Thoughtful Leadership on Energy and the Environment
In four years on the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, including the last two years as Vice Chair, my accomplishments have included:
- Working with Shelburne’s Ad Hoc Velco Committee to improve substantially the size and location of the transmission poles and lines being built in Shelburne, achieving a substantial segment that’s being built underground.
- Crafting language that became law to require long term transmission planning, so that noVermont town in the future will be blindsided, as Shelburne was, with an urgent need for major new transmission facilities in town.
- Helping to negotiate expansion of funding for electric efficiency. The dollar amount of funding has been a political football. We moved the decision from polticians, to experts at the Public Service Board, to set the amount of funding that can be used cost effectively.
- Working as one of three House negotiators who secured funding from Vermont Yankee for Vermont’s Clean Energy Fund, which helps to fund clean energy, such as Cow Power.
- Moving Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative legislation through the Vermont House as the Committee spokesperson for the bill. This first-in-the-nation law set the standard for benefiting consumers as we reduce emissions.
- Helping to develop new energy efficiency programs for heating and transportation, in addition to electricity, that build on private sector expertise and encourage creation of private sector jobs.
- Working to enact the Sustainably Priced Energy Enterprise Development Program, which encourages development of renewable energy in Vermont at a lower cost to Vermont consumers than a renewable energy portfolio requirement.
Some interest groups and politicians set up an all or nothing approach to problems. I look for new ideas to build on our common ground. I have a track record of finding innovative solutions that bring us together to make Vermont a better place.
