Consider the following: Not too long ago, IBM, Vermont's largest private employer, specifically cited an affordable and reliable supply of electricity as a key factor in efforts to maintain its economic health.
Usually ahead of the technology curve, Big Blue is no different than legions of grocers and other small businesses throughout Vermont who know that any increase in electric bills translates into higher consumer prices or lower take-home pay.
Grocery stores are businesses with very tight margins, and a change in one of our top three fixed costs, such as higher electricity costs, can be devastating. What's more, with so much of our inventory requiring refrigeration, a reliable energy supply is essential to our operations and key to the delivery of safe and plentiful food to Vermont consumers.
So if a reliable, reasonably priced supply of electric power is identified by both large and small businesses in Vermont as important, what is being done to address this issue?
Well today, we are still without a national energy policy. The price of natural gas, the most commonly used fuel to power new power plants in New England, has increased significantly. These increases also have eaten into small businesses' margins and slowed the region's economic growth. Furthermore, gas supplies continue to tighten. We are using it faster than we are discovering it. Other reliability questions still loom ominously in the background as glaringly illustrated by the blackout that crippled much of the eastern seaboard and the Midwest in August 2003. A key lesson from that costly experience is that the most reliable power comes from power sources closest to where it is consumed.
Together, all of these realities spell uncertainty for Vermont small business. And uncertainty could mean little or no growth. If small businesses are to survive and thrive, our electricity supply must be affordable and reliable.
As electricity demand is expected to rise by at least 10-15 percent between now and 2015, two-thirds of our current power faces an uncertain future. The Hydro-Quebec contracts, which provide a third of the state's power, will begin expiring in 2015. There is no certainty this power will still be available to Vermonters, or available at attractive rates. The other large supplier of energy in Vermont — nuclear power — satisfies the affordability and reliability priorities, but is set to expire in 2012. So it seems indisputable that nuclear power should continue to be considered as part of the necessary mix.
However, Vermont's economic future seems uncertain because of a small but vocal minority in our midst with a strong propensity to just say "no" on energy issues. Vermonters can't continue to say "no" to upgrading power lines; "no" to wind technology; "no" Vermont Yankee and "no" to hydropower.
Vermont consumers and businesses need reliable electricity and need it at reasonable prices. We need to start saying "yes."
As we examine options to meet our future electricity needs, we must recognize that turning our backs on any proven reliable, low-cost power source or new environmentally sound technology does not make sense. We must reject fear mongering and rely on proven performance. Furthermore, the political process should not impose unnecessary and unrelated costs on the production of badly needed affordable electric power.
We must preserve reliable, low-cost power sources and be aggressive in finding more so large and small businesses will have the confidence and energy they need to grow in Vermont.
We face a looming energy crisis within the next decade. Now is the time to begin a statewide effort to define our energy future, and we need to have everyone at the table. Just saying "no" won't solve the problem.
This letter is from Jim Harrison, president of the Vermont Grocers' Association, a non-profit trade association of more than 700 stores, including supermarkets, superettes, convenience and country stores along with 150 suppliers to the industry.
