Lawmakers reach deal on renewable energy

By TRACY SCHMALER Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER — House and Senate leaders reached a compromise Wednesday on a bill designed to increase Vermont ’s energy independence by promoting the use of environmentally friendly power.

The measure was thought to be dead for weeks because the two chambers were at an impasse over a controversial provision in the Senate-backed bill. The provison would have mandated utilities to buy a percentage of their power from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

The House opposed the controversial “renewable portfolio standard” provision, arguing that the mandate on utilities would increase costs for all ratepayers.

The Senate’s bill would have required utilities to buy 1 percent of their power from green sources in 2004, 2 percent in 2005, 3 percent in 2006 and then at a percentage set by the Public Service Board.

Senate President Pro Tem Peter Welch, D-Windsor, agreed to take that provision out.

“Our choice was a bill making it voluntary for utilities or no bill at all. We chose voluntary,” Welch said. “We know how to say yes.”

Instead of that provision, the bill calls for a study of the costs of such power and promotes a “green pricing” program where customers could ask to buy electricity that comes from renewable or clean sources.

If that power costs more than regular electricity, those customers alone would bear the added expense.

“Everybody wins with this bill,” said John Sales, deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Service.

Some utilities, including Green Mountain Power Corp., already offer consumers a choice. But the bill would set clear parameters for that company and others that want to offer customers the option without having to increase rates for all.

The program is contingent upon approval from the Public Service Board, Sales said.

“We give the House and Senate a lot of credit for moving forward with this,” said Patrick Berry of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, an environmental advocacy group. “We’d rather see a baby step moving forward with renewable energy than no step at all.”

The bill would also:

u Give the board the authority to try alternative regulation schemes allowing utilities to make greater profits if they meet standards for encouraging efficiency and using renewable energy, and reduce their profits if they don’t.

u Spend $750,000 from penalties collected from oil companies to support local projects that use alternative energy systems.

u Provide customers with the opportunity to invest in the development of new technology and facilities such as wind turbines.

u Allow utilities to purchase tradable renewable energy credits that they can in turn sell.

The bill still has to clear hurdles in the House, but leaders said Wednesday that the agreement with the Senate all but secured its passage.

The compromise signaled some progress for the Legislature as it tries to meet its goal of adjourning later this week.

But lawmakers still have significant bills to work out before they can leave for the year. Most significant are the state budget, changing the way the state pays for education, and reforming the state’s environmental permitting process.

House and Senate negotiators on the state budget appear to be close to a deal, with both sides agreeing on a general fund budget of roughly $900 million.

Members of the committee trying to polish off a mutually acceptable budget were optimistic that a compromise could be reached on some of the lingering line items in the next day or so.

Meanwhile, lawmakers working to find common ground on the competing proposals to change the state’s environmental permit process couldn’t have been farther from a resolution Wednesday.

“I think we’re quite a ways apart between the House and the Senate,” said Sen. Phil Scott, R-Washington. “I think it would be very difficult to bridge the gap between the House and Senate plans.”

Scott is on the joint House and Senate conference committee that has been meeting for days, trying to settle the differences in the two bills.

On Wednesday, the future looked dim when senators offered a counterproposal to House negotiators that opposed consolidating all permit appeals before a single Environmental Court .

Welch said the Senate supported the goal of consolidating appeals and would review that option comprehensively when the Legislature returned next year, but could not pass off on that provision in the House bill.

Instead, the Senate asked the House to pass off on provisions in the two bills that were similar, including changes to local and regional zoning regulations and consolidating some citizen boards that review permit appeals.

But House leaders and Gov. James Douglas have been clear that a bill that does not include consolidated appeals would not be considered “comprehensive permit reform.”

“The bill doesn’t work without consolidated appeals,” said Rep. William Johnson, R-Canaan, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

Johnson was reluctant to say there was no chance of a compromise, but was not optimistic.

“There’s always divine intervention … lightning does strike,” he said.

Contact Tracy Schmaler at tracy.schmaler@rutlandherald.com.