Expanding McNeil plant is bad news in the long run

This commentary is by Kim Hornung-Marcy of Williston, who is active in 350Vermont and chairs the annual New England Conference of the United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society. 

Fed up with flooding, cyanobacteria in our lakes and rivers, closed beaches, and Canadian wildfire smoke right here in Vermont? Sadly, Vermont Gas, Burlington Electric District and UVM Medical Center want to add to our misery. 

They want to spend over $40 million, and release even more greenhouse gases and pollutants into our overheated atmosphere, to send steam heat to UVM Medical Center. 

According to the Partnership for Energy Integrity, “Wood emits 150% more greenhouse gases than coal per unit of energy produced.” Wood emits more toxic air pollutants than any burned fuel and is the least efficient fuel we burn. 

The McNeil Generating Station in Burlington operates at around 25% efficiency; adding steam heat gets it to only about 29%. To do the steam heat, more wood would be burned, increasing greenhouse gases over the 572.1 tons of CO2 reported in the state emissions report for 2022. 

McNeil burns 76 tons of wood an hour, according to its website. We have to stop burning things if we want to make progress on the climate crisis.

We already have greener solutions to heating and cooling that do not involve burning a fuel. Why are green heating/cooling solutions — which already exist, and are cheaper in the long run — being ignored? Steam only heats, but the green solutions heat and cool. 

Expanding McNeil is asking taxpayers to pay twice. First for a system that is very expensive and adds to greenhouse gas emissions and health concerns. Second, we will need to pay again for the green solutions down the road, if we don’t put them in now. 

Citizen outrage and Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act emissions reduction goals will guarantee we switch to cleaner solutions. Scaling up a toxic, greenhouse gas emitter like McNeil depends on confusing people about emission facts and pretending it is cheaper when it is not.

Green solutions for heating/cooling and energy generation not only exist; they come with up to 40% payback for nonprofits and governments through the Federal Inflation Reduction Act, starting in 2024. Green solutions are always cheaper in the long run, as wind, solar, ground source and air source heat pumps, and backup batteries do not require burning a volatile fuel. They are cheaper in the long run to run and maintain and reduce rather than scale up climate change. 

New York and Massachusetts are not allowing biofuels or biomass (wood) to heat or cool buildings, knowing the climate impact, and greener solutions exist. Now is the time for Burlington Electric and Vermont Gas to transition to the ground source heat pumps they express interest in.

McNeil is already Vermont’s largest stationary source of greenhouse gas emissions. Calling it a form of “renewable energy” does not work when climate scientists are telling us we need to dramatically cut emissions in the next five years and a mature tree takes 200 to 300 years to grow to its full carbon sequestration ability. The true cost of this expansion includes more climate disasters.

350Vt is only asking the city of Burlington not to scale McNeil up to send heat to UVM Medical Center. We hope there can be a transition time where Burlington Electric and Vermont Gas, who have both expressed interest in ground source heat pumps and geothermal networks, transition to this kind of work so the union members retain good-paying green jobs. 

We are not against logging, just against burning trees at the scale McNeil requires. Wood products like homes, furniture or insulation sequester carbon. Burning releases carbon instantly. 

It is time to say no to bad policy that ignores the climate crisis and robs our children of their future. Ask your Burlington City Council members to vote no on expanding McNeil. Ask them and the University of Vermont Medical Center to invest instead in greener, healthier, cheaper in the long run heating/cooling and electricity generating solutions that fight climate change.