and rearranging the board of directors so the new utility would not have a majority voting share.
Allowing one corporation, Gaz Metro, control of the state’s transmission lines has raised eyebrows among smaller publicly-owned utilities, environmental groups and lawmakers alike.
Rep. Ernie Shand, D-Weathersfield, said he was not sure he wanted to see that much power in the hands of one company. Shand sits on the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee.
“There’s probably nothing that affects commerce more than electricity,” Shand said.
In July, Shand sent an email to Elizabeth Miller, the commissioner of the Department of Public Service, recommending the sale of VELCO to ISO-New England — the nonprofit regional transmission organization that provides centrally dispatched direction for the generation and flow of electricity across the region’s interstate high-voltage transmission lines. Shand said he will discuss the possibility with the department next week.
Other lawmakers, including Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, and Sen. Vince Illuzzi, R-Essex-Orleans, also had meetings with the department. Illuzzi has questioned Miller’s ability to supervise the impartial examination of the deal because her husband, Eric Miller, is a managing partner with the law firm Sheehey, Furlong and Behm, which is representing Gaz Metro in the merger case before the Public Service Board. The state senator filed a motion to intervene and last month obtained party status for about 45 ratepayers; he has also called on the department to hire an independent counsel to represent the public’s interest before the board.
Klein has met with lawmakers and the department to talk about the potential ramifications from the proposed merger and the impact on VELCO. Starting in October, Klein said he helped script concerns for the department and working to alleviate them.
While a number of officials who represent public electric utilities have misgivings about a concentration of power in one utility, Klein said, “no one can really express what the bogeyman is.”
According to emails obtained through the public records request, representatives from the department also met with Gov. Peter Shumlin, legislative counsel Maria Royle, representatives from the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the Conservation Law Foundation regarding the potential ramifications of the merger on VELCO.
The department said it would not release information from one of Klein’s meetings with Geoffrey Common, a lawyer with the agency, because they were part of a “work product.” There was a meeting between Gov. Peter Shumlin and lawmakers, but no notes were taken.
Corrections: An error was inserted in this story during the editing process. There were no notes taken in the meeting between Shumlin and lawmakers, according to Sarah Hofmann.
