Exposed: Vermonter's Care about Toxins In Our Homes

Last night VPIRG hosted a panel discussion on our increased exposure to toxic chemicals and what Vermont can do to protect its residents. The panel included Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power, Senator Ginny Lyons, and green business owner Amy Todisco.

Schapiro kicked off the event by a highlighting the major findings of his book. Among Schapiro’s biggest discoveries was the existence of two very different universes with regard to chemical regulations – the stringent standards of the European Union and the laissez-faire approach in the United States. As a result of these diverging paths, the U.S. has lost its foothold in setting international standards and has become the dumping ground for chemicals that other countries prohibit. Not exactly confidence inspiring for a Vermont crowd that was clearly concerned about our daily exposure to known and potential toxins.

But luckily Vermont-based legislative solutions to many of the issues discussed were named by Senator Lyons. This included a series of bills that VPIRG is working with Senator Lyons to advance including legislation to reduce Vermont’s exposure to lead, pesticides, mercury, and toxic flame retardants. In addition to legislative solutions, Amy Todisco offered suggestions and tips for reading between the lines and making wise purchases.

All in all, it was an informative and engaging discussion that makes me want to rethink those bottles on my bathroom shelf!

Another SCHIP Vote Today

The U.S. House of Representatives will be voting today on a new bill to extend and expand the SCHIP program. Right now, very few details have been leaked to the public, but reports indicate that the bill contains some of the changes requested by Republicans, including a cap on the income levels of families eligible for SCHIP and new provisions to encourage SCHIP families to remain on private health insurance. From what we understand, the bill will still expand the program by $35 billion over the next five years and will do so through an increase on tobacco taxes.

We’ll keep you posted.

Give the People What They Want!

Three down and two to go and the will of Vermont has never been so clear. More than a hundred residents came out to the Montpelier Elks Club last night for the third in a series of DPS forums designed to gauge public opinion on Vermont’s energy future. The clear sentiment – Vermonters want wind and renewables, not nuclear and fossil fuels!

Those in attendance ranked coal, oil, and nuclear power among the three bottom choices for Vermont’s future energy mix. The top three choices - you guessed it – energy efficiency, wind, and hydro.

Other noteworthy findings include the following:

• 97% wanted to see Vermont increase energy from renewables;
• 70% strongly agreed that Vermont should require that a minimum of electricity sold should come from renewables;
• 78% would strongly support a wind farm even if it were visible from where they lived;
• 81% thought that over the next 10 years Vermont should increase efficiency spending;
• And voters were most “extremely concerned” about radioactive waste and greenhouse gases.

This forum was a great exercise in democracy. Give the people a voice and they’ll make thoughtful decisions. Let’s just hope that our leaders and the DPS take the wants of Vermonters seriously!

To sign up for the last two hearings, click here.

By Charity Carbine, VPIRG Environmental Health Advocate

House Fails to Override SCHIP Veto by 13 Votes

The U.S. House of Representatives fell 13 votes shy today of overriding President Bush’s SCHIP veto. The final vote was 273-156. Earlier in the week, House Democrats vowed to pass another SCHIP bill if veto override efforts fell short. President Bush has said that he’s willing to work with members of both parties in both the House and Senate to find additional money for SCHIP. (In fact, he was even willing to admit that putting poor children first might take “a little more” than a 20 percent increase in SCHIP funding. What a guy.) SCHIP is currently set to expire on November 16, 2007, so hopefully the Bush administration will get to working with Congressional leaders soon rather than later.

Burlington: "Wind good, Yankee Bad"

Last night I was lucky enough to find myself along with 150 other folks at the Tuttle Middle School in tropical South Burlington for the Department of Public Service’s second hearing on Vermont’s energy future. From the get go I was quite concerned by the fact that the DPS did not seem to anticipate such a large turnout and thus had to close registration days before the event. Thankfully, Raab Associates (the group doing the polling) modified their website so that people could sign up for an online poll that would be taken into consideration with all the other data. Lesson to be learned:

A great number of people care about Vermont’s energy future and planning by the state needs to reflect that.

So, on to the festivities. Sitting in a middle school cafeteria dredged up some horrendous flashbacks from my tenure in 5th grade. I was, and still am, a geek and thus the moment I walked in was prepared to be mocked mercilessly by the 5th grade football team. Thankfully, I found a much warmer welcome in the form of chocolate chip cookies and diet peach Snapple.

Once you sign in they give you a little key pad and assign you to a table after which you are free to grab some dinner (see aforementioned Snapple) and chat with your table mates. Mine were great, intelligent and caring community members who, while we disagreed on some issues, all wanted what was best for the community and the State.

After dinner and the get-to-know-you the program begins in earnest. There was a quick round of demographic polling before we finally got to the meat of the matter, the energy presentation. The problems with this presentation can be seen fully in Drew Hudson’s blog post about the St. Johnsbury DPS hearing so I will not belabor that point here.

The presentation ended with a charge to sit down with your group to discuss and think up some questions. Our group discussion was great, we had everything from relatively pro nuclear to totally anti nuclear. But one place we hit an absolute consensus was that our energy portfolio must become diversified. And the question we ended up asking the panel was “How could large companies be incentivised to start producing power on site?” The answer from DPS was, “we’re starting to sit down with businesses to get that done right now.” Well, right on then.

Last but definitely not least was the all important polling section of the evening. Here is a rundown on the numbers:

1) Those polled disagreed strongly with continuing to purchase energy from Vermont Yankee.
2) 76% of those polled believed that we need to institute a Renewable Portfolio Standard.
3) 97% of those polled believe we need to increase the amount of renewable energy we use in the state.
4) People would be willing to more than $6 a month extra on their energy bills for renewable production.
5) 81% of those polled would strongly support a wind farm they could see from their homes.
6) 80% of those polled want the state to increase funding in our energy efficiency program.
7) On a scale of 1 to 9 where 9 is critically concerned the visual impacts of wind rated a 2.26 where as radioactive waste score a 7.63
8) On a scale of 1 to 9 where 9 is a critical threat to Vermont’s beauty utility scale wind rated a 2.65 and residential wind rated a 1.79.
9) On a scale of 1 to 9 where 9 was critically important decreasing greenhouse gasses scored a 7.99, decreasing nuclear waste scored a 7.62 and increasing investment in renewable resources scored a 8.02.
10) Those polled stated that their three highest energy priorities were wind, hydro and energy efficiency and their lowest priorities were coal, nuclear, and oil

Once again, score one for the good guys. Hopefully there will come a day when our law makers and administration see that the people want change and are dedicated to the kind of changes it takes to combat this global climate crisis. Last night gave me hope, let see if it will give our law makers some ideas.

Congress Ready to Rumble for Kids' Health Insurance

Tomorrow, members of the U.S. House and Senate will vote to override President Bush’s veto of legislation that would extend and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The bill in question, a compromise between the House and Senate, would extend SCHIP for another five years, provide an additional $35 billion in funding, and provide health care for an additional 10 million uninsured children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford the typical private insurance plan.

In vetoing the bill, President Bush, always an ally of the private insurance industry, claimed the legislation was a move toward “federalized” health care and that he believes in private insurance. Oddly enough, under the SCHIP program, children are typically enrolled in private health insurance plans, and there is no federally established or recommended benefits package.

Additionally, Bush has claimed that the SCHIP legislation extends coverage to families earning over $80,000. However, the bill in question limits SCHIP dollars to children in families with incomes at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which is approximately $60,000 a year for a family of four.

Why such discrepancies between the President’s statements and the actual bill? Well, several things might be at work here. It’s possible that President Bush has not read the legislation. It’s also possible that he’s receiving bad advice from his cronies. It’s also possible that he’s purposely trying to mislead the American public so that folks will get behind his veto. It’s much easier to sell bad policy with “truthiness” than by admitting that this veto was made in deference to the private insurance industry and big tobacco companies (much of the new SCHIP funding comes from an increase in tobacco taxes).

Whatever it is, one thing is clear: Bush’s veto makes no sense. It’s an exceedingly bad policy decision that puts children across this country at risk. Let’s hope that Congress can muster the votes tomorrow to override the President (and the insurance industry and big tobacco) to provide health care to children who need it the most.

We’ll keep you posted.
-By Stefanie Sidortsova, Health Care Advocate

Entergy Push Poll Can’t Hide the Truth

I guess Vermonters can’t be trusted to think for themselves. At least that’s what Entergy Nuclear, Vermont Yankee’s owner, thinks.

In recent days, irritated Vermonters have reported being the victims of an Entergy push poll. For those of you unfamiliar with this unscrupulous tactic, push polling is often used in political campaigns as a way to manipulate the opinions of voters and circulate negative information on the opposition. What’s worse is that this shifty attempt to sway voters is veiled as a legitimate survey!

In the case of Entergy, the recent collapsed cooling tower and emergency shutdown have created such a public relations maelstrom that the poll was pushing “positive” information about Vermont Yankee. Unfortunately for Entergy, no amount of spin is going to save them from the truth…Vermonters don’t want or need an aging nuclear facility that is literally falling apart!

This was made evident in the first of a series of Department of Public Service (DPS) regional energy forums. At the St. Johnsbury hearing last week, Northeast Kingdom residents showed overwhelming support for renewable energy and strong opposition on our continued reliance on nuclear power. And if we know Vermonters, we anticipate similar outcomes for the remaining public engagement hearings. Perhaps this is why Entergy felt the need to conduct the poll?

So don’t let Entergy “push” you around. Let your voice be heard and register for the upcoming forums in Burlington, Montpelier, Springfield and Rutland!

Click here to register for the hearings. Much like an election, if you don't register you can't vote, so sign on up!

Charity Carbine

DPS energy hearings start with a BANG!

Last night’s energy forum in St. Johnsbury was a BLAST! Faced with the tough choice of how to meet our future energy needs, voters came through with the answer :

We can choose to continue relying on dirty and expensive sources like Yankee and fossil fuels with disastrous consequences for our climate, economy and environment. Or choose a brighter energy future that creates thousands of jobs, cuts global warming pollution, and leaves our children a legacy of prosperity.

I was pleasantly surprised, with a few caveats, that the forum presented the choice before Vermonters in reasonable terms. Presented with that evidence, an overwhelming number of the Northeast Kingdom voters who showed up wanted renewable energy and energy efficiency to meet our future electricity needs. They also strongly opposed continued reliance on nukes, fossil fuels, and imported power.

Some examples:

• 84% of voters wanted Vermont to get more power from renewable sources;
• When asked if government should require utilities to to provide a minimum percentage of power from renewables: 53% strongly agreed, and only 15% strongly disagreed;
• 75% support increased funding for Efficiency Vermont;
• and, when asked to rate their level of concern about various environmental impacts, voters were nearly twice as concerned about nuclear waste and global warming as they were about the visual impacts of wind turbines.

(more results in the full report)

I’m excited about the upcoming forums in Burlington, Montpelier, Springfield and Rutland and encourage everyone to join us at one for a powerful evening where voters have a real chance to shape our energy future….don’t forget to register!

Here’s the full (long) report.

Health Care Updates from the Desk of Stefanie Sidortsova

Catamount Update

Yesterday marked a historic new beginning for health care in Vermont, as enrollment began in the state’s landmark Catamount Health program. Catamount Health is part of Green Mountain Care, a family of state- and federally subsidized health care programs for uninsured Vermonters. The health care administration is launching the program slowly, hoping to iron out all kinks before facing a deluge of applications. The Green Mountain Care advertising campaign is scheduled to begin in earnest on November 1. VPIRG will be issuing a scorecard on the Catamount outreach and enrollment process later this month. Click on the button below to sign up and see if you are eligible for benefits!

National News

You’ve probably already heard that the House and Senate passed a “compromise bill” that extends the highly popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for another five years. The bill was a compromise in that it combined previous SCHIP bills passed by both chambers. If the new bill becomes law, children in Vermont who are currently insured under our Dr. Dynasaur program will retain their health insurance. In a move that shocked no one, President Bush vowed to veto the bill. Stay tuned.