Will Dean listen to the environmental community as President?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Dean replaces critics on environmental advisory panel

MONTPELIER - A leading environmentalist was asked to leave Gov. Howard Dean's council of environmental advisers after she criticized the governor's short-lived proposal for a coal-fired power plant in Vermont.

Elizabeth Courtney, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, was one of 20 members of the governor's environmental council, which meets about once every three months with the governor.

But after Courtney wrote a newspaper opinion piece faulting Dean for his brief advocacy of a coal plant, she learned she was no longer welcome on the council. David Rocchio, the governor's legal counsel, wrote her late last month to say she will be replaced on the council by VNRC's board chairman. The move came after she had written the governor on energy issues and showed his staff her draft newspaper piece, Courtney said.

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Meanwhile, another prominent environmentalist - Mark Sinclair, Vermont director of the Conservation Law Foundation - was also asked to step down from the council. Sinclair said it was not yet clear whether he was being removed to make way for another environmentalist, as he was told, or because he had criticized Dean's environmental policies.

"The council from my view is dysfunctional," he said.

Courtney said she realizes it's the governor's prerogative to choose his environmental advisers. But she said she was disappointed she will no longer be a member of the group.

"I think the governor and environmentalists … need to continue to talk to each other," she said. "I hope that by letting me go from his council of environmental advisers that that option is not precluded. I think it's in the interest of every Vermonter that the governor continue to have a good healthy dialogue with people who are working for clean air, clean water ... and from Vermonters who are interested in developing a strong energy policy."

MORE http://www.rutlandherald.com/legislature/apr2/deanreplaces.html

[Octafish]

1. He wasn't too concerned about clean air...

... at the expense of the power companies. But, gee, wait! Weren't the power companies his big backers when he was first getting his campaign rolling? It's so confusing when there's no official paper trail to examine. Oh well, he says he's pro-environment and that's good enough for some people. Maybe we'll discover the real record when all Dean's gubernatorial papers are finally unsealed in 2013.


Vermonters beware, the state is ruining our environment

Annette Smith
IT'S MY TURN

Congratulations to the Free Press for bringing the Dean administration's efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act to the public's attention. The state has not informed the public about this effort.

However, the editorial (Feb. 20) is mistaken when it says opponents are wrong to think the NOx waiver is tied to two power plants proposed for southwestern Vermont.

Vermonters for a Clean Environment has found ample evidence that the state's pursuit of the waiver is tied to the Dean administration's support of the power plants -- which were planned for years prior to their public announcement in 1998. In 1994, "Vermont Electric 20 Year Plan" said, "Before, during and after the Champlain Pipeline proposal, the Rutland area has been the focus of discussions about a large gas-fired generating station." In a newspaper interview in October, 1998, developer Tom Macaulay said of the power plant project, "It's been in the works for about nine years."

Indeed, the NOx waiver has come to light specifically because the subject keeps appearing in paperwork surrounding this power plant project. public Service Commissioner Richard Sedano and Natural Resources Secretary John Kassel both acknowledge that the power plants will benefit if the NOx waiver is approved.

The Dean administration wants this power plant project and is willing to sacrifice the environment to make it happen.

CONTINUED...

http://www.vtce.org/ruinenvironment.html

[genius]

7. Thanks for posting this.

We need to keep on top of issues like this prior to the nomination.

[Duder]

2. Read what the critic says about Dean...

Excerpts from Interview with Elizabeth Courtney
PART III

QUESTION: Howard Dean as a leader. Do you have any observations on his leadership style?

COURTNEY: I think that part of Howard Dean's success in Vermont has been his fresh candor and intelligence. You always know where Howard Dean stands. He is candid and honest in his communications with Vermonters, and he is appreciated for that. He's also very bright, and he has a clear sense of his direction. So all of those things are very appealing and certainly lend to a strong leadership style. On the other hand, those very qualities that make him a strong leader also lend hip to being opinionated in a way that make it difficult to influence him.

QUESTION: Would he make a good president?

COURTNEY: Boy that is such a tough--what makes a good president, that's a huge conversation. Running this country is a huge job. When you consider who we've has it's all relative. Yes, I think he would make, he could make--Howard Dean could make a great president. He certainly has the drive, he has the intelligence; he cares very deeply about issues that relate to health and health care and the economy. He very fiscally responsible. So I think he could do a good job.

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/dean/dean0702/courtint.html

[sfecap]

3. Awwww...don't spoil their fun....

n/t

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. Good link, worth reading the whole thing

Did you also see the Interview with Anthony Pollina on the same site?

[Duder]

5. Yes, under Dean's profile

There's limks to the transcripts of some of the interviews.

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/dean/dean0702/deanmain.html

[genius]

6. He supported Yucca Mountain. That says it all.

I guess he felt it was better to be on Bush's side environmentally than on the side of a safe environment.