The Truck

By G. E. Shuman


Okay, yes, I saw the funny shaped truck parked on the sidewalk in front of Barre City Hall a few Thursdays ago. (I think it was the 16th.) Did you see it too? I planned to go back and ask the people of the truck a few questions about it the next day, but, alas, they were gone with the wind by then. Gone with the wind probably came to mind just now because of the depictions of commercial windmills on the truck. I’m not sure.

One of the questions I would have asked, if I had the chance, would have been about the ‘why’ of it all. That is, the ‘why’ of why Barre City allowed their truck to be parked ON the sidewalk all day, and even supplied city wooden barricades to, presumably, stop other people from parking there as well. I would have also asked the truck people why they had the word Greenpeace painted on the truck. Was the truck owned by Greenpeace? I really wish I had stopped to talk to them on Thursday. Also, why was the truck painted with the suggestion to: "Close Vermont Yankee"?

The truck was a really odd looking thing. It was an Isuzu flat bed sort of truck, with a big white, propaganda-laden, slanted-roof box on the back. I happened to pass city hall a few times that Thursday, and did notice that the purpose of the slanted roof was to hold a whole roof-full of solar collection panels. These, obviously, were not there to power the truck, and could no more have done so than the painted windmills on the sides of it could have. They were there to advertise, to propagandize, to promote solar and wind power; which are two power sources I have nothing at all against, by the way. The thing I didn’t appreciate was that the truck also had that darned sign which said we should close Vermont Yankee. No, I didn’t appreciate that very much at all.

You see, I don’t see the problem with Vermont Yankee. Please know right now that the person writing this column believes in nuclear power. Truthfully, I think it should power everything from our homes and cars to our wrist watches and electric toothbrushes, but that’s just me. As far as I know, good old Vermont Yankee has sat right there in Vernon, producing power, for quite a few years now, and has caused me no trouble at all in the process. I think I would have asked the truck people what they had against Vermont Yankee. I thought they liked non-polluting sources of energy. Or do they only like certain ones? If by then they had not begun hurling compost at me, as some anti-nuclear types did to federal nuclear regulators in Brattleboro recently, (Compost throwing? I thought only chimpanzees did that.) I would then have asked if they knew exactly how many people have been killed by accidents at the Vermont Yankee power plant. I think that answer would have been zero. Then I would have asked how many fatal accidents, or radiation-releasing accidents of any kind have ever occurred at nuclear plants in our country. Barring a near accident at the Three Mile Island plant in 1979, I believe the answer to this would have been zero, also. This fact alone is pretty amazing to me, since our government hasn’t allowed the building of any modern nuclear plants since that time. I also might have asked them how many people have been killed by accidents with windmills in our country. I’m pretty sure that answer wouldn’t have been zero.

I understand the gallant efforts of many of our citizens to free our country from dependence on foreign oil, and I support those efforts wholly. I’m just not sure that turning our backs on that other clean, non-polluting, powerful alternative; nuclear power, is the right way to go.

Speaking of power, I would like to ask, someone, how many windmill farms and solar arrays it would take to supply the energy generated by Vermont Yankee today, and at what expense to construct them. I would also ask where these massive wind and sun farms should be built. One question I would not have to ask is who the people are who would likely complain about the windmills the first time a big flock of Canadian geese got decapitated as they migrated, in a huge V for Vermont, through them. It certainly wouldn’t be Vermont hunters. They would be there with big knives and freezer bags. Also, the people who would complain about the unsightliness of hundreds of huge windmills and solar arrays would not be Vermont farmers. They have been accustomed to acres of barns, silos, farm machinery and even windmills for many years now. No, the complainers would likely be the same people who coined the term ‘light-pollution’ in an effort to slow the economic engine of our cities and shopping centers at night. They might be some of the same people who are proposing the closing of Vermont Yankee. I don’t know if they would be compost hurlers or not.

As I recall the truck parked on the sidewalk on Main Street that Thursday, it brings to mind one more question. I would like to ask Barre City officials if it would be okay for me to park a truck there, ON the sidewalk, laden with wood-stoves, oil burners and a sign which read: ‘Up with Vermont Yankee! Or: Greenpeace Trucks Burn Stinking Diesel!’ Or my favorite: ‘Nuke the Whales’. (By the way, that last one was a joke. Geezzz… grow a sense of humor. Will ya?) I would also appreciate the loan of all those city-owned barricades. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
It’s interesting to me that an Isuzu truck, which was made in Japan, (Sorry Detroit), goes around burning it’s carbon-laden fuel, not to simply promote alternative energy sources, or even bring loads of organic produce to the ol’ co-op, but to denigrate a huge, Vermont-based, power-producing, job-supplying, pollution-free business.

Yes, oddly as it seems, I am all for clean energy, but also believe that nuclear power is safe. If I could have a little reactor in my basement that would supply all my power needs I would get one, today. It would be nice to shut my oil burner down for good, get rid of all those unsightly cables and poles we have become accustomed to seeing along our streets these past hundred years or so, (wire pollution) and still be able to plug an electric car in at night. (Look up at the wires on your street. I bet you hadn’t even noticed how ugly they are.) I also believe that wind and solar power are good, but not good enough yet. If Vermont Yankee is closed down before its time, and replaced by windmill farms and solar panel fields, we might be in for trouble on the first calm day, as night approaches. If you dabble in the stock market, here’s a tip. It might be time to sell Vermont Yankee… and buy Yankee Candle.