Fight brews over new energy program

November 27, 2008

MONTPELIER -- A protracted battle over new energy-efficiency efforts ended in agreement in March between the Legislature and the Douglas administration: They would spend $3.68 million to help Vermonters button up their homes and businesses.

Eight months later, some of the architects of the plan don't think the product looks anything like it was supposed to.

"I'm a little astounded," Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin said. "The current course of the department is to defy the law," Shumlin said.

James Moore, clean-energy advocate for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, went a step further. He asked the Public Service Board to intervene and require the state to put out a new request for proposals."You don't get to rewrite the law," Moore said. "The law says you've got to do this, and you're doing something different."

Steve Wark, who was consumer affairs director at the Public Service Department until he took over as Gov. Jim Douglas' spokesman this week, defended the description of the program. After consulting with various advocacy groups at two meetings, he said, it was clear that...

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