Opinion: Business Roundtable supports GMP-CVPS merger

by Lisa VentrissOn behalf of the membership of the Vermont Business Roundtable, I am expressing support for the merger of Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service, as well as for the process underway by the Public Service Board to solely deliberate the merits of this merger on behalf of all Vermont citizens.
The Roundtable endorses the long view on investment and multi-generational benefits that could accrue to all ratepayers with the successful merger of GMP and CVPS. These include savings that would be reflected in lower energy bills; job creation as a result of keeping electric rates as low as possible and Vermont competitive with our neighbor states; and investments in efficiency and weatherization measures that yield cost savings and other benefits for individuals, communities and society.
The GMP/CVPS merger will provide $177 million in savings and benefits for customers in the first ten years. The total savings over the first 20 years is estimated at $500 million. In addition, the investment of $21 million in efficiency and weatherization, that the Department of Public Service requires of GMP as a condition of the merger, will yield $46 million in gross benefits to CVPS customers.
While few seem to question the benefits that the merger will yield, the issue getting attention is the $21 million of benefit that GMP is obligated to return to CVPS ratepayers. Some legislators are contemplating intervening in an open docket at the Public Service Board to direct the Board on how the $21 million should be returned. The Roundtableâ s chief concern centers on the involvement by the Legislature in a domain that has been the express jurisdiction of the Public Service Board; an entity that was created by the Legislature to deal with regulatory issues affecting the public good.
The Public Service Board is well-regarded by numerous stakeholders around the state. It has earned a reputation for being a credible quasi-judicial forum for the thoughtful and rigorous deliberation of complex regulatory matters, whose non-partisan, non-political members use fact-based evidence to reach their decisions. The PSB should be allowed to complete its current work on the proposed merger, and any and all future work on regulatory matters on behalf of the public good, without the interference by the Legislative branch of state government.
If the Legislature were allowed to intervene, on a case by case basis, in regulatory processes such as the one currently under discernment by the Public Service Board, it would represent not only bad public policy, but set a dangerous precedent for future regulatory matters. Such action by the Legislature would create an undisciplined regulatory environment of uncertainty and unpredictability, which in turn would make future plans for business growth unfeasible, undesirable, or unwise.
The economic viability of the GMP-CVPS merger is dependent on a number of factors, not just how the $21 million issue is resolved. It is vitally important that the Legislature acknowledge the delicate balance that has been achieved thus far by the merger parties, and that interference by the Legislature to achieve â short-term’gain, rather than allowing the Public Service Board to act in the long-term interest of the entire state (including their constituent ratepayers), places all of Vermont in jeopardy.
Lisa Ventriss is President of Vermont Business Roundtable, a 501©(4) civic welfare organization committed to sustaining a sound economy and preserving Vermontâ s unique quality of life by studying and making recommendations on long-range, statewide public policy issues that benefit all Vermonters, not merely the business members of the Roundtable.802-865-0410[email protected]www.vtroundtable.org