Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen
3.22.2010
Shumlin out-Foxed?
A few days after the Vermont Senate voted against letting the Public Service Board go ahead with a decision on Vermont Yankee’s future, Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, went on a Fox TV business show that he surely is regretting now.
The show’s host, Stuart Varney, grilled Shumlin about where Vermont would get its power if not from the nuclear power plant. “You must be going back to coal or fossil fuels,” Varney challenged.
Shumlin answered that the state would turn to renewables. “The power market in America is going to dramatically shift,” Shumlin said. “Germany right now is producing 30 percent of its juice from solar.”
“Are you sure 30 percent of it comes from solar?” Varney countered.
“It happens to be a fact,” Shumlin said, until Varney’s colleagues starting surfing the Web and came up with indications that solar amounted to no more than 1 percent of Germany’s power. “I’m not really an expert on Germany,” Shumlin said. “That’s what I’ve been told.”
As it turns out, Germany’s goal for renewable energy is 30 percent. Supporters of Vermont Yankee and the Republican Governors Association have made hay of the interview, sending out e-mails and posting the interview online.
Shumlin said he was mistaken about Germany, but that he merely provided incorrect statistics, not under oath, and never suggested Vermont would replace all of Vermont Yankee’s power with renewables. Nor, he said, was the decision not to endorse Vermont Yankee’s continued operation based on that information. Varney, he said, started the show by spreading misinformation that Vermont would be turning to coal. “Only Fox News has that view,” he said.
The irony, of course, is that nothing has hurt Vermont Yankee’s cause more than its own misinformation in denying the existence of underground pipes that were later found to be leaking tritium.
The Fox interview can be seen at this
pro-Vermont Yankee Web site.
- Terri Hallenbeck
Labels: Sen. Peter Shumlin, Vermont Yankee
2.22.2010
Bartlett v. Shumlin
When Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin announced last week that the Senate would vote this week on the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, it caught some senators by surprise. One could argue it shouldn’t have — he’s been telling the media for weeks that he foresees a vote this session and the session is motoring to its mid-point.
Nonetheless, Shumlin’s fellow Democratic gubernatorial candidate Susan Bartlett said he hadn’t clued her and others in on the vote, just as he hadn’t told them before announcing earlier this session that legislators would be taking a pay cut.
Bartlett’s irritation doesn’t seem to have abated over the weekend. She put out a statement Sunday night, calling this week’s vote “more political theater than making good public policy.”
She said she agrees that Vermont Yankee should not be relicensed, but thinks the time is not right for a vote, with several reports on Vermont Yankee pending.
“If we had followed the process we had in place, I believe that by the end of the session we would have voted as an entire legislature to close Yankee. That would have ended the discussion,” Bartlett said in her statement.
“I am on record as wanting to close Vermont Yankee in 2012. Their behavior in the past few months has only confirmed my opinion. This isn’t about my vote, it’s about doing the job right.”
She was careful not to mention Shumlin’s name anywhere in the statement. The candidates have, after all, agreed not to attack each other.
Bartlett will likely have a chance to vote on delaying the VY decision. Sen. Phil Scott, himself a candidate for lieutenant governor, said Monday he will introduce an amendment to send the bill to the Appropriations or Economic Development committee to study the economic ramifications of closing Vermont Yankee.
Will his amendment pass?
“I don’t know if I have enough support,” Scott said. “We’ll see.”
Senate Majority Leader John Campbell said he doesn’t think Scott has the votes.
Scott also said he doesn’t think he could vote to keep Vermont Yankee running for another 20 years based on current circumstances.
- Terri Hallenbeck
Labels: Mark Snelling; Vermont politics, Sen Phil Scott, Sen. Peter Shumlin, Sen. Susan Bartlett
2.15.2010
Drawing tax lines
When the Senate Economic Development Committee voted out a bill last week that outlines spending of $8.6 million in federal stimulus money on various economic development measures, it included a repeal of last year’s changes to the estate tax.
Changing the estate tax is and will continue to be controversial in the Legislature. That piece eked its way into the bill by a 3-2 vote. Sen. Doug Racine, D-Chittenden, was among those who voted for it, putting him in line with his nemesis, outgoing Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, and at odds with at least one of his fellow Democratic candidates for governor.
This is the same Doug Racine who in his campaign for governor is arguing that the state should raise income taxes temporarily to help fill the budget gap that the recession brought on. He said he believes the estate tax was hastily changed last legislative session (lowering the size of the estate from $3.5 million to $2 million for taxes to kick in). He said he objected then and favors repealing the change this year.
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, is not keen on erasing the changes, saying that with a $150 million budget gap, the state can’t afford to lose the revenue. Changing the estate tax would cost an estimated $3 million.
What’s not in that same bill is a repeal of the capital gains tax that Douglas wanted. Committee Chairman Vince Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans, said he couldn’t find a way to replace the $25 million it brings in. He’s counting on an improved economy to make up the $3 million from the estate tax.
— Terri Hallenbeck
Labels: Sen. Doug Racine, Sen. Peter Shumlin, vermont legislature
2.08.2010
From the Shumlin campaign
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin has added to his campaign staff.
He announced Monday that Bryan Hageny will be his field director. Hageny has been deputy training director at Democracy for America for the last two years.
Arthur Berndt will serve as Shumlin’s finance chairman. Berndt and his wife, Anne, produce maple syrup at Maverick Farm in Sharon, maple syrup. Berndt served as finance co-chairman for Peter Welch in 2006 and was a member of the Dean’s List fundraising committee for Gov. Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign.
- Terri Hallenbeck
Labels: Sen. Peter Shumlin, vermont politics
