In
Shoreham last week residents asked some difficult questions of the primary
beneficiary of a Vermont Gas Systems pipeline that seeks to cross through the
town en route from Middlebury to Ticonderoga, N.Y. The responses caught
International Paper in a Catch-22 scenario: the paper company had to represent
the need for the lower cost fuel as something so important it might be the
difference between staying open or closing, yet when questioned about the
plant's fragile long-term viability, plant officials had to suggest that it had
a bright future because the hardwood forest that feeds the mill were nearby and
relatively rare and such a valuable resource could not found in many places
around the world.
