Energy Laws

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Created on Friday, 04 March 2016 16:34
Written by Alex Pinkham

SolarandWindpowerAround The Northeast Kingdom- If you drive thought Vermont you will see a lot of hill-top wind farms and fields with solar panels. The movement for green and renewable energy is strong, but the returns are raising some questions.

A recent Vermont Law School study found ways The Green Mountain State makes it's power. 0% of the power is made by either solar or wind. According to the study, Vermont has no laws about renewable energy credits. So what they found was that companies are selling their credits to other states that require renewable energy. Aaron Kelly, one of the students who ran the study, explains why Vermont does not get renewable energy credits from these mediums.

 


"It never did, and in fact the electricity that Vermont uses, because it has been stopped of its environmental character, is nonrenewable energy," said Kelly. "That in essence is why Vermont is getting 0 present of its power form solar and 0% from wind and its greenhouse gas emissions have been rising."


Their findings were presented to a committee who pushed for the laws regarding selling energy credits to be removed. The hope was to give more power to the towns to pick where they want to have wind and solar power set up in the town. At the meeting the Director of Energy Policy and Planing for the State Public Service Department, Asa Hopkins, confirmed that Vermont residents were unable to legally say that they were getting energy from wind or solar because the credits are sold out of state. According to Hopkins, this will change next January as Vermont is changing the law regarding how much renewable energy is created and used in the state. That will be a relief for residents like John Nielson, an energy consultant who invested about thirty thousand dollars into solar power.


"It makes me feel like I have done what I can to make the world a better place. I've always been concerned about our grandchildrens grandchildrens grandchildrens. And what kind of earth they will inherit from us today," he said. "And just by doing a little something. I feel a little bit better inside because of that."