Replacing the energy supplied by Vermont Yankee with 100 percent renewable energy sources could cost Vermont more than $1.2 billion ..."This portfolio of renewable resources would cost approximately $73 per megawatt hour (MWh) to develop and operate and would be more expensive than (building a) new fossil fuel generation plant," stated Scott M. Albert, a principal of GDS Associates and the region manager of the firm's Northeast office, in Manchester, N.H.

In July, the Bay State's House passed a resolution in support of efforts to have independent safety assessments conducted at nuclear power plants in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. ...The Legislature also resolved that it's time the nation begin its transition "away from nuclear power to an affordable, clean and sustainable national energy policy." ..."I understand the concerns raised by the Commonwealth," wrote Samuel J. Collins, an NRC regional administrator, in response to the resolution. "However, I feel it is necessary to address some of the statements and assumptions conveyed in that document to dispel any misconceptions you may have ..."

Vermont should consider building a series of medium-sized power generation projects rather than one major facility, and renewable energy projects will likely play a large role ...David O'Brien, Vermont's commissioner of public service, said the study is another step in planning the state's energy future. "There's a strong desire in Vermont to have more of our power produced in the state," he said. O'Brien said the results of the study dove-tailed well with recent work asking Vermont residents where they wanted their electricity to come from. It remains to be seen how much of the state's electricity will be produced by renewable projects, he said.

"While wind power is a popular and growing source of electricity generation in the United States ... it continues to face regulatory obstacles and local opposition," stated the Vermont Energy Partnership report. "And while there is clear potential for an expansion of wind in the State of Vermont, even fully developed, wind can only meet a fraction of the state's electricity needs. To ensure that Vermont has a dependable supply of clean and low-cost electricity, base load providers such as Vermont Yankee and HydroQuébec must continue to serve our state into the future," stated the report.

Symington released a proposal Wednesday that calls for increasing the state's use of wind energy from about 0.2 percent today to 20 percent, saying it would create jobs while shifting the state away from reliance on nuclear power and out-of-state sources whose prices are expected to increase. State Public Service Commissioner David O'Brien called the plan "irresponsible." Wind is not reliable enough to provide that much of the state's energy, and Vermonters would not want to see that many turbines popping up across the landscape, he said.

After part of a cooling tower collapsed last August at Vermont's only nuclear power plant, the company that runs it blamed rotting wooden timbers that it had failed to inspect properly. The uproar that followed rekindled environmental groups' hopes of shutting down the aging plant. The proposed closing, albeit a long shot, has gained some support this year among Vermont politicians. The discussion here is bringing into sharp relief a conflict between two objectives long held by environmental advocates: combating nuclear power and stopping global warming. ...[M]any advocacy groups dream of achieving a nuclear-free mix burnished by local renewables. ...But utilities in Vermont, like their counterparts elsewhere in the country, argue that environmental advocates are mistaken if they believe a low-emission future can be achieved without nuclear power. They note the intermittency of power sources like windmills and solar panels, and argue that the nation needs more, not fewer, big power plants that emit no carbon dioxide.

The Douglas administration released a draft plan Tuesday to help shape Vermont's energy future. Critics immediately lambasted the 267-page document as inadequate to reduce the state's dependence on petroleum, to increase energy efficiency or to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The plan, drafted by the state Public Service Department, calls for continued reliance on electricity from Hydro Quebec and Vermont Yankee while utilities find more diverse, preferably in-state, sources of renewable power.

State and regional regulators acknowledge the hurdles - especially in northern New Hampshire - but don't have ready solutions. A bill before the New Hampshire Senate would have the state be ready to act if no regional solution is forthcoming. ISO New England, which manages power for the region, is considering changing rules so more of the costs of transmission upgrades could be shared regionally. But as things stand now, backers of projects generally must pay for upgrades needed to connect them to the system. "None of this is a real speedy process," acknowledges Michael Harrington, senior regional policy adviser for the state Public Utilities Commission.

Ridge Protectors, a group fiercely opposed to industrial wind power on Vermont's ridge lines, has launched a letter-writing appeal to Gov. Jim Douglas, who they hope will veto S.209, the so-called Energy Efficiency and Affordability Act. The bill, which is aimed at promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency, has passed both the House and Senate, and is on the governor's desk. The letter-writing campaign is a last-ditch attempt to change a part of the measure that gives industrial wind power a tax break at the expense of the education fund, said Paul Brouha of Sutton.

The bill contains a break on property taxes for wind power developers, calls for an expansion of "net metering," in which people who make power with solar or small wind generators can sell some of it back to their utility and sets a goal of producing 25 percent of the state's energy from in-state, renewable sources by 2025. It also takes other steps to promote energy independence. But its centerpiece is a new effort to help Vermonters tighten up homes and other buildings. A study done for the state Department of Public Service determined that $480 million could be saved in Vermont over the next 10 years by adding insulation, replacing drafty windows and other "building shell" improvements alone.

While paper mills close and Cabletron spins off its remnants out of state, power plants from the Seacoast to Whitefield enjoy the perks of a poorly understood, $100-million subsidy program just for energy producers. It has a bureaucratic name: the forward capacity market. ...An unidentified 600-megawatt, gas-fired power plant project somewhere in Rockingham County is blocked behind half a dozen North Country renewable energy projects in the ISO-New England regulatory queue. The waiting list policy is first-come, first-served. A plant like that would typically pay its host community $4 million or more in property taxes, with few smokestack emissions. But those wind- and wood-fired projects at the front of the line are all in limbo. The Public Service power lines in the region are too small. Most of the players can't even bid into the upcoming ISO auction, because yet-to-be-built plants have to ante millions of dollars as a sort of performance bond. And the ISO doesn't make forward capacity payments for transmission line upgrades.

The state is part way through its half-million-dollar effort to gauge Vermonters' opinion on how electricity should be generated. Three of five polling workshops have been held -- and a more elaborate process, called "deliberative polling," which aims to tap the knowledge of a broad cross-section of the state's population, will be held this weekend. ...Vermont's energy mix has given the state the lowest "carbon footprint" in the nation, according to O'Brien. ...Generally speaking, energy efficiency and hydro-electricity are heavily supported, Raab said. Wind is also "pretty well" supported; people who live in Burlington and Montpelier, however, are typically more likely to tolerate a wind farm that can be seen from their home than people who live in the Northeast Kingdom, he said. ... Since anyone can register online to attend the workshops, the participants are self-selected and often come to advocate for or against a particular type of power

The commission charged with finding how the state should reduce its contribution to global climate change - and profit from concerns worldwide about the issue - released its final report Friday calling for more energy efficiency, renewable energy development and the creation of an alliance between the state, nonprofit groups and Vermont's colleges and universities. ...Crombie said all recommendations and possibilities will be considered. But that does not necessarily mean Douglas will change his mind about large wind turbines on the state's ridgelines or bend to the Legislature's proposal of last year. "The governor's position is that we have to be careful about how we approach wind," Crombie said, adding that such wind projects may have other effects on the state - including impacts on the economy and recreation. "We may find that in Vermont we are using a lot of renewable energy already," Crombie said. "Already Vermont is one of the greenest economies in the United States."

When this year's renewable energy conference got under way in Burlington on Wednesday there were, by some estimates, as many as 500 people at the event. Gov. James Douglas was not among them. "I was disappointed to not be invited," Douglas said Thursday. Douglas has been at the gathering of advocates, manufacturers and politicians involved in renewable power in the past - it is the sixth year of the conference. But this year other political leaders were invited and Douglas' name didn't come up, said Andrew Perchlik, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont. It was not an intentional decision made because of Douglas' outspoken opposition to wind, he said.

Small-scale energy production and efficiency measures could create more than 6,000 jobs in Vermont, according to a study released Tuesday by the Vermont Council on Rural Development.

MONTPELIER, Vt. --Gov. Jim Douglas on Thursday said he was "disappointed" with the Public Service Board's approval a day earlier of a 16-turbine wind power project planned for the northeastern Vermont town of Sheffield. "I don't think industrializing our ridge lines is the right thing to do for the natural beauty of our state," the governor said at a news conference. "I don't think the modest amount of electricity that will be generated from wind turbines is worth the impairment of our ridge lines. "But I also respect the law," and the quasi-judicial board's role under it in making determinations about utility projects, the governor said, though he added he expected the ruling might be appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court.

Anticipating the need to replace the supply of about two-thirds of the state's electricity, 200 Vermonters will sequester themselves in a hotel for a weekend in early November to study energy options and consider how to balance Vermont's energy portfolio for the next generation. Energy discussions - whether considering wind, nuclear, or hydroelectric power - attract crowds of special-interest groups and political activists. The competing rhetoric can be overwhelming. The goal of the $500,000-plus worth of studies - the largest energy sampling ever conducted in the United States - is to cut through the slogans and give policymakers a fresh look at how Vermonters envision the state's energy future, said Stephen Wark, the Department of Public Service's consumer affairs director. Vermonters will pay for the bulk of the studies, through rate charges on utility bills and state tax dollars. "We are looking for mainstream Vermonters, not advocates," Wark said. "What we are looking for is people with an open mind, people that are willing to learn and share their opinions with us."

MONTPELIER -- Democrats came up 12 votes short of overriding the governor's veto of an energy bill in the House on Wednesday, then couldn't quite pull off an effort to resurrect the bulk of the bill. Together with a failed veto override of a campaign finance bill it meant two political victories for Republican Gov. Jim Douglas over the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Democrats weren't casting it that way. "It's a huge loss for Vermonters," said Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham. He said legislators succeeded in raising awareness about global warming and that the veto proved Douglas is out of touch with Vermonters on the issue. Douglas disagreed. "Some of the rhetoric has been noisy but devoid of fact," he said. His work on establishing tough auto and greenhouse gas emission standards shows his dedication to the issue, he said. Douglas also said he would meet today with his cabinet to begin implementing parts of the bill.

Legislators in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic passed a number of bills applying to the electric power industry, with several states committing to emissions reductions through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and other states making broad organizational changes to their regulatory processes.

Simply polling residents about a complicated topic like whether the state's utilities should buy power from wind projects, nuclear power, Hydro-Quebec of any of the other sources of electricity available when the current contracts expire would prove of limited benefit, experts and officials decided. So instead the "public engagement process" requested by the Legislature and created by the department will have three parts. In all it is expected to cost roughly $520,000. The heart of the process will consist of deliberative polling, in which roughly 200 Vermonters selected from a telephone poll of 5,000 candidates will spend a weekend hearing from experts about power sources from wind to coal. Their responses to the worthiness of different possible energy sources - and the expected cost of each - will then be part of a report that will give utilities and policy makers guidance as they seek new supplies. Also included in that study will be the results of five meetings from around the state on energy supply issues, which will include polling of those attending. Finally there will be an Internet site that will also gather information on Vermonters' preferred electricity sources.