Studied to Death

As Published in Seven Days, October 18, 2023:

Studied to Death

The "simmering" subtitle of "Pipe Dream?" [September 27] suggests that the Burlington Electric Department has been working on its scheme to build a steam pipe to the hospital for a long time.

Coming just three years after Corix's quite different proposal failed, this Burlington Electric/Vermont Gas Systems/Ever-Green Energy effort should meet the same fate as other attempts to cobble together a thermal project based on the McNeil Generating Station.

Prior to the current proposal, there were at least 14 studies related to thermal project proposals for the McNeil site, ranging from greenhouses to steam transmission lines to various district energy system configurations, all of which led to "no go."

I know because, with Dermot McGuigan, I wrote one of those reports, the 1992 proposal for a low-temperature, citywide district energy system — the right project at the right time. But the time for McNeil-based district energy has passed.

An August public records request revealed that Burlington Electric had lost 10 of those 14 studies — reason enough for McNeil's joint owners to challenge Burlington Electric management. Burlington Electric might have saved three years and so much money by consulting prior reports instead of hawking the warmed-over steam-pipe proposal.

Peter Duval

Underhill