An Interesting Article From The Times Argus On Dean & Energy Deregulation

[Bertrand]

http://timesargus.nybor.com/Legislature/Story/43125.html

Dean’s close relationship with utility representatives dates back to the day he became governor in 1991. A lobbyist for Green Mountain Power and a GMP employee were among the first people Dean called in to help his transition.

A list of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers includes Green Mountain Power Corp.’s chairman, two company board members and a vice president, all of whom made donations to the Fund For A Healthy America. It also includes two longtime utility lobbyists.

...

— After years of pushing for the companies to absorb the excess costs of their expensive contract with Hydro-Quebec, Dean’s Department of Public Service agreed to let ratepayers be billed for more than 90 percent of what those excess costs are expected to be in the coming years. The extra costs will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

...

— The department also agreed to allow the utilities to sell Vermont Yankee to a Pennsylvania company for a price that was expected to be $23.8 million by the time the deal closed. Shortly before the Public Service Board was to make a final decision on that sale, another company stepped in and offered more than seven times as much. That sale to Entergy Nuclear Corp. is currently before the board.


It's amazing how his economic philosophy, much like most of his other postions, has matured. With this down the memory hole and his newfound sense of fiscal liberalism, I guess we wont be hearing Dean calling himself a "fiscal conservative" on the stump anymore.

[xultar]

1. So gang, what do you think? n/t

[Renew Deal]

2. The apologists are on the way.

Make way.

[MrSoundAndVision]

3. Well I'm not suprised

Interesting article. But it won't matter much to those Dean supporters here. Those that are Dean supporters here didn't even switch when there candidate went back on his word (lied?) about ensuring that every Democratic presidential candidate abide by the spending limits imposed for accepting public financing. But I'll bookmark the article for distribution to locals. Thanks for posting it.

[xultar]

4. No, he didn't lie, his supporters told him not to take the money

he's off the hook on that. That's politicts. GOOD SHOW Dean! GOOD SHOW! I'll give the guy some credit I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's good.

[Skwmom]

8. He words the question so he gets the answer he wants.

He's getting a pass now but wait until the general election. His campaign staff is so cocky they think that Dean can lie on almost every issue and get away with it. Dean and his campaign staff are in for a rude awakening.

[Rose Siding]

6. When distributed

make sure you don't include this clip:

Over the years, the governor has sided with the utilities on many of the most pressing issues, including the push for deregulation of the electric industry, and later backing away from that as a goal.
end snip>

That would show that some time ago, Dean quit supporting deregulation. He even threatened to sue the feds so VT wouldn't have to hook up to the nat'l electric grid. If they had, New England would have lost power this summer, too. Vermont's electric industry remains regulated.

or this:

Nearly a fifth of the roughly $111,000 collected in its first months by Dean’s presidential political action committee, the Fund for a Healthy America, came from people with ties to Vermont’s electric utilities, according to a recent Federal Elections Commission filing.
end snip>

because that's only about $20,000, just over 10% of what Kerry got from the communications industry.

[blm]

11. That's NOT true. Kerry's donors were his brother's CO-WORKERS

at a law firm who gave 170, 000 dollars total over an 18 year period. That's about a dozen people at a law firm that represented a small telecommunications firm in Boston.

That shows how HONEST Kerry is when Bush gets ONE of his pioneers to donate 200,000 in 1 election year. To twist into a smear against Kerry is absurd and not honest at all.

And Dean only backed off deregulation of electricity as a goal because the LEGISLATURE blocked him every time he tried. It was not his choice.

[Skwmom]

7. Don't forget Dean saying he was going back on what he said

he would nail the other candidates for because he needs the money to beat Bush. If that was true, then why in the primary doesn't he adhere to the individual state limits?

Who lies more: George Bush or Howard Dean. They can run all the ads they want calling Bush dishonest. If the Dem nominee is also dishonest we are NOT going to beat Bush.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[papau]

5. A fair article - Dean sold "fiscal conservatism, education, health care.”

as stated in the article, and that was the reason given in the article for the rather well off liberals to give to him - not their jobs with the power industry -and Dean has not changed. Vermont power is not that expensive (buying from Quebec is rather cheap). And the article noted Deans's honest answer that one answers the phone first for those that gave money -they get to the head of the line on access.

At the Time of the Quebec Power contract renewal, the action on the left was not the cost - although that was what we held over the power company's head - it was the land lost to the native folks when Hydro expanded the water area that generated the power. Once Canada agreed to the expansion, the question became moot.

[SahaleArm]

10. You've got to admit everyone's pretty riled up over this topic.

Still no one knows their candidate's actual positions:evilgrin:

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. I know Kerry's, and he's straight as an arrow

unlike the contorted 11th hour conversions of Dean