environment

Two UVM Professors, Sarah Nilsen and Amy Seidl, discuss climate change in Vermont from their own expertise and experience living in the Green Mountain State.

From the organizer:

Please vote no on Ballot Item No 2. in order to reject incentives for polluting, destructive and false climate solutions.

The question asks voters to allow the City to impose a fee on new buildings and large, existing commercial and industrial buildings that install fossil fuel rather than renewable heating for the stated purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The question does not inform voters that the City considers renewable heating to include systems fueled by wood, including wood burned in the McNeil plant which the City proposes to retrofit to supply steam heat to the University of Vermont Medical Center, the UVM campus and the Intervale Center. The question also does not inform voters that the City considers renewable heating systems to include systems fueled by "renewable" gas and biodiesel. Because all three of these "renewable" fuel sources would not be subject to the fee, imposing a fee on fossil fuel heating systems would incentivize them. Incentivizing these types of carbon-intensive, polluting "renewable" fuel sources would increase greenhouse gas emissions, adversely impact public health, and impair forest biodiversity.

Proponents of this question will tell you that this project has nothing to do with the McNeil Generating Station, but the carbon impact fee as written represents a last ditch effort to make the proposed district energy project economically viable after repeated attempts to advance the project have been rejected due to a lack of financial viability. Burning wood emits more carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced than burning fossil fuels, emits other air pollutants harmful to human health, and causes destruction and impairment of the biodiversity of our forests. The McNeil plant is the largest stationary source of greenhouse gas and other harmful air pollutants in Vermont. Rather than prop-up the plant, the City should begin planning for the retirement of the aging, polluting plant.

From the organizer, Andy Simon:

This is a public hearing held by VT Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

The hearing is about a project proposed for a parcel of land on Pine Street known as 501 Pine Street Gatehouse. It's directly across from Jackson Terrace Apartments. This little (0.1 acre) parcel has been owned by VT Gas Systems since the 1966 closing of a highly-polluting coal gasification plant that operated there for 60 years.

Recently, it was sold to Kurt Schueler, a local investor, for his plan to open a seasonal drive-up food court. Here is an architect's rendering of the proposed food court project: https://tinyurl.com/96cze725.

The project has already received its city permits and was quickly greenlighted in June by the city's Development Review Board, despite several residents' strenuous objections.

The only obstacle now standing in the way of construction is the requirement for an environmental Corrective Action Plan (CAP) approved by DEC and EPA since it's directly in the Barge Canal Superfund site. The draft CAP was written by a private consultant and cleared by regulators on August 22. Comment deadline was September 21.

Andy submitted comments on September 20 and requested a public hearing.

The rest of the 24-acre Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund site will, in the future, become publicly-owned conservation land. It is currently home to hundreds of species of plants, animals and fungi. Does it really make any sense to cut down all the trees and pave over one parcel of it for a private business that may or may not last more than a year or two?

Rally calling on the Biden administration to cancel construction of Line 3 just as it revoked the permit for the KXL Pipeline, and major banks like Chase and TD Bank to stop funding the project.

The rally includes live music and food prepared by the People’s Kitchen as well as speakers from across Vermont who have returned home from Minnesota where they were working to STOP LINE 3.

This event is sponsored by: 350VT, Essex Resists, Extinction Rebellion VT, People’s Kitchen, Upper Valley Affinity Group, VT Interfaith Power and Light,
VT Peace and Justice Center and the Institute for Social Ecology.

WHAT IS LINE 3?

1. LINE 3 is a tar sands pipeline starting from First Nations territory in Alberta, Canada and finally traveling through more than 300 miles of Indigenous treaty land across Minnesota on its way east to the Enbridge refinery in Superior, Wisconsin.
2. The tar sands crude carried by LINE 3 is the filthiest, most corrosive and polluting oil there is.
3. LINE 3 is being built to carry more than 800,000 barrels of tar sands crude every day, making it comparable to the defunct KXL pipeline.
4. LINE 3 is being built by ENBRIDGE, the Canadian pipeline giant notorious for causing more severe pipeline accidents than any of its competitors in an industry famous for dangerous accidents.
5. In 2010, an ENBRIDGE pipeline spilled 840,000 gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River. The EPA reports that 160,000 gallons of the oil from this spill can never be recovered.
6. Pollution Control officials in Minnesota are now investigating spills of toxic pipeline drilling fluids into at least 28 waterways and wetlands along the LINE 3 route.
7. Construction of LINE 3 has destroyed and will continue to destroy sacred Indigenous sites and traditional wild rice harvest locations.
8. Dozens of Indigenous led LINE 3 Water Protectors have been arrested and held, often brutally, by county and municipal police paid by ENBRIDGE.
9. Man Camps that house pipeline crews are linked to drug crime, human trafficking and the disappearance and murder of Native women.
10. TD BANK is a major lender, making construction of LINE 3 possible. It is also the world’s 5th largest owner of ENBRIDGE shares.
11. ENBRIDGE owns 40% of both Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas Systems, making it an active energy power right here in Vermont.

STOP LINE 3