Environmental Groups Criticized Dean for Siding With Business.“’EP under Governor Dean meant Expedite Permits, not Environmental Protection,’ proclaims Annette Smith, the director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment. Smith is no stranger to Dean's environmental record, having tangled with the Dean administration on everything from the OMYA Corporation's mining to pesticide usage on Vermont's mega-farms. When Smith learned that Dean was holding a press conference at the Burlington Community Boathouse last week to celebrate his eco-legacy, she fired off emails to Vermont environmentalist calling for a protest of the event and wondering if they were ‘going to let Governor Dean ride out on his white horse of environmental leadership?’”
(Counter Punch, 2/22/03)
Dean “Greased the Wheels” on Environmental Permits.“ Business leaders were especially impressed with the way Dean went to bat for them if they got snarled in the state's stringent environmental regulations. When Canada's Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. wanted to build a new manufacturing plant on 700 acres of Vermont farmland in the mid-90s, for instance, Dean greased the wheels. Husky obtained the necessary permits in near-record time. ‘He was very hands-on,’ says an appreciative Dirk Schlimm, the Husky executive in charge of the project. And when environmentalists tried to limit expansion of snowmaking at ski resorts, ‘Dean had to show his true colors, and he did -- by insisting on a solution that allowed expanding snowmaking,’ says Stenger.”
(Business Week, 8/11/03)
Dean Set A Pro-Business Tone.“ Stephanie Kaplan, a leading environmental lawyer and the former executive officer of Vermont's Environmental Board, has seen the regulatory process under Dean become so slanted against environmentalists and concerned citizens that she hardly thinks its worth putting up a fight anymore. ‘Under Dean the Act 250 process (Vermont's primary development review law) and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) have lost their way,’ contends Kaplan. ‘Dean created the myth that environmental laws hurt the economy and set the tone to allow Act 250 and the ANR to simply be permit mills for developers.’”
(Michael Colby, editor Wild Monthly, Counter Punch, 2/22/03)
Dean Helped IBM With Environmental Regulations.“Business leaders were especially impressed with the way Dean went to bat for them if they got snarled in the state's stringent environmental regulations. ... IBM, by far the state's largest private employer, says it got kid-gloves treatment. ‘We would meet privately with him three to four times a year to discuss our issues,’ says John O'Kane, manager for government relations at IBM's Essex Junction plant, ‘and his secretary of commerce would call me once a week just to see how things were going.’”
(Business Week, 8/11/03)
IBM Plant Biggest Polluter in Vermont.“ IBM's Essex Junction chip plant discharged the most of any Vermont company, releasing 213,446 pounds of chemicals, or 36 percent of the 591,790 pounds released in the state in 1999. … IBM released 170,000 pounds of nitrates in 1999. The chemical is discharged to the Winooski River with the company's wastewater. That discharge is up from the company's 1998 nitrate release of 140,000 pounds.
(Burlington Free Press, 4/13/01)
Dean Close With IBM When Governor—But Details Sealed.“ Former Gov. Howard Dean met with executives at IBM at least quarterly. His appointees were in touch with Vermont's largest employer even more regularly. During Dean's 11 years in office, jobs at IBM's Essex Junction plant fluctuated up and down. The company crossed paths with the state on a variety of other issues from transportation to environmental permits and utility rates. How much influence did the former governor have with Big Blue? Finding an answer in the records Dean left behind is arduous at best.”
(Burlington Free Press, 8/10/03)
IBM Fourth-Highest Contributor to Dean’s Presidential.As of October 2003, IBM had contributed $26,095 to Dean’s Presidential campaign, making them the fourth-highest contributor. (www.opensecrets.org)
Dean Suppported IBM’s Call for New Highway.Not surprisingly, business groups have tended to back Dean since 1991. ‘He's been a strong supporter of many of our baseline issues,’ says Chris Barbieri of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. IBM's O'Kane says, ‘For the most part, business has viewed him favorably.’ IBM is far and away the state's largest employer, and Dean has assiduously courted the company, meeting quarterly with its executives for 11 years.
When the plant in Essex Junction pulled for a highway construction project that environmentalists opposed, Dean took the company's side. In mid-May, rumors circulated that IBM might scale back or close the plant. Dean told a press conference, ‘There have been very few things that they've asked for that they haven't gotten.’”
(American Prospect , 7/15/02)
Dean Appointed Two Ski Executives to Land Use Panel.“ The Land Use Permitting Process Interim Committee, which is to report its findings to the House and Senate Natural Resources committees by Jan. 15, agreed Friday to examine ways of eliminating redundancy in the permit process and make it more efficient while maintaining some public participation. But the 13-member panel itself came under criticism over its makeup. The law creating the group called on the governor to appoint four of the members: one each representing environmentalists, cities and towns, businesses and the general public.
Gov. Howard Dean appointed ski area executives both to the business and general public slots, a move that some environmentalists said left the panel stacked in favor of developers. ”
(Associated Press, 11/2/02)
”’I find it laughable that a representative of Killington is the governor's appointee to represent the general public,’ said Steve Holmes of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. ‘What I fear is that we're going to grease the process even more for businesses at the expense of citizens and at the expense of the environment.’ Committee member Sen. Richard McCormack, a Windsor County Democrat and chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said of Spangler, ‘Clearly he's representing the ski industry.’ He said it ‘certainly would be as reasonable’ to appoint Elizabeth Courtney, executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, to represent the ski industry. ‘It really doesn't pass the straight-face test,’ McCormack said.”
(Associated Press, 11/2/02)
Dean Set Stage for GOP to Purge Envr Board.“ Kaplan points to the ‘Environmental Board purge’ in the mid-90s that allowed Dean to set the pro-development tone. In 1993, the Board issued an Act 250 permit to C&S Grocers in Brattleboro with conditions that restricted the diesel emissions from its heavy truck traffic. After C&S execs cried foul and threatened to move to New Hampshire, Dean broke gubernatorial precedent by publicly criticizing the Environmental Board for issuing what he called a ‘non-permit.’
A year after receiving their public rebuke from Dean, four of the Environmental Board members - including the chair - were up for reappointment. With the not-so-subtle clues from Dean that he didn't approve of the Board's political direction, the Republican majority in the state senate shot down each and every one of their appointments, thus dramatically changing both the structure and climate of the Board.”
(Counter Punch, 2/22/03)
Nearly All Permits Approved—Most Without Hearings.“ After the post-C&S purge,’ says Kaplan, ‘the burden of proof for Act 250 permits switched from being on the applicants -- where it's supposed to be -- to being on the environmentalists. That's why 98% of the permit requests are approved and only 20% ever have hearings.’”
(Counter Punch, 2/22/03)
Dean as Environmentalist Is “Fraud."“‘Dean's attempts to run for president as an environmentalist is nothing but a fraud,’
told Wild Matters. ‘He's destroyed the Agency of Natural Resources, he's refused to meet with environmentalists while constantly meeting with the development community, and he's made the permitting process one, big dysfunctional joke.’”
(Counter Punch, 2/22/03)
Dean Blasted “Legal Ace” of Environmental Movement.
“ What did Dean think about the latest move of the Conservation Law Foundation ? The governor let loose. He blasted the foundation as an ‘extremist’ environmental group that would ‘stop at nothing’ to get its way. ‘All they do is make people mad,’ Dean said. …The organization is the legal ace of the Vermont environmental movement and a fierce advocate for clean water, clean air, and what it considers to be smart land use. The foundation's emphasis on enforcing pollution laws sets it apart from other green groups that focus on education or lobbying.”
(Burlington Free Press, 1/13/02)
Conservation Law Foundation Said Dean Wouldn’t Take Their Calls.
“The foundation's Vermont staff were dismayed but not surprised by Dean's tongue-lashing, which erupted on Vermont Public Radio's Dec. 4 ‘Switchboard’ call-in program.
After all, the foundation has become a sharp critic of Dean's environmental record, blasting him in newspaper ads last year for what it views as non-enforcement of clean-water laws. The relationship between Dean and the organization's Vermont director, Mark Sinclair, was already strained. Dean had dumped Sinclair who had worked briefly in the administrations of both Dean and Gov. Madeleine Kunin from two advisory councils and had stopped seeking his advice. Now Sinclair a Cornell law school graduate whose $95,000 salary falls just short of the governor's doubts Dean will take his calls. ‘I don't even try anymore,’ Sinclair admitted.”
(Burlington Free Press, 1/13/02)
Dean Consistently Underfunded Environmental Cleanup.
“ Elizabeth Courtney served on a state environmental panel during the Snelling and Dean administrations. Now executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council, Courtney has praise overall for Dean's environmental policies. But she agrees that the state's land-purchase reach exceeded its maintenance grasp: ‘Dean's choice, nine times out of ten, was to invest in land conservation as opposed to investing in the institutions that work on cleaning up the environment. He had an Agency of Natural Resources that was, during his tenure, consistently underfunded and understaffed.’”
(National Review, 8/11/03)
Dean Did Not Lead on Environmental Agenda.
“ Environmental groups accuse the governor of doing little to promote issues considered important to environmental groups: renewable energy, for example, or cleaning up Lake Champlain or curbing sprawl. ‘It does seem like we've lost our compass, doesn't it?’ said Steve Holmes, of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. ’It's turned into a holding action, defending our current environmental laws like Act 250,’ Sinclair said. ‘The governor is not setting any leadership . . . in terms of an environmental agenda. In fact, he's making it worse,’ he said.”
(Associated Press, 4/2/01)
“Dean Has Failed to Provide Leadership” On Clean Water.
“ The federal Clean Water Act is nearly 30 years old, yet the state of Vermont which brags to the heavens about its environmental reputation has failed to insist on all the steps necessary to clean up lakes and streams. Vermont reported last year that 129 stretches of river and lake are so polluted they fail to meet state water-quality standards. The pollution ranges from acid rain to runoff from manure-enriched farm fields. State government has particularly fallen short in insisting on clean-up of dirty urban and suburban run-off the spilled oil, gasoline, dirt and other waste that rain washes off streets and parking lots.
More than a dozen stormwater-polluted brooks in Chittenden County made last year's list. Reducing pollution from urban runoff will be complicated, inconvenient for developers, and possibly expensive. Our local representatives in Montpelier have not had the political will to insist that water quality standards be met. Gov. Howard Dean has failed to provide the leadership to generate that will.”
(Burlington Free Press, editorial, 8/12/01)
Dean’s Late Start Makes Cleanup Harder.
“ The Lowe's decision jolted the governor and other state officials. Dean announced this week an ambitious, three-year assault on 26 of the state's developed waterways impaired by stormwater runoff. Successfully attacking 26 watersheds in such a short time will require an extraordinary amount of cooperation among state officials, stormwater permit owners, developers and environmentalists. Previous dawdling on the issue aggravates the cleanup difficulty. Moreover, details of Dean's plan have not been worked out, including such thorny issues as a timetable and apportioning costs among state and local governments and businesses. Permitting hassles could hobble the cleanup projects with red tape.”
(Burlington Free Press, staff op-ed, 9/28/01)
Dean Criticized for Lack of Involvement.
” We were wrong about something, though. We thought that state government worked for the people of Vermont. This project has destroyed our faith in the state's protection of the environment and its citizens. Not once has Gov. Howard Dean come to southwestern Vermont to listen to our concerns. It is time the rest of Vermont awakens to what is happening to our clean air, our pure water, our land and our people. We think that once you do, you will be as outraged as we are.”
(Letter to Editor, Annette Smith, Executive Director, Vermonters for Clean Environment, Burlington Free Press, 2/20/00)
Dean’s Attempts to Expand Highway, Build Gasline, Defeated by Residents.
“ Speaking at a legislative breakfast, Dean was markedly different from the governor who a year ago told Bennington County to ‘put up or shut up’ - support controversial development projects or stop complaining about a lack of good jobs. … Last year, Dean supported in concept a plan to build gas-fired electric generating plants in Bennington and Rutland. The plants were to anchor a 63-mile underground pipeline. At roughly the same time, his administration moved to add passing lanes to Route 7 between East Dorset and Danby.
Dean cited the road's importance to southwestern Vermont's economy when making his case for the improvements. Both projects, however, ran into fierce opposition. Local citizens convinced the district environmental coordinator that an Act 250 permit was needed before construction could begin on the passing lanes. The state ended up putting the project on hold. As for the natural gas project - whose private developers still lack financing - several towns along the pipeline route voted against it, despite the governor's argument that infrastructure meant jobs.”
(Associated Press, 5/19/00)
Dean Sought Exemption From Clean Air Act.
From 1996 to 2001, the Dean administration sought an exemption on nitrogen standards in the Clean Air Act. Vermont had complied with federal Clean Air Rules on nitrogen, but asked for a waiver to expel 1,725 more tons with no offsetting. Nitrogen is a component of smog and acid rain.
(Burlington Free Press, editorial, 2/20/00)
Waiver Not for Natural Gas Plants—Was to Generate Growth.
“ While opponents say this capacity is earmarked for two potential natural gas plants in southern Vermont, that's not right. The waiver effort began in 1996, well before the plants were proposed. The state's true purpose was to prepare in a more general way for potential industrial growth.
Indeed, Vermonters might feel differently if pollution comes from a high-wage employer, rather than a power company creating only a few jobs while producing electricity for out-of-state markets. Natural Resources Secretary John Kassel says the waiver could be used to foster growth in settled areas instead of open fields.
(Burlington Free Press, editorial, 2/20/00)
Vermonters For Clean Environment Said Waiver Was Wanted for Power Plant Project.
”Vermonters beware, the state is ruining our environment 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. … 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 Macauley said of the power plant project, "It's been in the works for about nine years."
(Letter to Editor, Annette Smith, Executive Director, Vermonters for Clean Environment, Burlington Free Press, 2/20/00)
There's plenty more where this came from. Dean is one of my three favorites, along with Kerry and Kucinich. But some people's posts on this board evidence a near total ignorance of Dean's record. When Kerry is endorsed by the LCV and Dean has such a spotty environmental/corporate record, it *really* tears me up to see Kerry accused of being "corporatist" and Dean being labeled as "the anti-corporatist insurgent". Where is your evidence for that claim?
To Dean's credit, he did execute a good plan for reducing greenhouse gases by 1,000,000 tons. He also helped protect many thousands of acres of land. But for crying out loud, he's corporatist. Just like John Kerry, just like anybody but Kucinich. Is he possibly less corporate than others? Yeah, but not to the degree that Kerry is the corporate anti-christ and Dean is the anti-corporate messiah. Based on what's out there, Kerry is superior to Dean on this because he has the more consistent stance with environmental values and against deregulation.
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