Shumlin for governor

The Burlington Free Press editorial board recommends Peter Shumlin, the Democrat from Putney, for governor of Vermont. The critical characteristic is that he will get things done. Shumlin’s promise to run state government in the most open way possible is the precondition for anyone who seeks the state’s highest elected office.

Vermont continues to struggle to rise above the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. A steady hand to maintain the status quo is no longer sufficient to move this state forward — socially and economically. This state can no longer afford a governor who would see blocking legislation as the major accomplishments of his tenure.

As Senate President Pro Tempore, Peter Shumlin has displayed considerable legislative skill in bringing about results on the biggest issues, an advantage he holds over his main competitor, Republican Brian Dubie of Essex Junction.

Shumlin was a driving force in Vermont becoming the first state to grant marriage equality to gay and lesbian couples without being told to do so by the courts.

Shumlin was a legislative leader in the 2009 budget fight with Gov. Jim Douglas that led Douglas to veto the budget and the Legislature to override that veto — both a first for a state budget in Vermont.

Shumlin can claim credit for the 26-4 vote this year that led the Senate to deny Vermont Yankee a chance to seek from the Public Service Board an extension of its operating license for 20 years beyond 2012.

Regardless of whether you agree with Shumlin’s agenda, there is no denying the senator from Windham County has built a record of bold action in the Legislature.

Shumlin’s platform is equally full of bold initiatives — from his proposal to reduce Corrections costs by focusing on keeping nonviolent offenders from returning to prison, to his push for a single-payer health care system for the state.

Shumlin’s platform shows a politician unafraid of controversy in his search for solutions to challenges facing Vermont. To shy away from trying new approaches to the state’s fiscal problems is to go back to simply cutting services the state provides to Vermonters to bridge the budget gap.

Shumlin will bring his experience gained in the Senate helping to build state budgets in an environment of reduced revenues to work with the Legislature on solutions that are fair to Vermonters.

In politics, the safe route is to stick to generalities and avoid leaving a public trail that could come back to haunt a candidate. In the general election campaign, Shumlin’s willingness to speak out on contentious issues and talk about specifics of his platform leaves him open to equally specific criticism. He has been direct. Again, this is part of being open and accessible as a representative of the people.

Shumlin exposes some weakness when delving into details of some of his proposals. He stumbles to make himself understood on his Corrections plan. He reached too far in claims of cutting taxes. And people will argue about how realistic his plan is to pay for his agenda without raising taxes, especially when he will face a $110 million-plus budget gap on day one as governor.

But throughout his campaign, Shumlin has been consistent on the issues and has remained the man Vermonters have come to know during his legislative career. With Shumlin, his legislative record and his willingness to delve deep into his proposals mean Vermonters know who they are getting as their next governor.

Shumlin pledges to look out for the interest of Vermonters who need help.

Shumlin offers a nuanced approach to Vermont’s budget challenges that avoids a simple-minded policy that more resembles hacking away at spending with a dull ax.

Shumlin’s platform recognizes the importance of investing in education as a way to boost the economy and tackle our social problems.

Shumlin has pledged to run an open administration, and work to reduce the barriers to public access that permeates Vermont laws. This is the only way to run state government, and the only way elected officials can be held accountable. Openness is the most important promise to Vermonters the next governor must keep.

Vermont needs a doer.

Peter Shumlin of Putney will be that governor.

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20101024/OPINION/101023016/Voice-of-the-Free-Press-Recommendation-for-Vermont-governor

By Angelo Lynn   OP/ED

In the race for governor, Vermonters have rarely had the opportunity to choose between two leading candidates with such stark differences on the issues.

Looking at the two campaigns from a big-picture perspective, Democrat Peter Shumlin believes Vermont’s future is full of economic promise if we use the state’s smallness to our advantage by remaining flexible, innovative and progressive. Republican Brian Dubie, on the other hand, believes the state has to hunker down for the next several years, cut government services and education spending in order to balance the budget and reduce state income taxes for the richest Vermonters.

That generalization, of course, deserves more detail. Let’s examine the different campaigns and approaches each candidate would take as governor, issue by issue:

• EDUCATION:
Peter Shumlin maintains that better educational outcomes will lay the foundation for Vermont’s future successes — from higher wages, to lower poverty rates, to more job growth. To that end, he will seek ways to expand early education to three- and four-year-olds, and increase adult education and work training programs. He wants to adopt Maine’s example and offer Vermont students tax credits to pay for their college education if they accept jobs in the state and continue to work here until their educational expenses are paid off. He would place added emphasis on technical education and internships, career awareness and distance learning. While he maintains that the state’s educational system cannot be held harmless from fiscal accountability, his vision is to restructure the system to find savings, rather than impose state-mandated cuts across the board. He embraces the idea that education is an economic driver for Vermont’s economy, and is eager to oversee changes in the current system to make that a reality.

Brian Dubie has a very different outlook. While no one can accuse him of not believing in the value of education or not striving to seek better outcomes, his stated policies are few and driven by the desire to cap state spending on education to 2 percent growth for the next few years.

Bottom line: Because school budgets are labor intensive and because teacher contracts routinely rise more than 2 percent per year (and health insurance costs often exceed 10 percent per year), that cap mandates even greater cuts in school spending as dictated by Montpelier. That lessens local control and forces schools to retrench, not rebuild. It also backs educators into a corner right off the bat, which is no place to begin talks of reform. In an era in which the global economy places a premium on knowledge-based jobs, Dubie’s drive to reduce spending on education hampers the future prospects of Vermont’s youth and undermines the future ability of the state to attract high-paying jobs. Shumlin’s approach won’t reduce taxes, but it does offer Vermont’s youth hope for better jobs in an increasingly competitive marketplace and lays the groundwork for job growth in the state through a better educated workforce.

• ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Shumlin believes the most important factor to creating more jobs is to reduce the cost of health care for employees. With a single-payer health care system, he says, Vermont’s business community would be more competitive. At best, it’s a distant goal with long-term savings. In the short-term, Shumlin believes collaboration with state government is necessary to promote business growth, notably: incentives for biomass, wind and solar energy; helping farmers diversify through technical training; helping to establish regional food processing centers to encourage more local food businesses; actively advocate for the Western rail corridor from Burlington through Rutland to Albany; and working with business to extend broadband and cell service to the last mile, among other initiatives.

While Dubie has a few specific incentives he would put in place, if the Legislature agrees, his plan to grow jobs hinges on cutting taxes and curbing regulations — the same approach as practiced by the Douglas administration for the past eight years.

Bottom line: Shumlin’s single-payer plan isn’t going to have an impact soon, but moving toward a system that reduces double-digit increases annually is a priority for the business community. In the meantime, states all across the country have effectively created niche markets that thrive through special initiatives. Shumlin’s approach would develop the foundation for new markets and job growth. Cutting taxes for the rich didn’t create more jobs under Bush or Douglas, and there is no reason to believe it will work for Dubie either.

SOCIAL ISSUES:
Shumlin supports a woman’s right to choose, supports Vermont’s marriage equality law, and has supported a law on allowing end of life options when facing terminal illness. In each case, the objective is to keep government out of the affairs of the individual and to expand civil liberties.

Dubie opposes a woman’s right to choose to have a safe abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. He opposes Vermont’s marriage equality law, and is opposed to a law that would create end of life choices. In each case, Dubie would have the state restrict the civil liberties of individuals.

Bottom line: In the best of Vermont traditions, Shumlin relies on the individual to choose what’s right for each person and keeps the state from restricting personal liberties. Dubie does not.

CORRECTIONS BUDGET:
Reducing spending on corrections prompted the most controversial commercials in the campaign as Dubie jumped on Shumlin’s plan to reduce spending in the corrections department by $40 million. Dubie’s ads claimed Shumlin would release rapists and child molesters into the streets. It was an absurd allegation and untrue, but the attack ads caught the public’s attention for weeks and started a war of mudslinging and misinformation.

Shumlin’s position is that the status quo cannot be maintained. It is the third largest departmental expense in the budget and growing excessively. To reduce that growth, Shumlin argues that non-violet prison inmates should serve part of their time in lower-cost environments. Furthermore, because the recidivism rate for Vermont prisoners averages 70 percent (the percent of prisoners who commit another crime and return to jail after their initial release), Shumlin advocates more education and training for non-violet prisoners so they eventually contribute to the tax base, rather than be a continual drain on the budget. While such expense would not produce immediate savings, as Shumlin initially claimed, it would likely produce long-term savings.

Dubie has no specific plan to reduce expenses in the corrections budget, though his 2 percent cap on spending would cut more than $32 million out of that budget — not much less than Shumlin’s proposal (which drew Dubie’s ridicule.) When confronted with that reality, Dubie said he would exempt the corrections budget from his proposed cap.

Bottom line: Shumlin deserves credit for being willing to tackle the problem, but over-promised the immediate savings. Dubie not only ducked the issue, but misled voters with his commercials and when confronted with his own cuts, promised an exemption.
Vermonters are best served by taking the long-term approach advocated by Shumlin. It’s the right thing to do and will save the state money down the road.

• HEALTH CARE:
Shumlin promotes moving to a single-payer health care system, maintaining it would save the state and business community millions of dollars each year. His plan counts on getting a waiver from the federal government before 2017, the likelihood of which is possible but surely questionable.

Dubie maintains the status quo, saying that private industry knows best and that the state is too small to make such changes on its own. He fears a single-payer system would increase costs, despite the fact that health care costs in Vermont have doubled, from $2.5 billion to more than $5 billion, since Douglas and Dubie took office eight years ago.

Analysis: There is good reason to leave well enough alone. Vermont has one of the best health care systems in the country and it’s doubtful cost savings will be seen any time soon. But by keeping the status quo, Dubie would stymie creative thinking on health care, refuse to move Vermont forward in this field, and watch as health care costs doubled again in the next eight years. Shumlin would press ahead, and even if federal waivers were not granted until 2017, Vermonters would be positioned to lead the nation, and reap new energy (think young professionals) and job growth that comes with breaking new ground in any industry.

ENERGY:
Shumlin, who was an initial proponent of Vermont Yankee in its early years, has been adamant that the plant not be re-licensed in 2012, and that Entergy, the owners, make full restitution for decommissioning costs. His firm commitment has been to protect Vermont taxpayers from bailing out Entergy if they try to default on their fiscal responsibilities. The lost power would be replaced from other suppliers on New England’s grid along with a statewide push to develop more renewable energy and increased conservation efforts.

Dubie has been a staunch supporter of keeping the aging plant operating past its 2012 expiration date with existing management. Because of recent problems at the plant, he now says that Entergy will have to prove it can operate the plant safely, but he has set no conditions for the company to meet. Dubie worries the cost of electricity will go up if VY closes, which will hurt businesses and the state’s prospects for economic growth.

Bottom line: First, there is no shortage of power. The issue is, at what cost? VY power rates for the next contract, if the license were extended, would undoubtedly go up, but Vermont officials have gotten no indication from Entergy by how much. Add poor management of the plant, its aging condition and the cost of cleanup of current leaks and the future decommissioning, and it posing troubling scenarios. We have no objection to nuclear power as a source of energy, and recognize its advantages in reducing our carbon footprint. But lack of trust in Entergy to do what’s right for Vermont (as opposed to their stockholders) prompts us to believe we should decommission the plant in 2012, make sure Vermonters are not left holding the bag for any of those expenses, and work to develop renewable sources of energy for Vermont’s future. Shumlin would do that; Dubie would not.

TAXES:
Shumlin recognizes Vermont is a high tax state and agrees that Vermonters, in general, are at their tax capacity. He has advocated tax reductions for middle-income Vermonters, but would not reduce taxes on the wealthiest 1,400 Vermonters as Dubie proposes.

Dubie’s focus is to reduce the highest state income tax rates from about 9 percent to 6.9 percent over three years. To make up for the loss of revenue, he is imposing a 2 percent cap on state spending (except for notable exceptions, which in turn impose more draconian caps — or perhaps cuts — in other parts of the budget.)

Bottom line: In the past eight years, cuts in state spending on education imposed by Douglas have driven up local property taxes, moves that Dubie endorsed. Dubie’s proposal to cap spending at 2 percent (including on education) effectively gives a tax break to the wealthy, while again driving up property taxes for middle income Vermonters. That’s just wrong.
Vermonters understand there is no free lunch. You pay for what you get. If Vermonters want good schools, decent roads and bridges, safe communities and a high quality of life (see David Goodman’s op-ed piece on Page 5A), there is a cost, but it’s generally worth it. What’s needed is a multi-year effort to restructure state taxes to meet the needs of a changing business, education and social service environment. Shumlin has the business background and managerial skills to make that happen.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND:
Shumlin was born and raised in Putney, Vt., and with his brother, Jeff, has expanded the family student-travel and study abroad business significantly. It is a Vermont success story of hard work, business acumen and creative thinking. He served in the House and Senate from 1990 to 2002, the last five years as Senate President pro-tempore. After a four-year hiatus, he was reelected to the Senate in 2006 and immediately named President pro-tempore by his peers — a sure sign that he has the trust and respect of his fellow legislators. During his 13 years in the Senate, he has served on the Rules Committee, the Finance Committee, the Transportation Committee and the Appropriations Committee. He has drafted legislative budgets, helped craft and guide legislation to meet legislative goals and has worked with three governors. As a successful businessman, he has met payrolls for more than two decades and understands what it takes to help businesses grow and thrive. He is a father of two daughters, Olivia, 19, and Rebecca, 17. He is also a part-time partner in a small dairy farm in Putney.

Republican Brian Dubie catapulted into the job as Lieutenant Governor, running alongside Gov. James Douglas, with no experience in the Legislature but with a popular image as a National Guardsman in an era (November 2002) in which the country was gun-ho to go to war with Iraq. In his years as Lt. Gov., he has chaired the governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council and the governor’s Commission on Healthy Aging, plus he founded the Vermont Aerospace and Aviation Association in 2006 to stimulate economic development in that field. He has a successful career as a pilot with American Airlines (since 1988), where he is now captain and has had a successful part-time career in the National Guard where he is currently a colonel in the Air Force Reserve. His prior experience in elective office, before being elected lieutenant governor, was serving from 1995 to 2000 on the Essex Junction School Board. He is married with four children.

Bottom line: We reviewed the personal background of each candidate to remind our readers that, aside from the nastiness of the campaign, both men have given much to their communities and state and would serve Vermont well as governor.

We place a priority, however, on the candidate who understands the need for change, flexibility, creative thinking and innovation, and has the foresight today’s economy demands for states and businesses to be one step ahead of their competitors. That leader also needs the business savvy to appoint innovative thinkers as department heads and encourage their independence. And Vermont needs a leader who understands the value of education as an economic driver and as a tool for significant job growth. Democrat Peter Shumlin is that candidate.

Republican Brian Dubie, on the other hand, has based his campaign on the simplistic notion that cutting taxes solves all ills (it doesn’t), and the premise that Vermont needs to retrench through cuts in social programs and education. Add to that his dogmatic thinking on other issues, and it’s a recipe for eight years of stagnation and regression.
Shumlin deserves your vote and the opportunity to take the state in a direction that offers new hope and inspiration.

Angelo S. Lynn

http://www.addisonindependent.com/201010editorial-time-hunker-down-or-move-forward-shumlin-governor-0

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wednesday night Sen. Bernie Sanders kicked off a series of seven campaign appearances with Peter Shumlin, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, at a packed rally at Nectar’s Restaurant in downtown Burlington.

Speaking earlier, Sanders said his stumping for Shumlin wouldn’t include attacks on Brian Dubie, the Republican candidate. “I have known Brian Dubie for a number of years, and I like him,” Sanders said. “I’m not going to be involved in anything negative.”

Sanders isn’t a Democrat — he runs as an independent — but he has long caucused with Democrats in Congress. In Vermont, he kept his distance from Democrats in elections until 2006 when he built an alliance that helped him win the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Jim Jeffords. Democrats didn’t run a candidate in that race and endorsed Sanders.

Now Sanders again is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Democrats in this year’s hot contest to replace retiring Republican Gov. Jim Douglas.

“The reason I’m supporting Peter is pretty clear,” Sanders said in an interview before the rally. “Peter has better ideas for protecting the middle class and working Vermonters.” Sanders also cited Shumlin’s advocacy for a single-payer health care system, an idea Sanders has long championed.

“He sees Shumlin as a kindred spirit,” said Garrison Nelson, professor of political science at the University of Vermont.

Shumlin welcomed Sanders’ assistance in his race against Dubie, a contest that many — including Shumlin — see as too close to call with less than two weeks remaining until Election Day.

“Bernie going on the road with me is going to be a huge help,” Shumlin said earlier this week.

Nelson suggested Sanders might be able to fire up a segment of voters who otherwise would skip the election. “This is a way to rally Vermont’s less-well-off citizens,” Nelson said.

The Sanders/Shumlin rallies are planned for St. Albans, St. Johnsbury, Montpelier, Rutland, Hardwick and Bristol. All are set up in typical Sanders campaign style: free meals and music followed by short speeches.

Corry Bliss, Dubie’s campaign manager, argued that the Republican’s message appeals across party lines to people who support Sanders and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch. “We enjoy a lot of bipartisan support,” Bliss said.

Wednesday night, Fiermonte and Rep. Mark Larson, D-Burlington, took turns introducing the speakers. The pair agreed the crowd included a mix of supporters.

“There are a lot of Bernie’s folks here and a lot of Democrats and folks who don’t fit in either crowd,” Larson said. “This is an example of a lot of people really seeing this as a significant race and coming together.”

Doug Racine, who finished second to Shumlin in the Democratic gubernatorial primary by 203 votes, also addressed the crowd.

“Peter, we are all behind you,” he said. Racine called on his supporters and those who backed the other Democratic primary candidates — Deb Markowitz, Matt Dunne and Susan Bartlett — to work together to elect Shumlin. “Let’s get out there and do it.”

“It is a close race,” Shumlin reminded the crowd. “You have the power to decide who the next governor is.”

Kelly Cummings of Fletcher said she would be helping. “Friday, at exit 19, we will have a Shumlin honk-and-wave,” she said, adding two more are planned for the final week. Also, she said, “We just picked up a lot of new signs and we are going to get those out.”

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20101020/NEWS03/101020033/-1/HEADLINES03/Sanders-lends-his-political-draw-to-Shumlin-s-gubernatorial-bid

Contact Nancy Remsen at 651-4888 or nremsen@burlingtonfreepress.com. To have Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters.

By John Flowers

MIDDLEBURY — U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont’s senior senator, said if re-elected next month he will continue to work to secure a waiver for Vermont to enact more sweeping health care reforms sooner than the 2017 timeline mandated under current federal law.

“The way the law is written almost begs for some areas of experimentation, provided you still have the basic health protections that were written into it,” the Middlesex Democrat said during a recent interview at the Addison Independent.

Vermont’s small population makes it a good candidate for federal waiver consideration, Leahy added.

“If you had California coming in, then you get the question of ‘Is the tail wagging the dog?’ and it might be more difficult,” Leahy said.

Some provisions of the new federal health care law began taking effect this year. For example, starting Sept. 23, young adults were allowed to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until they turn 26.

Leahy praised the new changes, though he acknowledged some states’ desire to take on more dramatic reforms than those prescribed under the law.

“I would have preferred a single-payer (system) anyway, nationwide,” Leahy said. “My guess is that’s what’s going to happen is people are going to find a lot to like about the (federal) health care bill.”

Leahy does not anticipate a groundswell of support for taking away the new health care rights now that some of those rights have taken effect.

“A lot of people are running around saying, ‘I’m running to go to Washington and repeal (the health care law),’” Leahy said. “That’s not going to happen.”

What will likely happen, according to Leahy, proponents of the health care law will come around to a willingness to consider some changes to improve its effectiveness.

“This is complex enough that in a nation of 300 million people, you are going to have to do some fine-tuning,” Leahy said. “You are going to have to have the flexibility so that if a state has a better idea, they can do it.”

Leahy cited Vermont’s Dr. Dynasaur program for needy children as an example of a state health care program that has proved itself outside of the federal government’s oversight.

“You’ve got to have some improvement to experiment, but the most important thing is: Have basic health care for everybody,” Leahy said. “We are the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t.”

Other topics Leahy discussed included:

• Don’t ask, don’t tell. Leahy reiterated his belief that Congress should repeal the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with respect to gay, lesbian and bisexual people serving in the U.S. military. Congress was unable to garner enough votes to pass such a measure late this summer.

Leahy said the military, by not making its ranks open to openly homosexual citizens, is losing access to people with valuable skills — such as interpreters that could help troops fighting in the Middle East.

“Everyone who has served in the military for any period of time knows that of course they are serving with gays,” Leahy said. “Just ask (of soldiers) ‘Are they doing their job?’ If they are not doing their job, get rid of them. But not because of their sexual orientation.”

• Renewable energy. Leahy said he is concerned when he hears American entrepreneurs talk about erecting wind turbines they must now purchase from China and other big nations with which the United States is competing.

The federal government, according to Leahy, should provide economic incentives to domestic producers of renewable energy technology. He noted the federal government’s longtime subsidy of the oil industry and said it was time to divert some of those resources to renewable-energy technologies.

“We give huge tax breaks to the oil and gas industry,” Leahy said. “We even give it for the production of ethanol. Why don’t we do more for the development of wind, solar and various types of methane — whether it is at a landfill or a manure pond.”

Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.

http://www.addisonindependent.com/201010leahy-tries-secure-health-care-waiver

BURLINGTON (AP) — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin called Monday for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to dramatically increase its extraction of contaminated groundwater from its site in Vernon, following news three days earlier that radioactive tritium was found in a well drawing from an underground aquifer and used for drinking water.

“I have been saying for some time that the radioactive leaks at Vermont Yankee could be the largest man-made environmental crisis that Vermont has ever seen,” Shumlin said at a news conference, adding that plant owner Entergy Corp., based in New Orleans, must be held accountable for the costs of cleanup.

“Unless Entergy Louisiana is held accountable for this disaster, it could cost Vermonters millions of dollars and put the health and safety of thousands at risk,” he said. “Entergy Louisiana needs to take immediate steps to ensure that this crisis does not worsen.”

Shumlin, the president pro tem of the Vermont Senate and a longtime critic of the state’s lone reactor, also stepped up his criticism of his Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, whom he called too friendly to Vermont Yankee and Entergy.

“Brian will stand up for the stockholders of Entergy Louisiana instead of protecting the pocketbooks and health and safety of the people of the state of Vermont,” Shumlin said.

Vermont Yankee is seeking a 20-year extension of its license, scheduled to expire in 2012.

Vermont is the only state with a law saying the Legislature must approve the extension of a power plant’s license. Vermont Yankee’s extension request failed to get out of the Senate in February.

The vote came a month after tritium leaks were first announced and after revelations that top plant personnel had misled state officials by saying Vermont Yankee did not have underground piping that carried, and could leak, radioactive substances like tritium.

Dubie has said he believes the decision on the plant’s future should be left to the state Public Service Board, which would issue a new state license for the plant, and to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

“Brian has been very clear from the beginning that the NRC is going to be the one who will determine whether the plant is safe,” Dubie spokeswoman Kate Duffy said Monday. “This is a conversation that has to be driven by science and evidence, not politics and emotion.”

Shumlin called on Vermont Yankee to triple the number of pumps, from two to six, that it has been using to pull contaminated groundwater from the reactor site on the west bank of the Connecticut River since last winter. In January, officials announced that radioactive tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that has been linked to cancer if ingested in large amounts, had turned up in a test well at Vermont Yankee. Since then, other radioactive isotopes also have been found.

Plant spokesman Larry Smith said technicians at Vermont Yankee had already pulled about 267,000 gallons of water from the ground in an effort to address the tritium leaks and expected to meet their goal of extracting 300,000 gallons by December.

Shumlin said the new discovery — tritium found at 200 to 220 feet underground, far deeper than previous depths of 30 to 70 feet — should require the pumping to continue well past December.

Smith noted that the new tritium measurement, about 1,040 picocuries per liter of water, was well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety standard for drinking water of 20,000 picocuries per liter. He said there is no threat to public health and safety.

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_16314049

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

How significant is it that radioactive tritium has been detected in a former drinking-water well on site at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant? There was disagreement about that Monday across political, professional and technical arenas.

Both major-party candidates for governor seized on Friday’s announcement that a low-level amount of tritium had shown up in testing of a well at the Vernon facility and said it raised new concerns about the plant’s future.

Scientists, too, said the development raises questions about where the tritium from a leaking pipe that was revealed in January and stopped in February might be headed.

Plant officials, the union representing workers there and the state’s Public Service commissioner downplayed the significance.

The swirl stems from a tritium leak that Vermont Yankee officials reported in January in underground pipes that company officials previously had said didn’t exist. Crews located the source of the leak in underground pipes at the plant and declared the leak isolated Feb. 15.

Since then, the tritium that had leaked from the pipes has migrated toward the nearby Connecticut River as the company has been extracting contaminated water and soil.

Friday, the state Health Department reported that 1,040 picocuries per liter of tritium had been detected in a drinking-water well that had been taken out of service in February because of its proximity to the leak. The well is near other monitoring wells that have tested positive for tritium, but this well is much deeper than its neighbors, raising concerns the tritium could have migrated to an aquifer that would allow it to spread farther.

Politics

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin held a news conference Monday at which he said Vermont Yankee should install more extraction pumps to ensure all contaminated water is removed from the areas as quickly as possible. He also said if he were governor, he would fine the plant’s owners for the contamination.

Vermont Yankee has two extraction pumps working onsite. Officials expect to reach their goal of extracting 300,000 gallons of water within the next month or so, but Shumlin argued the extraction should continue.

Shumlin, who led the push in the state Senate this year to vote against allowing the state Public Service Board to decide on a 20-year extension of the plant’s operation, argued that his Republican opponent, Brian Dubie, has been unwilling to stand up to Vermont Yankee owner Entergy Corp., based in Louisiana.

“Brian still says, ‘I’m going to want answers to questions before I’m going to be able to see that they can regain our trust.’ Entergy Louisiana will never regain my trust,” Shumlin said.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in to Vermonters and to Brian Dubie the seriousness of the challenge that we have down there,” he said, referring to the Vernon plant. “This is the worst man-made environmental disaster, in my judgment, in the history of this great state.”

Dubie has criticized the Senate vote against Vermont Yankee, arguing the plant’s future should be decided by the Public Service Board, which he says has expertise legislators lack. He also has questioned closing a plant that provides one-third of the state’s power and employs 650 workers. His support helped him win the endorsement of the union representing Vermont Yankee workers.

Dubie on Friday and again on Monday, however, said he always has said safety comes first, and the detection of tritium in the deeper well raises questions he wants answered before he could support a 20-year extension for the plant. Among the questions, he said, is whether cleanup of the contamination is adequate.

“Are the remediation steps that have been put in place by Vermont Yankee, are those adequate given the new discovery?” Dubie said. He said he wants assurance from the state Health Department and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the plant poses no health risk.

Dubie and retiring Republican Gov. Jim Douglas have been defenders of Vermont Yankee whose comments take a harsher tone when news about the plant takes a turn for the worse. Douglas spokesman David Coriell said Monday that detection of tritium in the former drinking well “is significant.”

“It’s a well they don’t use, but the fact that there is potential for tritium to get into a spot they didn’t believe it was before is very concerning,” Coriell said. “We need to understand the process by which that happened.”

Public Service Commissioner David O’Brien, appointed by Douglas, downplayed the significance.

“I don’t think we should take this as an indication of things going one way or another,” O’Brien said. “It’s how many days from Election Day?”

At The Plant

Jeffrey Wimette, business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that represents Vermont Yankee employees, said nothing about Friday’s announcement has shaken the workers’ faith in the plant. The tritium detected in the well is far below the 20,000 picocurie-per-liter limit for drinking water set by the federal government, he noted.

“I have no concerns, and our members wouldn’t have any concern,” he said.

Nor is the union worried that Dubie has shifted his tone about the plant, he said.

“He’s doing what he has to do,” Wimette said. “He still supports Vermont Yankee as long as it’s safe.”

Republicans and Democrats are using the plant as a political tool, Wimette said.

“If it’s not safe, it should be shut down,” he said. “Our biggest concern is that we’re letting politics decide.”

Vermont Yankee spokesman Larry Smith, meanwhile, sent out a news release seeking to douse the fire stirred by Friday’s announcement. He noted the test results revealed Friday do not pose a health risk, nor are they any indication of a new leak at the plant.

To extract enough water to test the well required 48 hours of continuous draw, he said.

Monitoring The Plant

William Irwin, the state’s radiological health chief, also said Friday’s announcement is no indication of a health risk. Although the well was used for drinking until Feb. 22, he said it did not test positive for tritium then. Nor has any other drinking well in the area, he said.

“It’s not so much concern about risk. It’s concern about the pathway,” he said. The discovery raises questions about whether the tritium has migrated into an aquifer, he said.

“It’s very complicated to understand what’s going on under the ground,” Irwin said. “We’re very interested in continued testing.”

Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 6651-4887 or thallenbeck@burlingtonfreepress.com. To have Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters.

Read more: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20101012/NEWS03/101011032/Reaction-varies-on-tritium-found-in-old-Yankee-water-well#ixzz129ozVVUO

Last week, Peter Shumlin proudly accepted an endorsement from Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s (PPNNE) Action Fund.
Steve Trombley, CEO of the PPNNE Action Fund stated, “The next governor of Vermont will make critical decisions about women’s access to reproductive health care services as health care reform is implemented in Vermont.”  Trombley continued, “That’s why PPNNE’s Action Fund is working hard to make sure that women and men in Vermont know that Peter Shumlin will stand up for choice and will protect women’s health.” Vermont has had a pro-choice governor for nearly 40 years and this will change if Brian Dubie is elected. Trombley further reiterated the difference between the candidates stating that when asked about this issue and whether or not the law needs to be changed Dubie has said, ”‘As a pro-life lieutenant governor, yes, I do.”

Peter Shumlin is 100% pro choice and will always protect a woman’s right to choose.  Dubie likes to say that this is a federal issue and it doesn’t matter.  He couldn’t be more wrong.  Anti-choice advocates are waging this battle at the state level.  In fact, in the past year alone, 18 states have passed legislation restricting a woman’s right to choose.  So yes, it does matter.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Gov. Jim Douglas boarded a motor home Saturday morning to travel across Vermont campaigning with Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie, the man he hopes will replace him in the governor’s office in January.

Former Gov. Howard Dean is on the phone several times a week with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin and his campaign staff, offering advice and fundraising help for the man he hopes will fill the office he once held.

The once and current governors of Vermont have each worked closely with their party’s candidate for governor, have seen them navigate policy and politics and have been their mentors and allies. Each knows his candidate’s ability to run the state about as well as anyone could. Both Dean and Douglas enjoyed relative popularity among Vermont voters and won the support of moderates who will be key to deciding the 2010 race.

For the eight years Douglas has been governor, he has worked with Dubie as lieutenant governor, appointing him to serve on his Cabinet to head commissions and councils.

“I believe strongly in Brian’s candidacy,” Douglas said of Dubie. “I believe he’s the best person to lead our state for the next few years.”

For 13 years, Dean and Shumlin worked together in the Statehouse, where Dean was lieutenant governor and then governor while Shumlin was a member of the House, then the Senate, including six years as Senate president pro tempore while Dean was governor.

“He’s very smart. He knows the issues. He knows how to move people,” Dean said of Shumlin. “He’s ready to be governor.”
Douglas, whose been involved in Republican politics in Vermont all his adult life, said he doesn’t recall meeting Dubie until 2000, when Dubie ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor and Douglas was state treasurer. In 2002, as Douglas won the open governor’s seat Dean was vacating, Dubie won the open lieutenant governor’s seat that Democrat Doug Racine vacated to run for governor. In their eight years in office together, Douglas said, he’s gotten to know Dubie.
Before Douglas and his wife, Dorothy, climbed into a Winnebago on Saturday for a campaign tour with Dubie and his wife, Penny, he told a crowd of about 100 Dubie supporters that he has worked with both major-party candidates for governor. “I know which one we need,” Douglas said.

Douglas touts Dubie’s work as chairman of the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, the Governor’s Commission on Healthy Aging and as an ambassador of Vermont products and interests in trips to China, Cuba and Canada. Douglas said he invited Dubie to join his Cabinet, which was not necessarily the norm for a lieutenant governor, because he wanted to be make sure the lieutenant governor was up to speed on issues facing state agencies. Dubie was involved in budget negotiations with the Legislature in 2009 and 2010, Douglas noted. Douglas said he made a point of meeting with Dubie every Friday during the legislative session to make sure they stayed up to date.

He noted that Dubie, who is an American Airlines pilot, used his knowledge of the air industry to create the Vermont Aeronautics and Aviation Association and to push for a sales-tax exemption for aircraft parts to help airplane service companies stay and grow in Vermont. “I can’t recall a lieutenant governor who’s been so involved in so many areas,” Douglas said.

Asked whether Dubie ever lobbied him on issues, Douglas couldn’t provide an example, but he said, “Brian is not at all reluctant to tell me how he feels about things in a respectful and cordial way.”

Along with campaigning at Dubie’s side, Douglas goes to bat for him in a television commercial that started airing last week. In it, he highlights the need for a Republican governor to counteract the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Douglas and Dubie pushed the Legislature to kill a manufacturing tax and reverse course on an estate tax, Douglas noted. “What we need is balance in Montpelier,” Douglas said.

As he talks up Dubie, Douglas isn’t shy about criticizing Shumlin, with whom he has tussled over budgets, energy policy, same-sex marriage, among other issues, the last four years. “That other fella, he’s an interesting guy. He’s made a lot of promises this campaign,” Douglas said, citing Shumlin’s proposals for government-run health care and universal preschool. “I think we know what happens when politicians make promises.”

Dean has run for president and headed the Democratic National Committee since he left office in 2003 after serving nearly 12 years as governor. These days, he said he spends a lot of time on the road, including campaigning for Democratic candidates across the country and helping with the recent Bosnian elections. He said he’s also in regular contact with Shumlin and his campaign staff, offering strategic and fundraising advice.

“I talk to Alex four or five times a week,” Dean said of Shumlin’s campaign manager, Alex MacLean. “I talk to Peter a couple times a week. I’m very involved.”

Dean said there are no specific plans for him to campaign with Shumlin in person in Vermont, though he would if asked. “This is not about Jim Douglas or Howard Dean,” he said. “My own advice is: If you need me, I’m there, but do your own thing.”

Dean worked with Shumlin in the Statehouse through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, through difficult budget years and more flush one, through creation of the state’s controversial Act 60 education funding law and first-in-the-nation civil unions law. He points to more recent times, though, in touting Shumlin’s abilities.

“Most impressive to me was the override of the governor’s veto,” Dean said, referring to the Legislature’s 2009 override of Douglas’ veto of the budget, a first in state history for the budget bill. “I’ve never seen that,” he said. “You have to get every single person in line to do that.”

Shumlin has remarkable political instincts, Dean said. “Peter was our go-to guy,” he said. “He understands politics in the best sense of the word.”

Dean, who was known as governor for being fiscally conservative, said Shumlin played a part in crafting budgets during his tenure. “He gets that Democrats have to be fiscally responsible,” Dean said.

While Douglas calls Shumlin’s proposals fiscally irresponsible, Dean said the ideas have merit. He said he sees single-payer health care as an option Vermont could offer under the new federal legislation, and he respects Shumlin for trying to cut $40 million a year from the Corrections budget within four years.

“I respect him for putting $40 million on the table. Maybe it’ll work; maybe it won’t,” Dean said. “He ought to get credit for trying.”

By contrast, Dean said, Dubie has avoided offering specific budget plans. “I haven’t seen Brian come up with any plan,” Dean said. “The book says don’t come out with any specifics. Dubie’s doing that.”

Dubie has proposed limiting state budget growth to 2 percent, at times citing years when Dean held spending to less than that. Dean said it would mean significant cuts that Dubie hasn’t specified. “You have to say what they are in the campaign,” he said. “You’re going to have to make some really unpopular cuts.”
Contact Terri Hallenbeck at 651-4887 or thallenbeck@burlingtonfreepress.com

Read more: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20101010/NEWS03/10100315/Douglas-and-Dean-weigh-in-on-governor-candidates#ixzz1202n2I8J

Published 10/10/2010

Even by the traditional standards of election-year mudslinging, Republican gubernatorial candidates in New Hampshire and Vermont have reached new lows. We’re thinking in particular about their attacks on sensible prison reforms supported by their Democratic opponents.

In New Hampshire, Republican John Stephen and supporters have slammed incumbent Democratic Gov. John Lynch for signing a law mandating that nearly all prisoners be released nine months before their maximum sentence. “I am appalled that anyone, regardless of party, would think that this is a good idea to let violent criminals out of prison early, as Gov. Lynch does,” declared Stephen. “As governor, I will not stand for this assault on the protection of our communities.”

What Stephen failed to note is that the law also requires released offenders to submit to stringent supervision during their early-release time, including electronic monitoring and treatment for the drug and alcohol addictions that landed many of them in prison in the first place. Also unmentioned was the fact that the law enjoyed support among Republican lawmakers and such soft-on-crime types as the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police, Attorney General Michael Delaney and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick.

There was good reason for that broad endorsement. Donna Sytek, the former Republican House speaker who supports the new law, wrote: “Nine months of mandatory, intensive supervision makes a lot more sense than no supervision at all under the old law,” reports the Concord Monitor.

In Vermont, Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie has proven no less shameless in his criticism of the proposal by Democrat Peter Shumlin to release some offenders into the community under state supervision. By providing those offenders with substance-abuse treatment, mental health counseling and the sort of education that could help them land decent jobs, Shumlin would hope to reduce the inmate population, cut the cycle of re-offending and save $40 million over several years.

“When the time comes for (such prisoners) to be released, I want to have the boots on the ground to break the cycle” of inmates getting out only to commit new crimes, says Shumlin, president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate.

Vermont has long prided itself on creative use of such community sentences, which can cost half (or less) of the $40,000 a year it costs to lock one inmate away in state prison. Such tough-on-crime governors as Democrat Howard Dean and Republican Jim Douglas have supported the approach. But Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie? To hear him and his ads tell it, Shumlin’s plan would create Fort Apache, Vermont.

In a new ad aired by Dubie’s campaign, two women are heard to say Shumlin’s plan “sounds dangerous” and “could threaten the safety of communities all across Vermont.” During a debate, Dubie brandished what he claimed was a list of inmates who would be released under Shumlin’s plan. (It turned out to be a spreadsheet of crimes that are considered violent under state law.) On a recent swing through Windsor, Dubie was unapologetic, telling Valley News staff writer Gregory Trotter, “This is about protecting the people of Vermont … . This is a scary public safety issue.”

Reasonable people can disagree about the proper balance between keeping offenders locked up and releasing them into the community under state supervision. And Democrats and Republicans alike would do well to acknowledge the risk of releasing offenders without providing the money and programs to keep them out of trouble and moving in a constructive direction.

What’s scary is to hear the kind of rhetoric that Vermont and New Hampshire voters normally experience only when a New York state political ad makes its way onto their television screens. Stephen and Dubie would do well to drop the scare tactics and focus on the issues. If they think keeping all offenders locked away is the answer, let’s hear their plans for paying the bills and keeping ex-convicts from committing new crimes when they are sent, without any supervision, back onto the streets.

http://www.vnews.com/10102010/7161070.htm

By Dave Gram

Associated Press Writer / October 8, 2010

MONTPELIER, Vt.—Radioactive tritium that has leaked from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plan  has turned up for the first time in a former drinking water well tied to a deep underground aquifer, plant and federal officials said Friday.

Plant officials said the new test results indicated there was no threat to public health and safety. Two positive readings, showing just over 1,000 picocuries of tritium per liter of water, were well below the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for tritium in drinking water — 20,000 picocuries per liter.

However, the presence of any tritium, an isotope of hydrogen and a byproduct of nuclear fission that has been tied to cancer when ingested in large amounts, was troubling to state Rep. David Deen, a river steward with the Connecticut River Watershed Council. The plant is adjacent to the river in Vermont’s southeast corner.

“That’s really bad news,” Deen said. “I was hoping it was going to be contained and that the shallow ground water would flush itself and that we would be done with it.”

The tritium leak that was first announced in January. Asked whether people living near the plant had anything more to worry about than before the latest development, the state Health Department’s radiological health chief, William Irwin, said, “I don’t think so.”

Irwin said there still is a high likelihood that the underground water system will flush itself out over time. He said, however, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds the situation because no one has an exact map of underground rock fractures through which the affected water is flowing.

The test results turned up in water samples pulled from a section of the well shaft extending from 200 to 220 feet below the surface of the plant site in Vernon. That’s about three times deeper than the deepest test well drilled this year — 70 feet — as the plant has tracked the spread of tritium and other radioactive substances through shallower ground water surrounding the 38-year-old reactor.

The well, which had been used as a water supply for Vermont Yankee workers, was shut down in February because of its proximity to the radioactive leaks. Plant, state and federal officials, like Deen, had hoped the contaminated groundwater would be limited to that which has turned up in various test wells on the site since them.

“What it means is that it has gotten through that rock layer that was protecting the drinking water aquifer,” Deen said.

It could not be immediately determined how large the aquifer under Vermont Yankee is. Irwin said he is not a hydrogeologist and did not have that information. Deen said, “That’s the aquifer that most of the wells in that area are tapped into.”

The future of Vermont Yankee, which is seeking a 20-year extension on a license currently set to expire in 2012, has become a major issue in this year’s race for governor. The plant is owned by New Orleans-based Entergy Corp.

The Republican candidate, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, has generally been supportive of the plant, but adopted a tougher tone Friday. He said the latest findings show that the plant “has much more work to do in order to regain the trust and confidence of Vermonters” following last winter’s revelations about the leaks and the fact that plant officials had misled the state about the existence of underground pipes at the plant that could leak radioactive substances.

The Democratic candidate, state Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, has been consistent in calling for Vermont Yankee to close when its license expires in 2012. “How many leaks and lies does Brian Dubie have to live through before he will stand up for the people of Vermont instead of the stockholders of Entergy Louisiana?” Shumlin said. “We need a governor who gets it right the first time and has the courage to stand up to corporate power when it is wrong.”

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