[C]limate protesters blocked State Street Tuesday morning in downtown Montpelier, calling on the state’s Public Utility Commission to block a pending change in the upstream ownership of two Vermont utilities.
Some of the roughly 35 protesters had donned life jackets and tropical shirts as part of a “no new fossil fuels beach party.” Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” played on speakers in a pink boat with a sail reading “Act Now.”
The protesters were part of Extinction Rebellion — a global movement that uses civil disobedience to protest the climate crisis. They — along with a group of Addison County pipeline foes who have intervened in the PUC case — are concerned that the pending deal would increase the power Canadian fossil fuel pipeline company, Enbridge, exerts in Vermont.
“We’re up here today to say no new fossil fuel infrastructure, no Enbridge in Vermont,” said Asa Skinder, 18, of Montpelier, who was one of three protesters arrested during a climate action protest at the Statehouse in May.
“I think we would like to say that we apologize for interrupting people’s morning commutes, but the interruption of climate change is going to be a lot worse,” he added.
Inside a nearby brick building, the state Public Utility Commission was holding a hearing on a proposed buyout by Canadian investment holding company Noverco of the company that owns Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas. The room was packed with opponents of the deal, including nonprofit 350Vermont.
Noverco is seeking approval from the Vermont Public Utility Commission for a $1.2 billion buyout of a publicly held company, Valener. The move would give it 100% ownership, through a series of subsidiaries, of Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas.
Earlier this summer, a group of GMP and Vermont Gas ratepayers filed a motion to intervene in the PUC review process. They say the corporate reshuffling will increase the influence of Canadian fossil fuel pipeline company Enbridge on the Vermont utilities. Enbridge, through a subsidiary, owns 38.89% of Noverco.
The PUC allowed the 19 ratepayers to intervene in a limited fashion. Both the intervenors and DPS filed discovery requests seeking information about the board membership of the various parent companies and corporate communications.
The intervenors also sought to make GMP and Vermont Gas parties to the proceeding — a request the PUC denied.
Jim Dumont, attorney for the intervenors, spent the morning questioning Renaud Faucher, president of Noverco, about the transaction and governance of the parent companies.
“If the purchase happens, there will no longer be any publicly owned companies up or down the chain of command that ultimately stops with Vermont Gas Systems and Green Mountain Power, correct?” he said.
When Faucher agreed, Dumont asked whether that promotes the “public good” in Vermont to further privatize the ownership of the state’s sole natural gas and largest electrical utility. Faucher responded that the motive behind the transaction was to provide Energir with easier access to capital than available through Valener.
Dumont also questioned Faucher about how much input Noverco’s board has on major capital investments made by the Vermont utilities — like the controversial Addison County natural gas pipeline. Under the proposed deal, Noverco would now appoint all board members of GMP’s and Vermont Gas’ parent company Energir.
Faucher maintained that Noverco is too far removed from the Vermont utilities to exert influence on their management — and that increasing its indirect ownership stake would not change that.
“It doesn’t change, it doesn’t have any impact — it’s upstream of what’s happening in Vermont,” he said.
The Department of Public Service, which acts as the public advocate in PUC proceedings, hired ProCom Consulting to help with its review of the acquisition. In prefiled testimony, C.B. Harreld and Leonard Kujawa of ProCom said that while the deal would “simplify the corporate ownership of Energir,” it would not impact the utilities or induce anti-competitive behavior.
“Since there would be no change to operational control, the operations or management philosophy of GMP and VGS would not change as a result of this transaction,” they wrote.
Julie Macuga, extreme energy organizer with 350Vermont, said in an interview during a break in the hearing that opponents are concerned that the Canadian parent companies could push to use existing utility corridors to build more pipelines in Vermont.
“We know that it’s a goal of the industry to connect to either the Marcellus Shale or even potentially to the East Coast export,” she said.
Vermont Gas has said that it has no further plans to expand transmission pipelines.
The acquisition has already been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Quebec Superior Court. The PUC set additional filing deadlines for the parties, but did not weigh in on the acquisition Tuesday.
