VT Gov. Peter Shumlin, who also serves as the chairman of the Democratic Governors AssociationAs reported by the Mountain Times of Killington, VT, Governor Peter Shumlin (D-VT) is calling on the State of Vermont Legislature to join him in passing major legislation that would make the Green Mountain State a cutting-edge center for clean, renewable energy and efficiency.
Vermont already boasts 15,000 clean energy jobs, but Shumlin wants to add another 1,000 with this bill.
He also wants a dramatic increase in rooftop solar photovoltaics state-wide. This would be paid for with efficiency cost savings, applied toward solar PV panel installation on customers' monthly bills.
The legislation sets a very aggressive schedule for clean energy implementation. It would require utilities to provide 55% of energy from renewable sources just two years from now, and 75% by 2032.
Shumlin cites job growth, to retain young people in Vermont, and lowering residents' electricity bills, as major motivations for his Energy Innovation Program.
In 2010, Shumlin was the Democratic candidate for governor most opposed to Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee's (VY) license extension, and rode that wave of popular support into the governor's mansion. Before becoming governor, he had led the effort in the Vermont State Senate that culminated, in Feb. 2010, in a 26 to 4 vote to block VY's 20-year license extension. In August 2013, Entergy announced it would permanently shutdown VY. At 12:12pm Eastern on Dec. 29, 2014, it did so.
A reflection of VY's and nuclear power's irrelevance to VT's clean, safe, and affordable energy future? Gov. Shumlin doesn't even mention VY in his op-ed!
Shumlin's op-ed also ran in the Brattleboro Reformer, published very near VY.