Some Vermont Ideas at Work

As we have said, for a small state Vermont has come up with some pretty impressive ideas – and better yet, put them to work. It is the leader in New England in many ways and an example that could be well followed around the nation.

Among other things, Vermont is the only state in New England that conducts “prefeasibility assessments.” These are conducted to help “streamline the permitting process” for developers to enable their projects.

The state has been active in determining the areas where new hydropower can be developed
For example, it has been discovered that Vermont has at least 174 Megawatts of undeveloped hydropower potential. That’s about 22 percent of what the state presently uses on a regular basis. (And, by the way, it would offset the burning of more than one million barrels of oil.)
And most of the sites that make up this additional power are classified as “mini-hydro.” That is, they are smaller than 1,000 kilowatts. These can be developed at existing dam sites with no additional environmental impact to rivers or wet areas.

The “prefeasibility assessment” comes in when a developer wants to proceed with a hydropower plant. The amount of agencies that have approval authority can be staggering. The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has licensing explanation and assistance program that provides considerable help in satisfying FERC, Vermont Public Service Board, Agency of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation. And in some cases the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gets into the act.

With all these processes to go through, a developer will find it takes about three years to receive all the required approvals.

And the bad news is that in states that haven’t even considered providing these preparatory services it will be longer before clean additional hydropower will be available to replace the fossil fuel energy sources.

As we have said many times in the past and will continue to exclaim- your elected representatives must be pressed into action in what will most certainly be the fight for the survival of human life not just in North America but on earth itself. And all agree that hydropower is the one complete solution to the energy pollution problem.