Business Group Endorses Energy Bill

May 30, 2007

 HINESBURG—Forty-five Vermont business owners pleaded Tuesday with the governor to meet with them and change his mind about vetoing an energy bill.

Neither the meeting nor the changing of the mind is likely to happen.

"I'm hearing from a lot of people on both sides of the question," Gov. Jim Douglas said. "I can't meet with everybody." He said he's encouraging all those who want to weigh in on the issue to write to him.

"We're going to do everything we can. We're not going to take no on this issue," vowed Will Patten, executive director of Vemont Businesses for Social Responsibility, as he stood with representatives of the group's members outside NRG Systems in Hinesburg on Tuesday morning.

Douglas has said he will veto the energy legislation because he opposes an increase in taxes on the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant that would be used to help pay for an energy-efficiency utility. Supporters of the bill argue it offers a number of opportunities to save Vermonters money on heating bills and, in the process, generate jobs.

Chuck Reiss is a Hinesburg homebuilder who's hoping for a change in state law that would allow a group of homes he's building to share a wind turbine and sell the excess power to utilities. That change in law is contained in the bill Douglas has promised to veto.

"It's time to start helping small businesses instead of large businesses," said Reiss, owner of Reiss Buildings and Renovations, who added that he has several neighborhoods interested in running group wind turbines if the law allows it.

Jan Blittersdorf, chief executive officer of NRG and a member of the VBSR board, tried to flip the governor's argument that the legislation will send a chilling message to the business community on its head. "If the governor vetoes this bill, he will send a chill through the Vermont business community," she said.

The business owners' goal was to counteract Douglas' argument that businesses oppose the energy bill, but Blittersdorf acknowledged that businesses like hers and Douglas rarely see eye-to-eye. Last year, she hosted a news conference for Douglas' Democratic opponent, Scudder Parker. "We're not a big fan," Blittersdorf said. "We haven't felt that he's listening."

Patten charged that Douglas listens to big businesses, but not to small, homegrown companies that mean the most to the state. "The policy he's been following—kow-towing to big business—is not working," Patten said. "He needs to change direction."

Douglas argued that he values all business, but on this issue he disagrees with these business owners. He supports existing electric efficiency measures run by Efficiency Vermont, he said, but has concerns about expanding those efforts to other fuels without more research. "I'm very proud of what Efficiency Vermont has done," Douglas said. "This whole new concept of a broader fuel efficiency is untested."

Patten said his group will continue to try to persuade the governor not to veto the bill. Failing that, he said, the business owners hope to persuade enough legislators to override the veto when the Legislature returns for a veto session July 11. Democrats fell three votes shy of overriding a veto on other legislation earlier in the year.

House Speaker Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, said she expects to sign the energy bill Thursday, sending it on to Douglas. He'll have five days after receiving it to act on it.

Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 229-4126 or .