For years, Vermont has struggled over issues like permit reform and stormwater regulation. While we must resolve them, the real question is much larger. It concerns our future as a state.

Simply put, should we grow -- or should we stay as we are?

Most of us need and want jobs. But many Vermonters have concerns about growth. More questions arise:

How do we engage and motivate the youth of our state?

How do we focus our colleges and universities?

How do we stimulate job creation, and offer a bright future for young Vermonters who build careers and families here?

How do we compete in the global marketplace we live in?

Traveling across the US, Canada and Asia -- listening to the government leaders, businesspeople and everyday individuals I’ve met, young and old, from all walks of life -- I have learned something valuable about Vermont. And it’s this. At home and abroad, Vermont is recognized as a leader in environmental stewardship. It’s more than a nice image. It’s a Vermont brand.

And it’s a brand that I propose we leverage and expand. We have the capability to develop, teach and market cutting-edge, real-world answers to the world’s environmental challenges. There is need; there is a demand. And because Vermont is a respected brand, we can attract the real-world investment required to finance this vision.

During our October 2003 trade mission to China, the Chinese launched a man into space for the first time. Their leaders celebrated China’s entry into the world’s space club. The following day, I read about a poll that asked the Chinese people which was more important -- being in space or cleaning up China’s environment. Seven out of ten opted for a clean environment. Vermont today has some of the solutions they urgently need. We can develop more.

In China there’s an expression, "Same bed, different dreams. Same bed, same dreams.” It’s about the difference between conflict and harmony.

Vermonters all share one bed, and its name is Vermont. Leadership is about aligning our dreams -- for our own future, our children’s future, and the world’s.

So let's create a Green Valley, surrounded by Green Mountains, with blue water and clean skies.

Let's attract the smartest people in environmental science and agriculture, and the green capital to fund their ideas. Let's focus our universities and colleges on growing green knowledge -- knowledge the Green Valley will need to create green jobs and advance green agriculture. Let's challenge Vermont’s young people to study hard, and learn the skills they’ll need to lead in a green space race to clean the world.

Too big a dream?

Not for the Vermont companies doing it today. Clean Earth Technologies of North Ferrisburg is a world leader in detecting and cleaning contaminated ground water. Concepts NREC of Wilder is a world leader in turbo machinery design, which is helping clean the air in China today. By taking phosphates out of the waste stream, dairy farmers like Bob Foster of Middlebury add dollars into the revenue stream, selling potting soil produced from manure. They convert methane from waste digesters into electricity for the farm, or use it to fuel a bio-refinery that produces clean-burning biodiesel. The Green Valley will help to nurture and grow more enterprises like these.

I’ve briefed the US Departments of Energy, Commerce and Agriculture on this idea; they are enthusiastic and supportive. They’ve suggested a Green Valley Region, with Vermont in the center. With them, their Vermont counterparts and some private sector innovators, we’re working now on a no-nonsense plan for long and short-term actions required to make the dream of the Green Valley a reality.

It’s a dream all Vermonters can share, and a positive, unifying principal for jobs, our environment, energy, education and agriculture. And it can give Vermont’s youth a sense that their future in this world is theirs to shape.