Opinion: State should say no to fracked gas
Deceit should not be rewarded with a slap on the hand and a $100,000 fine that will be passed on to rate-paying customers.
Passing escalating costs onto customers should not be an option as ratepayers don’t have endless deep pockets. The ice caps are melting. The world as we know it is rapidly changing. The release of methane gas in the atmosphere through fracking cannot be accepted. This is a sure death wish for the planet.
Croplands filled with solar panels, mountaintops disfigured with huge windmills have a bad taste for some people. Yet solar panels on rooftops and small windmills are much less intrusive and more friendly. And yes, Vermont should have bought hydro dams when they were available instead of Canada buying them and selling power to Vermont. Whereas nuclear power is supposedly green energy, the 250,000-year half-life of radioactive waste is not an option.
Vermont has fought for independence forever. Becoming totally dependent on another country for our energy should not be allowed.
Building an intra-state gas pipeline, which is the ultimate goal of Vermont Gas and Gaz Métro, is not in the best interest of Vermont. So it’s time to cut the snake’s head off before it gets started. Yes, there was a time when the likes of Vermont Gas with their lies and deceit would have been tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.
Michael Hurlburt, Monkton