To the editor:
Our neighbors in St. Johnsbury and Lyndon might have a new operator in the local Industrial Park. The Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC) is on the verge of approving construction of a Vermont Renewable Gas (VRG) plant that would burn wood chips to produce methane, and burn methane to produce electricity, passing it off as “renewable” energy.
The plant will use a technology called High Temperature Ablative Fast Pyrolysis (HTAP). Not familiar with the term? Few people are, in part because the proposed plant will be the first in the United States to produce energy this way.
Questions about the plant’s impact on public health and safety, system stability and reliability, cost effectiveness, economic and environmental impacts, greenhouse gas and climate impacts have not been adequately addressed by the information submitted under the permit process so far.
The PUC has nonetheless granted the project an expedited 30-day permitting review. This means that full approval could be granted by the first week of October, only days from now, before most of us have had a chance to consider what the plant means for our communities. Construction could begin soon thereafter.
It’s time to pump the brakes on the approval process so we can understand how this plant would impact the Lyndon area, the NEK and Vermont as a whole. If you agree, join me in petitioning the Public Utilities Commission to slow down and hold a “standard” permitting process, which allows time for a thorough review of this project in the interest of the public.
The petition can be found at the following link:
bit.ly/LyndonBiomassPUCpetition
Liz Steel
Greensboro
