Gov. Jim Douglas' promised veto of the Democratic majority's "energy bill" is nothing less than a strategy to save the good name of the state of Vermont.

This modest bill would do a modest amount of good work in helping to weatherize older homes and old industrial buildings, while providing incentives for the development of new sustainable forms of energy. However, the good work that might be accomplished by the energy bill is drawfed by the damage it would do to the state's reputation for fairness.

Simply put, the proposed bill sends the message that the Vermont House and Senate can declare certain businesses to be pariahs and then take money from them.

For those new to the issue, the basic ideas behind the energy bill were introduced early in the legislative session and were teased by several legislative committees into an interesting package of proposals, most of which won wide acceptance, includeing in the governor's office. The bill stood fair to be the signature accomplishment of the huge Democratic majority in the legislature.

But there was one problem- the bill needed to be financed, to the tune of about $25 million over a few years. The first idea was to impose a tax on heating fuel. This had a logical connection to the issue at hand, but the governor objected to a broad new tax that would affect everybody, and the legislature quickly dropped it..

That's where the matter rested until late in the legislative session, when Senate President Peter Shumlin came up with the confiscatory idea to just take pretty much the entire $25 million from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, a plant which provides about a third of Vermont's energy and does so without significant carbon emissions. Shumlin has no love for Vermont Yankee- it is indeed a pariah among many of his Democratic constituents in Windham County. The Shumlin Tax was good politics for him.

Incredibly, the Democratic majority in both Senate and House bought the plan. In response to early criticism, a small amount of the funding was taken from another source- Efficiency Vermont- and the rationale for the tax on Vermont Yankee was jiggered a bit. But Sen. Shumlin's first brainstorm is still enshrined in the latest formula, which is based on capturing some of the higher-than-expected profits the business has yielded. The idea is basically this: VERMONT YANKEE IS MAKING MONEY. LET'S TAKE SOME!

We can only imagine how this message must reverberate in the boardrooms of any corporation doing well in Vermont, or any business that is considering locating here. What business will the legislature decide to plunder next? IBM maybe? But it's not only businesses that will feel revulsion. The Shumlin Tax is so contrary to basic fairness that the reaction should be widespread.

This was only the first year of a two-year legislative session. There was plenty of time to complete the bill next year and to find a funding source that was adequate, logical and fair. But the Democratic leadership decided to proceed.

Apparently both Shumlin and House Speaker Gaye Symington were convinced that any bill remotely connected with global warming must be passed right away, regardless of how pernicious it is. This reasoning, such as it is, is of course a recipe for producing flawed legislation well into the future.

Gov. Douglas, thankfully, possesses the courage to puncture such false logic with a veto, and thereby to rescue a modicum of Vermont's reputation for treating people fairly, even when those people are making money.

His promised veto can be overturned at the veto session in July, if every Democrat, every Progressive and at least one of the two independents vote to overturn it. But if they do, they will leave an indelible stain on the good name of Vermont.