Vermont Lieutenant Governor Brian E. Dubie

State of Vermont
OFFICE OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
The State House
115 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05633

Dear Reader,

On March 9th and 10th, 2006, the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, the Environmental Law Center, and Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, hosted a symposium entitled Energy and the Environment: Transmitting Ideas for Change.

I would like to thank Vermont Law School’s Dean and President Geoffrey B. Shields, Environmental Law Center’s Assistant and Acting Director Marc Mihaly and the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School’s Director Michael Dworkin for hosting this event and inviting me to participate. It was evident to me, as a keynote speaker at the opening dinner, and to the other attendees as well, that this was a very special event. During the symposium panelists tackled many of the most pressing energy, and related environmental issues currently confronting our Vermont community and the larger global community. The symposium presented four panels: Energy Sustainability, International Energy issues, Vermont State Energy issues, and the Future of Transportation Policy. A luncheon program took the form of a debate on the future of nuclear energy in Vermont, featuring Brian Cosgrove of Entergy Vermont, the owner of Vermont’s lone nuclear power plant, and Vermont Law School Professor, and former Texas Assistant Attorney General, David Mears, whose research and writings have questioned our nation’s nuclear energy policy.

The Symposium attracted some of Vermont’s brightest minds in the energy field, including: Rich Cowart, a former Chairman of the Vermont Public Service Board and now Director of the Regulatory Assistance Project; Christopher Dutton, President and CEO of Green Mountain Power; Blair Hamilton, Director of Efficiency Vermont; and Aaron Adler, Special Counsel for the Vermont Department of Public Service.

What was most evident from each panel was that Vermont is at the forefront of America’s new energy policy. Our state has taken proactive measures to resolve high energy costs, rising energy usage and the increased impact on the environment. A recurring theme throughout the day was the wisdom of energy efficiency. Vermont leads the county in dollars spent on energy efficiency. Under Act 61, signed into law in 2005, Vermont will increase the amount it spends on energy efficiency. Efficiency Vermont has worked with 226 Vermont dairy farmers reducing their costs to install efficient refrigerators, lighting and processing equipment – saving 0,000 or 3,300,000 kWh, in the first year alone. Since 2000, Cabot Creamery has worked with Efficiency Vermont to install efficient lighting, motors and controls in its cheese processing plant to reduce energy use, and saving in the first year ,000 and 740,000 kWh. Middlebury Natural Foods Coop installed energy-efficient lighting, refrigeration and air conditioning for energy-use reduction in its new store to the tune of ,400 and 120,000 kWh.

The over-arching message of this Symposium became this: that smart energy policy is smart economic policy for Vermont. New and renewable energy is creating jobs for Vermont. Our state, its citizens and its businesses have always been environmentally minded, community minded and famous for ingenuity and frugality. Today, those characteristics have emerged in what I’ve dubbed the Green Valley Initiative, after high-tech’s Silicon Valley. The Green Valley Initiative represents a dynamic new synergy among Vermont’s educational institutions, agriculture and energy sectors, environmental technology businesses, and environmentalists, to formulate and develop the big ideas that will make our state, and our world, a cleaner and healthier place.

May 12, 2006, Montpelier Brian E. Dubie Lt. Governor, State of Vermont