Yesterday’s Shumlin vs. Dubie dust up over Entergy’s Vermont Yankee future isn’t that shocking. Lt.Gov. Dubie quickly sliding toward forgiving Yankee for all its sins was almost inevitable.

What’s below the surface may be telling a story too.  

Dubie is quoted on VPR saying  

“The legislative appointed Public Oversight Committee put out a report yesterday that … said that if there's a culture of safety that management would embrace – oh absolutely, I totally agree with that – and if investments are made that, are continued to be made in VY, the legislative appointed POC saw no reason that VY couldn't operate past 2012."

(emphasis added)

One panel member noted the committee, unlike Dubie’s characterization, is a joint process between both the legislature and the Douglas administration.

Here is what Douglas’ commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service had to say about the group early on

"This is a process that we all agreed should happen, including the governor and the Legislature,"

 

I attended the Vermont State Senate debate on the re-licensing of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee and was particularly struck at the time by the Lt.Gov.’s apparent unfamiliarly and unease with his role as president of the senate. Several people commented that he acted unprepared, as if it was his first day on the job although he had held this position for four terms, almost eight years. That impression is part of the growing sense that Dubie is not now and never was “ready for prime time,” as apparently recognized by some in the press.  

An example on the flip.

Performing a compassionate public service intervention that a less charitable publication might not be bothered with, the Times Argus today takes time to patiently alert Brian Dubie to what should be obvious to a candidate for governor.

An election campaign is when statements such as Dubie’s inevitably come under minute parsing, with all shadings analyzed and all possible meanings teased out.

And  

Dubie can expect more close parsing of his words as the election season continues. He is not as politically shrewd and verbally agile as Gov. James Douglas, and his Democratic opponent can be expected to pick up on any effort to spin a story to his liking.

It is possible Dubie is strategically downplaying or ignoring Governor Douglas' role in the panel. However given his historic reluctance to debate and having mostly limited his campaigns to proven friendly venues (and Facebook) it is easy to picture a candidate only lately getting up to speed and cramming for his finals.  

A stinky situation is brewing in South Burlington.

On June 28 and 29, VTrans will replace a culvert liner on Dorset Street near Kennedy Drive. The technique causes a strong odor, like a very pungent epoxy or paint. The state says there is no health risk.

   

So reads Vermont WCAX news’ almost light hearted report .The situation may be a little more involved. Although the Vermont.gov. website posted a strong smell and odors warning in practically the same don’t worry about a thing language.  

This culvert rehab process known as trench-less repairing has in the past raised some legitimate health concerns. Cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) styrene based technology is a burgeoning repair method for culvert and recently even drinking water pipe rehabilitation. A lining tube is saturated with a styrene based thermosetting resin and installed into the pipe. Subsequent curing with a heat source results in a pipe within a pipe.    

No digging, fewer delays and perhaps no problems if done carefully.

The state of Virginia within the last two years revised its procedures and lifted a ban on this repair. In 2007 it was found the process could result in contamination of soils and receiving waters from the release of unacceptably high levels of styrene into the environment.

Water samples collected from pipe outlets at five of the seven CIPP installations showed detectable levels of styrene. Styrene concentrations were generally highest in water samples collected during and shortly following installation. The maximum duration that styrene was detected at any site was 88 days following the CIPP installation.

Although the sites in this study were not directly linked to sources of drinking water, styrene levels at five sites were higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's maximum contaminant level for drinking water of 0.1 mg/L.

Certain measurements were also found to exceed the concentration required to kill 50% of several freshwater aquatic indicator species.

Possible causes included: poor installation that did not contain styrene condensate

uncured resin escaping from the liner

insufficient curing and a degree of permeability in the lining.    

Virginia’s substantial modifications to VDOT's CIPP specifications included;    

An inspector training program    

Increased project oversight    

Water and soil testing prior to and after CIPP installation.  

   A labor agreement for the Champlain Bridge project that was actively opposed by the Douglas/Dubie administration has been put into affect by the principles anyway.

The PLA (Project Labor Agreement) between the general contaractor, sub-contractor and building trade unions spells out pre-hire terms and conditions of employment on the job. This framework standardizes wages, benefits, schedules, safety requirements and work rules and is said to speed completion of the initiative on time, on budget and without strikes or lockouts.  

A press statement said: “The PLA will accomplish what Governor Douglas was sadly unwilling to do – guarantee local residents an opportunity to land a job on this $70 million project,” said Vermont Building and Construction Trades Council President Jeff Potvin. “Labor will not be imported from elsewhere to build one of the largest infrastructure projects in our region’s history.  The general contractor stands to save up to $3 million because of a PLA – cost savings that could have been realized by taxpayers if our Governor had done the right thing.”

This past April as bids for the bridge project became available Vermont Agency of Transportation spokesperson John Zicconi claimed;

with the bid-opening happening tomorrow, it's far too late in the process to introduce a PLA now. Doing so, he said, would push back the project schedule and prolong the ferry service that costs Vermont about $30,000 a day to operate

At the time Vermont Secretary of Transportation David Dill carried Douglas’ Springtime fear mongering even farther saying Vermont contractors have told his agency that the requirements would either force higher bids or, more likely, keep them out of the bidding process altogether.  

Yesterday the AOT spokesperson sang a much different song when reacting to the agreement. He softened his pitch, never mentioned, and apparently no reporter questioned him about the missed potential $3 million cost saving for the state taxpayers mentioned in the announcement.

Its all water under the bridge.

Zicconi said Monday: the state doesn't see the Project Labor Agreement as a problem; they just did not want to be a part of it. "We always knew it was a possibility that the contractor coming in may want to engage in a PLA and we were always fine with that," he said. "We just did not want you dictate to that contractor who is an employer how they should do business because every contractor handles these things differently." Zicconi said the labor unions will help Flatiron find the skilled workers they need, quickly.

 An apparently well meaning man from the NRC was in Vermont last week holding meetings on what could be described as a listening tour.  

Here in Vermont NRC Chairman Jaczko was told that the NRC had a credibility problem with regard to Vermont Yankee and its myriad of safety issues. He [Jaczko] said there is a "trust gap" between Vermont residents and the NRC.  

What better illustration does the NRC need of what could be fixed, credibility wise than  the report  from his agency, released days after his visit, of VY’s 65 “relevant” and “non relevant” cracks in the thirty year old plants steam dryer.  

The report filed earlier this month with the NRC by Entergy was given the traditional soft entry into the news flow on a quiet Friday afternoon. A relevant explanation of these two cracking classifications, “relevant” and “non-relevant” was not available.

No relevant change in procedures at the NRC, kind of incredible.  

BRATTLEBORO —A recent inspection of Vermont Yankee’s steam dryer, considered a critical indicator of aging and stress at the nuclear reactor, showed only one new crack, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said late Friday afternoon.  

The new crack brings the total to 65 cracks in the steam dryer. At the same time, Entergy said it reevaluated 39 cracks identified during the 2008 refueling outage which had been determined as “relevant” at the time, and were now “non-relevant.”  

Neither Entergy nor the NRC could explain the difference between “relevant” and “non-relevant,” saying technical staff were unavailable Friday afternoon.

 All politics are local somewhere.

Vermont Lt. Gov. candidate Brian “Pure Vermont” Dubie’s contracted media company goofed.  

Harris Media of Texas, one of Dubie’s out of state handlers, has Republican clients all over the country.  Among them are Texas Sen. John Coryn, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and newly elected Virginia Gov. Bob MacDonnell.  

This election cycle Harris is managing campaign work in Wyoming, Wisconsin, and Vermont. Last week they accidentally posted a Wyoming  policy statement to another  client’s Wisconsin webpage.  

A spokesperson for U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson of Oshkosh Wisconsin says they are seriously considering whether they want to continue using Harris Media’s services.  

Harris mistakenly posted a policy statement on Johnson’s Wisconsin web site pledging to promote tourism and cut down on wolves in Wyoming.

“I have the right plan to deal with the wolf problem and bring management of these predators under the control of the people of Wyoming,” the statement reads.

Johnson spokeswoman Kristin Ruesch said that the statement was mistakenly posted by an employee of Harris Media, which handles Web sites for both Johnson and Colin Simpson, a Republican candidate for governor in Wyoming whose campaign had prepared the statement.

The effort AARP is waging to get a utility rate break for a low income Vermont resident has yielded another interesting insight. The last dust-up in was over the ill advised legal track explored by CVPS lawyers with an argument that They [low-income residents] would only spend the savings on cigarettes. This resulted in an apology from the head of CVPS for insensitivity.  

Today it is reported one top lawyer at the Vermont Public Service Board has taken word for word language from a utility industry lawyer and used it in a Department legal brief.  

In a filing last month before the Public Service Board by Sarah Hofmann, the department’s director for public advocacy, more than two of six pages are word-for-word identical to a filing made in January by David Mullett, a lawyer for the Vermont Electric Cooperative and municipal electric departments.  

The PSB lawyer,(correction:Hoffman is the Department of Public Service [DPS] attorney) the Director of Public Advocacy is cozily using legal language supplied by lawyers for the utility her department regulates. This could illustrate what forces keep that revolving door spinning speedily between regulated industries and regulators, our erstwhile public advocates.

Just another successful game of capture the regulator Douglas /Dubie style.  

The PSB deputy commissioner sees no problem with this:  Wark called the complaints about Hofmann an attempt “to divert attention away from the facts to an unseemly innuendo”  

“The department did use some of Mr. Mullett’s legal analysis, with his permission, because it is solid work that shows that the concept of this cross-subsidy is bad for consumers,” he said. “The department did nothing wrong.”

 Perhaps as Fitzgerald and Hemingway are said to have once discussed, the rich are different than you and me.  

“They may be less susceptible to the shame and fear-mongering used by the government and the mortgage banking industry to keep underwater homeowners from acting in their financial best interest,” said a University of Arizona law professor in a New York Times article who has studied strategic defaults.  

Yes, they have more strategic options.

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.  

By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.  

Though it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment.

It’s simply a strategic default option for the wealthy that can walk away unscathed from something sour, unlike the other people that are susceptible to shame and fear mongering used by the government and banking industry.  

I wonder if this strategy might strike some bankers as an option above the law. Nah, at a certain level all the rules change, this is America 2010.

But how does all this trickle down?

Both Dunne and Shumlin were different people when they came to the Free Press than what I have seen in the forums. They opened up. They challenged us, me – more so than they challenge their colleagues in the campaign. They were direct, pugnacious, inspired. I liked that. They poked me in the eye, gently of course, but they came with backbone, with a touch of self-righteous indignation. They were personal, highly likable and they were convincing. Vtbuzz

In middle school shop class (called junior high industrial arts back then) I had a shop teacher who was suddenly fired.  Fired, the story went, for starting a fight between two kids in his class. Longtime instructor Mr. Pfitz (not his real name) had been at the school for several generations of wooden paper napkin holders and metal ash trays and must have grown quite bored.  

One year he began egging on a fight between two kids. It was easy all he had to do was tell kid Y that kid X was saying bad things about and then to kid Y… well you get it. Pfitz got his fight, which no doubt ended his boredom but it also ended his career, or so the local story went.    

Early on when Brian Dubie first put his co-pilot’s hat in the ring the Democrats in disarray meme was first of ten reasons Dubie could win in November put forward by political sage Chris Graff  #1 Democratic disarray: With five Democrats lined up and ready to battle for the gubernatorial battle – and I mean battle –

There is still plenty of time for a little Democratic primary dust-up but the chances of full scale Democratic disarray fade a little each week. Democrats hopefully may fail to live up to outside predictions of primary mayhem that might do nothing more than benefit Dubie.  

In the meantime the Vtbuzz editor seems to be doing a pretty good imitation of my old industrial arts teacher Mr.Pfitz:

My suggestion is, as Shumlin as done so often, is break the rules, have some fun doing what you do so well as a politician, thrill the crowd, and make history with the best conversation you can give on the issues — for the future of Vermont.  

 Brian Dubie is pre-certified, for Category III landing approaches. “I don’t have to call the FAA for a permit” He wants to handle environmental enforcement and permitting in a similar way.

Once again reaching deeply into his stock of pre-certified examples he addresses this question from the Free Press: When the interests of economic growth and environmental protection are in direct conflict, which carries more weight?

In my job as an airline captain I am regulated by the FAA. I am certified to make a “Category III approach” — meaning I can land my aircraft in zero visibility and zero ceiling (clouds). Because I am pre-certified by the FAA when I am making an approach on a dark and stormy night, I don’t have to call the FAA and ask for a permit to land the plane*[see Dubie made easy below]….

I look at many environmental permits the same way. First, there is no room for error. But there is room for simplification.

If we certified engineers and architects, contractors, materials and best practices — if we required regular recertification — and if the penalty for noncompliance is loss of certification, we could streamline and speed up the process and devote more resources to enforcement. That’s the right way to target our resources. It’s also a responsible way to grow our economy.

Target our resources and let pre-certified engineers, architects and contractors handle the new streamlined process. Kind of like the Mineral Management Service and their de-facto pre-certifying of the oil drilling industry. MMS followed wholesale a set of best practices adopted directly from the American Petroleum Institute.

Evidence that the oil and gas industry had captured MMS abounds: oil and gas company employees filled out official inspection forms in pencil for the MMS inspectors to trace over in pen; the industry cut and pasted Environmental Assessments from drilling projects in other parts of the world with no oversight from MMS (as evidenced by the inclusion of walruses — a cold water species which lives in Alaska — as a species of concern in the Gulf of Mexico); and MMS adopted wholesale a set of "best practices" for oil and gas drilling straight from the American Petroleum Institute, and then made these best practices only suggestions

* Dubie made easy: For those who do not have FAA Category III approach clearances and may be having trouble following Dubie’s reasoning:  People with drivers licenses don’t have to get a permit from the state each time they park their car. No room for error and always room to simplify?  

  Brian Dubie was declared Godfather of Green Valley and said to be playing a coy chess game on environmental issues by the Free Press Vtbuzz  blog.This took place on Thursday after dodging a question Wednesday about believing in climate change. Today he submitted a new complete response.

Thursday an editor at the Free Press contributing to vtbuzz appeared to have Brian’s back on the green climate issue. The editor who previously said of Dubie “Well, the Democrats can’t beat him on green.” but speculated that they might, helpfully takes note of Dubie’s 5 yr. old Green Valley Plan which he found on Dubie’s website and posts with his own observations of what he sees as the candidate’s wily gamesmanship.  

Dubie claims to be the Godfather of the Green Valley.  I remember the first time I saw him tout this idea at a Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce breakfast. It must have been five years ago, perhaps longer. He was outfront on this topic, at least in terms of jobs.  He continues to play a rather coy chess game.

Wednesday the Vermont League of Conservation Voters posted the answers to their gubernatorial candidate issues questionnaire. It covers the environment, conservation, clean energy, clean water, green jobs, Vermont Yankee and more.

I found my way to the LCV questionnaire from a different vtbuzz blogger entry on Wednesday where it was noted that in his answer to the question: ‘Is climate change real?’ Brian Dubie “…doesn’t come right out and answer the question.”

On first try he ducked part of the question that all five Democrats answered clearly in the affirmative (on their first try !), that climate change is real.  

Here is Dubie’s revision:

I believe that scientific data clearly show that climate change is real, and as a result of human behavior, the world is getting warmer.

Will Dubie the Godfather of the Green Valley have to answer a hue and cry from supporters now that he said clearly that anthropomorphic climate change exists? It might change the comfortable Tiger climate he has been enjoying.