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Vermont Considers In-State Energy Production

Lyndonville, Vermont -- August 22, 2006

There's been a lot of talk in Vermont about alternative energy sources -- and producing more power right here in Vermont. But so far, most of our fuel and energy are imported. Today, a conference at Lyndon State College focused on ways of developing local energy sources.

The purpose of the conference was explained by its title -- Local power: Energy and Economic Development in Rural Vermont. Wind turbines and other alternative energy projects like biomass have received federal funding. Sen. Patrick Leahy has seen to that.

"We should commit to generating 25 percent or our energy supplies from renewables before the year 2025," Leahy told the conference.

Maybe replacing gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. But nowhere near 25% of Vermont's electric generation will come from renewables, according to most experts. That's because Vermont's total peak demand for electricity is a little more than 1100 megawatts. Public Service Board Chairman Jim Volz and others involved in energy doubt that much more than a hundred megawatts will come from renewables.

"Since our load is 1100 megawatts, obviously that's not going to be enough to replace Hydro Quebec or Vermont Yankee," Volz observed. "So we're still going to have to concern ourselves with how to replace those projects when they expire."

The challenge will be to find replacement power for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and Hydro Quebec when contracts for those two major sources of Vermont's current electric supply expire.

Avram Pratt of the Washington Electric Cooperative said, "I do think we will continue to get energy from Hydro Quebec -- at what price and under what terms are the big questions. I do think there's a large role for -- if we take a hundred megawatts from small scale renewables and then add to it an additional amount from wind, we're taking care of a fairly large chunk. But I don't personally expect that Vermont can or really should try to be one hundred percent self-sufficient."

Participants in the energy conference broke up into smaller groups to continue the discussion through the day. Although a role of renewables may be limited, everyone here expects they will play a much larger role in Vermont in the future.

The results of the conference will be written up and forwarded to the Vermont Legislature.

Andy Potter - Channel 3 News