According to the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, in 2011, Vermont’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were approximately 8.11 million metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent. This represents a return to 1990 levels.
- 46% of those emissions were from transportation
- 32% from residential / commercial / industrial fuel use
- 10% from agriculture
- 5% from electricity consumption
- 4% from various industrial processes
- 3% from waste in landfills
Note that electricity consumption is a very minor contributor (granted, that’s due in large part to the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, which is closing down later this year; but it’s also due to the predominance of hydro, especially that imported from Québec). So it seems all the more stupid to wreck the state’s ridgeline ecosystems to erect strings of giant wind turbines, which at best amount to little more than merely symbolic greenwashing anyway, or to pave acres of open fields with solar panels.
Wind turbine platform and road, Lowell Mountain - photo by Steve Wright [bombing the wrong targets]
environment, environmentalism, Vermont
