![]() The proposed pipeline is meaningful to the College and the local farming economy for another reason. The pipeline can provide them with a less expensive and cleaner burning alternative to high-carbon fuel oil. We know that many families and businesses in our region are struggling. ![]() Middlebury College has a long history of working closely with our community to support and stimulate economic activity. For public institutions such as schools and healthcare facilities, it means reduced costs at a time when funding streams are stagnant or being cut. For businesses in the area, the savings they achieve can create the opportunity for new jobs, or make the difference between staying in business, moving to another state or shutting down altogether, which has happened too often in recent years. Homeowners who are able to connect to the natural gas distribution network stand to save between $1,500 and $2,000 each year. Cabot’s cheese-making facility in Middlebury employees 120 workers and produces 55 million pounds of cheese a year. Cabot Creamery, one of the area’s largest employers, strongly supports the pipeline and says it will save the farmers’ cooperative hundreds of thousands of dollars a year while benefitting the environment. ![]() The Middlebury Select Board and Middlebury Planning Commission both support the extension of natural gas service to the town of Middlebury, as does Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin. For the first time, these homeowners and businesses will have the choice of converting their current fuel-oil heating systems to cheaper, cleaner natural gas. The project will allow for the distribution of natural gas to about 2,000 homes and businesses in Middlebury, and another 1,000 in Vergennes. Phase I of the Addison Natural Gas Project is a 41-mile natural gas transmission pipeline, with associated facilities in Middlebury, New Haven and Williston, Vermont. Ultimately, we believe the pipeline will contribute to the economic welfare of the region and that it would be unacceptable for us to stand in the way of real and measurable progress toward goals broadly shared in our community. While we continue to listen to, and understand, the arguments against the pipeline, we believe that they do not fully take into account the economic needs of the communities around us, or the lack of sufficient alternative sources of comparable energy in the near term. Middlebury College wrote a letter of support in March 2011 for what is now referred to as Phase I of the pipeline project, and while we have been asked to withdraw that support, we continue to believe that the pipeline will benefit the region and the College in numerous ways for years to come. Note: President Ron Liebowitz sent the following statement to the college community on May 6.ĭuring the past few weeks, a number of members of the Middlebury community have expressed their opposition to the construction of a natural gas pipeline from Colchester, VT, which is north of Burlington, to Chittenden and Addison counties in Vermont. ![]()
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