This past December, after a year of hearings
involving businesses, environmental groups, government agencies, and other
citizens, the Vermont Department of Public Service published the Comprehensive
Energy Plan. The vision expressed in the
Plan to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by moving Vermont to 90%
renewable energy by 2050 is key to setting us on the correct path to our energy
future. Not surprisingly, there is
resistance to that vision. We get
questions like: Climate change is a "hoax"; why are you wasting time
on it? How much can the small state of
Vermont do to affect a global problem?
Why are we supporting energy resources that are economically unfeasible
instead of cheaper coal, natural gas or nuclear?
Looking at what is happening to our global
environment, it is obvious that the global climate is indeed warming. The north polar icecap as well as glaciers
from Greenland to Antarctica are shrinking more each year causing sea levels to
rise such that island nations in the Pacific are already losing substantial
land mass. And the
effect is a feedback loop that is accelerating the change. Solar energy, reflected less by the
disappearing ice, is being absorbed and converted to infrared, which in turn heats
the atmosphere. Methane, a powerful
greenhouse gas, is being released as permafrost melts in the arctic regions and
organic matter that has been frozen for thousands of years decays. Increasing CO2 and other greenhouse gases are
decreasing the ability of the earth to radiate heat back into space, and the
exploding use of fossil fuels since the mid-19th century has caused them to
increase exponentially.
Some will say that this is just a natural
progression of the earth's thermal cycle, and maybe it is considering that the
human race is part of the planet’s ecosystem, just as the dinosaurs were
hundreds of millions of years ago. Maybe
our consumption of fossil fuels is just a way of recycling all that stored
solar energy. And maybe it is a tribute
to our efficiency that we have learned how to recycle it so quickly.
But it
doesn't change the fact that more thermal energy is available in the atmosphere
to cause more energetic and frequent storms.
It doesn't change the fact that a rise in sea levels caused by the
tremendous release of water stored in the glaciers and icecaps will impact
coastal areas on every continent. And it
won't change the fact that some areas will see increased rainfall and flooding
while others will dry out as rising temperatures and disappearing polar ice
cause changes in air and ocean circulation patterns.
Maybe we
have already reached the point of no return.
I hope not. But with that hope, I
want to see our policies change to at least slow down, if not reverse, our
patterns of energy use, not so much for the sake of our generation, but for our
grandchildren and future generations. That
will only happen by reducing our fossil fuel consumption, by learning to use the
clean energy supplied so abundantly by nature even if it means some impact to
the visual landscape, and by investing in research and development of
technologies that will help us move toward this goal.
I am proud of the work we are doing in the House Natural
Resources and Energy Committee to support that goal of making Vermont a model
for clean, job-creating, renewable energy development and working with other
states as they implement similar policies.
