Issue Position: Restore Sound Energy Policy

Issue Position

Governor Shumlin has gambled Vermont's entire energy future on a pie-in-the-sky fantasy that wind and sunlight can power a modern economy. His massive, taxpayer-funded subsidies to a small number of politically-connected solar/wind companies will force all Vermonters to pay up to 800% more for that portion of their electricity for years to come. Governor Shumlin's 2012 expansion of these schemes will cost ratepayers more than $95 million over the next 20 years just to reduce Vermont's carbon emissions by less than 1%. But we already have one of the cleanest electric generation portfolios in the nation. So I will continue to support a mixture of hydro, nuclear, natural gas, biomass and, yes, a little bit of wind and solar until that technology becomes cost-effective. Meanwhile, until we thoroughly study the potential environmental damage caused by large-scale, industrial wind development, my administration will demand a moratorium on it. I call this overall policy "realistic."

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