[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 184 (Wednesday, October 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7121-S7122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNIZING MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Middlebury College, in my State of Vermont,
is known worldwide as an outstanding educational institution. What is
less well-known is that the college is also a leader in addressing
climate change.
The college first became carbon neutral not by simply purchasing
carbon credits, but by doing the hard work of actually becoming carbon
neutral, including the implementation of 123 individual efficiency
projects that are collectively saving the college nearly $1 million a
year. With that work complete, they set about securing their energy
entirely from renewable sources--first, with one of the largest
biodigesters in Vermont and, now, with a 5 megawatt solar array, that
will provide 30 percent of the college's electricity.
The project includes energy storage, which will benefit the electric
grid by spreading out when the power enters the grid. Perhaps more
importantly, that stored energy will also serve as a source of
emergency power for a nearby hospital, Porter Medical Center. The
project also involves two Vermont companies: Encore Renewable and Green
Mountain Power.
Earlier this month, it was an honor to join the groundbreaking for
the project, where Middlebury College President Laurie Patton shared
her vision for how to get to a better climate future. All should read
her impressive remarks at the event, and I ask that a copy of them be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[[Page S7122]]
October 12, 2021.
Good morning.
I am so happy to be here with you today, and it's my honor
to share this podium on a beautiful autumn morning with my
friends and colleagues Chief Don Stephens, Senator Patrick
Leahy, Chad Farrell of Encore Renewable Energy, Matt Murphy
of Green Backer Capital, Mari McClure of Green Mountain
Power, Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray, Middlebury Select
board chairman Brian Carpenter, and the College's own Simone
Ameer. Senator Leahy, as a professor of religion I already
made arrangements with the heavens for this weather--so you
didn't need to make the law!
We come together today as responsible stewards of this
planet and of this place we are blessed to call home--
Ndakinna [in-DAH-keen-AH], the town of Middlebury, the county
of Addison, the state of Vermont.
We gather to recognize the generations who came before us
in making this very place what it is today, and we do so in
service of the generations to come, to ensure that Ndakinna
[in-DAH-keen-AH], Middlebury, Addison County, and Vermont
remain places where the health of our environment is
paramount, and where our people can come together in concert,
rather than competition, to maintain a livable community and
planet.
When we at Middlebury announced our Energy 2028 initiative
three years ago, we laid out an ambitious ten-year plan,
pledging that in a decade's time we would sharply reduce our
energy consumption as an institution; reduce and then
eliminate our investment in fossil fuels; craft a large
educational initiative to continue our research and
scholarship into climate change--and, in perhaps our boldest
promise, rely completely on renewable energy sources to power
our Vermont campus.
The solar array project on which we break ground today
takes us one large step closer to realizing this goal, as it
is expected to provide nearly one-third of the energy needed
to power our campus. This groundbreaking comes on the heels
of the start-up of the largest anaerobic digester in the
Northeastern United States at the Goodrich Farm in nearby
Salisbury, another local project and partnership that is
supplying renewable natural gas to the College and community.
Each of these efforts--indeed, all of our efforts to meet
our Energy 2028 goals--are collaborative by design, because
we all have a stake in the outcome. Just as our plan was
crafted in a spirit of independence, in which no individual
part could work without the other, the same can be said for
our partnerships. Remove any one of us, and we're not here
today. Remove any one of us, and we're not here today.
In a few weeks, on a platform a little bit bigger than this
one and with just a few more people in attendance, the United
Nations Climate Change Conference will convene in Glasgow,
Scotland. The comparisons in scope between that and this,
here and there, may cause some to peer at us today and
wonder: what's the point? We're so small!
As I have written and spoken in the past, a local
initiative such as this one is exactly the point, the point
being that local wisdom and local practices are the ideal
conditions to help put out the fire that is consuming our
planet. The sun is one of the oldest symbols known to humans;
it is in the earliest cave paintings tens of thousands of
years ago, and in the earliest spoken prayers of more than
3000 years ago. It is only fitting that we should return,
indeed come full circle, to the sun to heal our planet.
We are so blessed to call this place home.
The Green Mountains rest behind me.
In my mind's eye, I can already envision the sheep that
will graze beneath the solar arrays, managing the vegetation
growing in these fields.
And up above, in a sky that Sabra Field herself could have
painted, a golden light will not only illuminate the beauty
of our surroundings but will allow us to take another
critical step toward building a sustainable future.
Thank you, everyone of you, for your help in building a new
world.
Laurie L. Patton,
President, Middlebury.
____________________