(Host) When the legislature adjourned VPR invited Vermont House Speaker Walter Freed and Senate President Pro Tem Peter Welch to sit down in the Talk Studio and review the ups and downs of the session. Among the topics they discussed was the Legislature’s efforts to reform the permit process. Senator Welch begins the conversation:
(Welch) “One of the reasons that we were unsuccessful is that the house began with the Act 250 side; the Senate began with the local planning and zoning side. When we got into conference committee we were both talking about both bills.”
(Freed) “I think it was important to talk about both bills. This is Speaker Walt Fried and this is a topic that we have taken up at least over the last six years of permit reform and it does have to include local permitting process, state permitting process, the Act 250. All of it has to be put on the table at the same time, and we did do that, although we didn’t reach a successful outcome as of this adjournment date, we did, I think, have a lot of work that was fruitful, that won’t be lost by the wayside; that we’re working toward a completed project. It may just have to wait a little bit longer.”
(Welch) “Well, I think that’s right. You know for a while it was like both sides circling each other, afraid to sit down and actually talk concretely about permit reform. But in the end, here’s where there was common agreement, even if we didn’t get the legislation passed. One, that appeals should be consolidated. It makes sense to have those various twenty three to thirty five appeal issues that you might have out of the Agency of Natural Resources considered by one tribunal. Secondly we agreed that it should be a single tribunal. The gap that we didn’t close was what that tribunal should be and I think we’ll be able to do that between now and next year.”
(Freed) “But that does show a sign of progress. We are identifying that there is a problem with the system although it’s served the state well, there are ways to do it better and it’s important for us to recognize that times do change and use what our experience has given us and to say that a change to make the permitting process easier for those going through that process, even those who oppose a project being reviewed, need to have an easier access to this system and it certainly has to be more timely and more predictable and I think the overall picture is what we’re working on here and committed to.”
(Welch) “Well, that’s right and what the Senate had proposed and was on the table and being considered literally on the last day by the House was to take our Water Resource Board and take our Environmental Board and combine them, so you’d have a single board; to professionalize the staff; and to have two full time paid positions. Our goal was to do the following: one, have that single tribunal; two, have it have professional, full time paid staff so that it was accessible to Vermonters who needed it; and three, to maintain some of the flexibility of a non-judicial system which is extremely formal and ultimately expensive. We do want to maintain that citizen participation that’s been a component of Vermont’s environmental protection system since it began under Dean Davis.”
(Freed) “I’d agree there that we do want to maintain that participation but at the same time we want to make sure that the system is predictable; that if you meet certain criteria you can either know you’re going to get a permit if you meet the criteria; if you don’t meet the criteria you’re not going to get a permit. And it has to be done in an expedited manner that the chance that you may be out there for a year or two years not knowing about your permit just is not acceptable for those people who want to invest here in this state and people who can create jobs for Vermonters.”
(Welch) “I think the difference between the House and the Senate as we left it was that the House emphasis was on a full time, fully professional board, whether it was the so-called Public Service Board model of three full time people or the Environmental Court. The Senate wanted to consolidate the existing Water Resource Board, Environmental Board where you have significant citizen participation, but upgrade the level of professionalism with some full time people at the head of that.”
(Freed) “We recognize that it has to go to one entity and I think that that’s the direction we’re headed.”
(Welch) “And I think in candor there was skepticism on both sides as to whether or not the cry for – quote – permit reform was really an effort to try to eviscerate environmental protection and I certainly sense that that’s not the case on the part of advocates and I think that on the side of environmentalists there’s no reservation about having a system that works better and more efficiently but there’s an abiding conviction that citizen participation is important and that the environment in Vermont is fundamentally important to our economy.”
(Host) Democrat Peter Welch is President Pro Tem of the Senate and Republican Walter Freed is Speaker of the Vermont House. Wednesday they’ll continue their conversation in the Talk Studio, and discuss prospects for the next legislative session.