Current News

“Leading the Change in Energy” explores the challenges and opportunities of transitioning into an efficient, renewable energy future from the most critical aspect: human behavior. With the average American spending just six minutes per year thinking about energy, how do we encourage our society to move towards a clean energy future as quickly and efficiently as possible? From offering to empty attics to help weatherize a home, to showing the energy savings from solar hot water – numerous opportunities exist to engage the consumer.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) responded last week to a legal petition from 20 farm, consumer, and environmental groups, including NOFA Vermont, by reinstating some authorities of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), while continuing to limit the Board's advisory authority. The NOSB was established by Congress in 1990 to operate as a permanent independent authority. In May of this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reauthorized the Board under the Federal Advisory Committee Act as it is required to do every two years by law. Changes made to the charter, however, mistakenly re-categorized the NOSB as a time-limited Advisory Board subject to USDA's discretion and narrowed the Board's responsibilities.

Ensyn Fuels, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ensyn Corporation, has signed a contract with Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont, New Hampshire, for the supply of RFO, Ensyn's advanced cellulosic biofuel. Ensyn Fuels will provide the hospital with approximately 250,000 gallons/year of RFO for a renewable term of seven years, commencing deliveries by April 2015. This contract will allow Valley Regional to convert its entire heating requirements from petroleum fuels to Ensyn's renewable fuel, lowering the hospital's greenhouse gases from heating fuels by approximately 85 percent and reducing the hospital's operating cost.

Ensyn's RFO is a liquid fuel produced from non-food solid biomass including forest and mill residues. RFO, essentially "liquid wood," directly displaces petroleum fuels in heating operations and is also a renewable feedstock for refineries for the production of gasoline and diesel.

Energtek Inc (OTC BB: EGTK), a provider of natural gas solutions and Adsorbed Natural Gas (ANG) technology, has announced that the Vermont Public Service Board will allow Energtek North Country Inc to use "competitive market forces to control rates, service quality, and reliability" for ENCI's commercial and industrial natural gas customers, especially to small and mid-size enterprises, rather than using regulated rates. ANG is compressed gas that is trucked to customers who do not have access to a gas pipeline.

Fuse, LLC, a marketing agency specializing in connecting brands with teens and young adults, today was named to Outside Magazine’s seventh annual “Best Places to Work” list. Fuse was selected out of hundreds of companies across the US. 2014 marks the third year Fuse has been named to the list.

The full list is available HERE.

Outside’s “Best Places to Work” list is designed to acknowledge and celebrate innovative companies setting new standards for a healthy work-life balance.

Governor Peter Shumlin today appointed Jessica Holmes, a Middlebury College professor of Economics, including Health Economics, to serve on the five-member Green Mountain Care Board. She will serve a six-year term, replacing outgoing member Karen Hein of Jacksonville, whose term expired.

“Jessica has extensive academic and professional experience in health care economics,” Shumlin in a statement. “She comes to the board with an in-depth knowledge of how the health care system is funded currently, and the ability to analyze options for controlling costs now and into the future.”

Jessica Holmes. Middlebury College photo.

Approximately 45,000 Vermonters, who collectively lost an estimated $1 million, will benefit from a global settlement reached by 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission with AT&T Mobility LLC, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell announced today. The settlement resolves allegations that AT&T Mobility placed charges for third-party services on consumers’ mobile telephone bills that had not been authorized by the consumers, a practice known as “mobile cramming.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont economy will continue to grow for the next several years, according to a report to be presented Thursday, but at a slower rate than for both the rest of New England and the rest of the US. Slow growth in labor and wages and an aging population are contributing factors to this forecast. The closing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon will have a negative impact on the economy. The possible sale of IBM in Essex Junction and its resultant status creates an unknown.

Have your taste buds been craving something a little wild and crazy lately? Ben & Jerry’s fans are in for a “swinging” adventure with the newest Saturday Night Live-inspired flavor, Two Wild & Crazy Pies. With inspiration from the classic SNL sketch starring Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd, which first aired in 1977, Two Wild & Crazy Pies combines coconut cream pie ice cream, chocolate cream pie ice cream, and adds in a scrumptious chocolate cookie swirl. This is the third of four unique SNL-themed Ben & Jerry’s flavors to appear at the company’s Scoop Shops nationwide. The sketch features Yortuk and Georg Festrunk dressed in plaid slacks and polyester shirts as the two Czechoslovakian brothers who “cruise and swing so successfully” as they try their best to fit in with their new surroundings.

Responding to internal complaints about the lack of financial oversight and poor governance at an Upper Valley charity, the Attorney General’s Office filed a petition in Windsor Superior Court to remove members of the Emerge Family Advocates governing board for violating their duties as board members or for gross abuse of discretion. The Attorney General also requested a preliminary injunction to halt Emerge’s provision of services and prevent it from spending more charitable assets until the superior court appoints a special trustee to review Emerge’s current finances and has received the trustee’s recommended course of action.

The National Park Service (NPS) recently selected RSG, based in White River Junction, to serve as the nation’s lead contractor for visitor use and social science research in the national parks through a five-year, up to $20 million contract. This provides RSG with a unique opportunity to help the NPS with the stewardship of America’s national treasures, the national parks. The National Park Service’s mission is to preserve “the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” From managing snowmobiling use in Yellowstone and rafting on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, to traffic congestion and crowding in Yosemite Valley, RSG will work with the NPS through this contract to help address the agency’s most complex and high-profile management challenges.

A $600,000 award from the US Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) is the final investment in the Flexible Capital Fund’s capitalization goal of $4 million. Known as Vermont’s only royalty financing fund, the Flexible Capital Fund L3C (Flex Fund), provides flexible debt in the form of revenue-sharing loans and technical assistance to growth stage value-added agriculture, forest products, and clean technology companies with socially responsible missions.