I read with interest and general agreement the comments by elected officials to the effect that Vermont must act boldly to develop and energy from non-fossil-fuel resources.
I work at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, and I can assure you that there is no carbon-emitting smokestack here. In fact, Vermont Yankee is the largest low-carbon power generator to operate in the state.
Closing Vermont Yankee would blunt our region's greenhouse-gas-reduction efforts, as most of the “replacement power” on the New England grid comes from natural gas generators.
As we all know, natural gas, despite being cleaner than coal and oil, is still an emissions-generating fossil fuel and therefore far dirtier than hydro, wind, solar, and nuclear.
A article in VTDigger.org by Anne Galloway on July 31 noted that going forward, Vermont will experience a greater-than-30-percent gap between the power needed to supply the state's needs and the amount that has been guaranteed to be supplied to the state's businesses and residential customers. The article quotes...