The Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association became strange bedfellows this fall in their similar arguments against a proposal in the state’s Draft Comprehensive Energy Plan to consider a small- or mid-sized natural gas electric generation plant in the state.
The draft plan proposes considering permitting an electric generation plant as a means to meet energy demand during periods of peak demand and low output from intermittent renewable energy.
While both seemingly disparate groups might agree that a new facility that generates electricity by burning natural gas is a bad idea, their reasons why couldn’t be more different.
For the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, which represents companies that supply heating fuels, natural gas is a competing fuel.
Matt Cota, executive director of the association, said “if you’re trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the answer is not natural gas.”
Cota points to a study from Cornell University that highlights the methane (a potent greenhouse gas) emissions associated with natural gas production through hydraulic fracturing.
VPIRG’s comments on the Draft Comprehensive Energy Plan cite the same environmental concerns about methane as the fuel dealers. VPIRG proposes that new electricity generation should come from renewable sources, not natural gas.
Ben Walsh, VPIRG’s clean energy advocate, said “sometimes a bad idea is just a bad idea.”
Walsh said “if we want to leave a positive clean energy legacy and keep Vermonters’ money working in our state, the last thing we should be doing is building a plant that is going to get 20 or 25 percent of our state’s electricity from natural gas.”
While the two organizations may agree that a natural gas generation plant is not the answer, they’re probably not going to get together and sing Kumbaya any time soon. While the fuel dealers would rather see the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon stay open as a cheap source of electricity, VPIRG has advocated actively for its closure. And while VPIRG’s comments focus heavily on new renewable energy sources, the fuel dealers focus is on not supporting natural gas, although they do promote transitioning to a biodiesel blended, ultra-low sulfur distillate form of heating oil.
Currently, Vermont has no electric facilities that burn natural gas as a primary fuel. The wood-fired McNeil generator in Burlington, however, uses natural gas as a secondary fuel source.
The draft energy plan adopts an ambitious goal of 90 percent renewable energy from all sources by 2050. Yet it recognizes that fossil fuel power plants are a strategic component of the region’s electric supply mix because of their ability to produce a certain quantity of electricity at a specifically designated time. Despite concerns over price volatility and the environmental costs associated with the extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, the plan proposes natural gas as cheaper than renewable sources and cleaner than coal or other fossil fuels when properly extracted and distributed.
Meanwhile, representatives for Vermont Gas Systems, the state’s only natural gas utility, withheld outright support for a generation facility in Vermont.
Steve Wark, director of communications for Vermont Gas, said in a written comment, “our project and current operations are independent of any plans or interest in generation and we leave the question of the need for natural gas generation to the experts in the electric sector and the Department of Public Service.”
Vermont Gas has received support in the draft energy plan for expansion of natural gas pipelines in the state. In September, the Vermont Public Service Board approved an expansion fund for the company. The fund will allow the company to deposit about $4.4 million annually that would otherwise go to reduce rates to into the fund. The fund will help the company expand its natural-gas system into the Vergennes and Middlebury market areas by smoothing the rate trajectory that would otherwise be expected if the expansion project were constructed.
