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CAMPAIGN 2004: In Vermont, Dean's Green Record Was Mixed
Greenwire

January 26, 2004

Monday, January 26, 2004

Charles Donefer, Greenwire reporter

Before he earned a national reputation for making unscripted statements that land him in hot water, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) made an off-the-cuff statement on energy that he later had to clarify.

During a radio broadcast debate in 2001, Dean suggested the state consider diversifying its energy portfolio. With the state's two largest sources of electricity -- the three-decade-old Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and an increasingly uneconomic power importation deal with Hydro Quebec -- set to come up for renewal in about a decade, Dean made a suggestion that shocked the state's environmental community, which had long railed against acid rain from midwestern power plants: He said the state should consider building a coal-fired power plant.

Following an outcry by environmentalists, Dean retreated from the proposal and said he floated the idea to prompt a discussion of the state's energy needs.

"It was kind of a shocker. It came out of left field -- a classic Howard Dean move," said Matteo Burani, outreach coordinator for the Vermont Natural Resources Council.

As many pundits have noted, the political spectrum on environment and energy issues in Vermont is far narrower than the range of opinions represented nationwide. For example, the state lacks a major extractive industry, which means statewide debates often do not include issues important to nationwide constituencies, such as fossil fuel development. This makes Dean's record as governor an incomplete guide to his policies should he become president. Still, those who dealt with his administration in Vermont said his record does offer some clues.

"His primary sympathy is with business and job creation," said former Burlington Free Press managing editor Hamilton Davis. "His environmental interests lie with conservation rather than regulation."

In Howard Dean: A Citizen's Guide to the Man Who Would Be President, Davis paints a picture of Dean as a man more interested with outcome rather than procedure on land use issues in a state where the three-decade-old Act 250 sets strict limits on development.

Conservationists praised Dean for purchasing open space for permanent preservation, including thousands of acres along Lake Champlain and in the state's Northern Kingdom. Environmentalists and resort owners alike credited Dean for striking a deal with ski resort operators to preserve water flows in streams used for artificial snowmaking by allowing resorts to use the water in exchange for building retention ponds.

However, in an early battle, Dean championed the proposed expansion of the C&S Grocers food warehouse and distribution center in southeast Vermont in 1992 against the wishes of many of the state's environmentalists, who opposed the project on the grounds that it would increase traffic and diesel exhaust.

Dean attempted to push the project forward, over objections from the state Environmental Board. "We are interested in injecting ... some common sense into the process," Dean said. "If this was out in a farmer's field someplace I could understand it, but this is an industrial park zoned for this sort of thing."

Although the plan fizzled when C&S decided to place its new facility in neighboring Massachusetts, Dean expended political capital on the issue, replacing critics on the Environmental Council with supporters.

A development the size of the C&S warehouse would most likely not raise antisprawl ire nearly anywhere else in the country, but the state's small size and relative lack of heavy industry made it a touchstone issue. On several other issues, the difference between what is acceptable in Vermont and what is expected elsewhere has created dissonance between his record as governor and his announced policy positions on national issues.

SWITCHING POSITIONS ON YUCCA

In moving from governor to presidential candidate, Dean switched positions on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, chalking up his support of the facility as governor to a failure to consider the implications beyond the state's borders.

In April 2002, Dean and the five other New England governors sent letters to their congressional delegations urging them to vote to continue development and planning for Yucca Mountain.

"If Yucca Mountain is not selected, the more than $7 billion worth of scientific study performed with our ratepayer's money will be wasted" the governors wrote. "The political force neccessary to choose another site will be all but insurmountable and nuclear fuel will remain in storage on rivers and seacoasts in New England indefinitely" (Greenwire, April 10, 2002).

Speaking to about 200 supporters at a fundraiser in Las Vegas 18 months later, Dean said he changed his mind. "Now that I'm running for president, I've seen the light," he said. As for why he previously supported the repository, Dean said, "I wanted to get that stuff out of my state" (Greenwire, Oct. 29, 2003).

In an energy policy survey released earlier this month by the Sustainable Energy Coalition, the Dean campaign wrote, "Gov. Dean will not send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain unless and until it is proven to be a scientifically viable solution, something that has not occurred yet."

However, some observers said "seeing the light" may not be good enough for Nevada voters.

"Dean handled it very badly when he was here, and it was played up by the media. ... What we saw it as that he's seen the light only when he was in Nevada," said Jon Ralston, a columnist for the Las Vegas Sun.

However, coming off as insincere on Yucca Mountain may not doom Dean in Nevada should he win the nomination, since President Bush is in favor of the project and the state's voters have other issues on their minds. "The public here is suffering from Yucca Mountain exhaustion," Ralston said.

PLATFORM VS. RECORD

There are some issues, however, that Dean has had trouble justifying both to hometown and nationwide audiences, such as his support of an expensive power-importation agreement that left Vermont with some of the highest energy costs in the nation.

When Dean assumed the governorship in 1991 following the death of Gov. Richard Snelling (R), he faced several unresolved issues left by the previous governor -- the state's utilities were in the process of signing a 25-year contract with Canada's Hydro Quebec to import a third of the states' power, estimated at the time by the state Department of Public Service to save $11 million over the course of the contract. In the summer of 1991, New York regulators cancelled a similar contract on environmental and economic grounds, citing changing energy market dynamics and the destructive of Cree Nation lands by a new dam project. Snelling supported the deal as did Dean, although neither had the power to stop the state's utilities from entering the deal.

"Since 1990, Vermonters have paid over $2 billion in premiums over what they would have paid on electricity had Vermont's electric rates been comparable to the U.S. average," said the state Department of Public Service in its 2004 Vermont Comprehensive Energy and Electric Plan. The report also says residential, commercial and industrial customers pay rates about 50 percent above the national average.

"One of the most difficult parts of convincing businesses to come in Vermont is the very high cost of electricity," Davis said.

As the primary season continues, it is still an open question as to whether Dean can shift from a pro-business politician in antigrowth Vermont to a liberal national candidate without creating too large a gap between his platform and his record.

"I haven't seen too much of a change. ... He did a lot of great things for energy in Vermont," said Burani of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. "Of the environmental issues [Dean] is strongest in, land conservation is No. 1 and energy is No. 2."