Governor Peter Shumlin is supporting a proposal to expand natural gas service from northwestern Vermont as far south as Middlebury.
But some are questioning whether expanding Vermont’s use of Canadian natural gas squares with the governor’s long-time support for getting Vermont to use smaller amounts of imported fossil fuels.
Matt Cota of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association – who fears his membership could be hurt by the expansion of natural gas – is accusing Shumlin of hypocrisy on the issue.
But Shumlin and other supporters of natural gas note that it burns more cleanly than other fuels like coal and oil, and that it is currently much cheaper than oil.