Current News
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Campaign for Vermont today announced the hiring of Cyrus Patten as the new executive director of the non-partisan public advocacy organization.
"Cyrus has a diverse and proven background in social services, non-profit management, fundraising, community outreach, as well as public and government relations, said Louise McCarren, chair of the CFV board. "We are thrilled to have someone of his caliber as our first-ever Executive Director."
Patten most recently served as the Director of Comprehensive Care Programs at the HowardCenter in Burlington, where he supervised a continuum of programming for children and families while managing a multimillion dollar budget and over 100 staff and foster parents.
During his tenure, Patten oversaw a significant overhaul of programming that eliminated redundancies, identified new revenue and strengthened relationships with stakeholders.
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Nine Vermont companies have joined a Continuous Energy Improvement partnership with Efficiency Vermont. The first of its kind in the Northeast, the partnership provides participating companies with technical assistance and support to develop a comprehensive approach in energy management to reduce waste and improve energy performance over time.
“These companies have some of the largest energy needs in the state,” says Greg Baker, Senior Account Manager with Efficiency Vermont. “They’ve made a commitment to prioritize energy considerations in every aspect of their operations. As a result, they’re getting significantly greater return on their efficiency investments than by viewing energy savings as a series of unrelated upgrades. In other words, they’re not only installing efficient equipment, they’re also using it in the most efficient way for their specific needs.”
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by John Herrick vtdigger.org Vermont lawmakers passed a committee bill Wednesday that sets a plan to restore Lake Champlain’s water quality and raises some money to back it up. Federal regulators have ordered the state to clean up the lake.
Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains in New York as seen from the waterfront in Burlington. Photo by Roger Crowley/for VTDigger
The House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources Committee voted 7-1 in favor of an omnibus water quality bill, H.586, just before Friday’s crossover deadline, the date by which a bill must pass from one chamber to the other.
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by John Herrick vtdigger.org Rutland Superior Court awarded $1 million in December to landowners challenging the state’s transmission line company after it constructed a radio tower on their mountaintop property in Wells.
Vermont Electric Power Corp, or VELCO, sought a new trial, but the court denied the motion Wednesday and awarded the landowners an additional “prejudgment” interests rate for compensation.
The company said it will appeal the decision to the Vermont Supreme Court.
“It wasn’t a surprise,” said VELCO Vice President Kerrick Johnson. “And we are continuing to prepare our appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court.”
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Senators Patrick Leahy (D–Vermont) and Bernie Sanders (I–Vermont) are part of a bipartisan coalition of US senators who are asking US trade negotiators to block an initiative by the European Union (EU) to prohibit the use of generic cheese names, like Muenster, Havarti, feta, Brie or ricotta, on cheeses made in Vermont and across the country.
In a bipartisan letter signed by 55 senators, Leahy and Sanders urged the US Department of Agriculture and the US Trade Representative to push back on the EU initiative, which could confuse consumers and hurt Vermont dairy farmers and cheesemakers.
Leahy said, “Vermont is well known for our high quality cheeses carrying these and other names, and Vermont Cheddar has become the gold standard. This proposal is foolish, short-sighted and only serves to confuse customers and hurt those who make fine American products that compete with imports.”
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The Small Business Administration announced today it will award grants to state and local economic development agencies, business development centers, colleges and universities to support programs for innovative, technology-driven small businesses under SBA’s Federal and State Technology partnership program. Applications for the grants are open to Vermont entities through April 11.
The FAST Program is designed to stimulate economic development among small, high technology businesses through federally-funded innovation and research and development programs like the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer. The project and budget periods are for a 12-month period.
FAST may provide up to $100,000 per award to pay for outreach and technical assistance to science and technology-driven small businesses.
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Although Vermont’s populations of cave-dwelling bat species continue to drastically shrink in number every year, the rate of decline may be slowing down. Biologists with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department are working to determine if some individuals that remain are naturally resistant to the syndrome that has killed millions of bats to date.
Fish & Wildlife bat project leader Scott Darling hopes to determine if there is anything that can be done to prevent further declines in bats before it is too late for some species.
“We’re observing the most precipitous decline of a group of species in recorded history and it’s happening right here in our region,” said Darling. “Several species, such as northern long-eared bats, have virtually disappeared in less than a decade and we are getting increasingly skeptical that they will ever be able to rebound.”
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by John Herrick vtdigger.org The Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee Wednesday unanimously passed a bill designed to prepare for the implementation of the state’s universal recycling law.
Under the law, mandatory composting for some large food producers begins July 1, and next year recyclables will be banned from the landfill.
The bill creates a special fund to support the infrastructure and capital costs of collecting and processing mandated recyclables, food scraps and leaf and yard debris. The Agency of Natural Resources will decide where the money will go, according to the bill. Lawmakers want to see more money go to rural waste districts that may already have insufficient infrastructure.
The bill increases the waste disposal franchise tax from $6 to $7. The tax, which has not changed since the 1980s, is placed on each ton of trash brought to a transfer station.
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by Deb Markowitz, Secretary, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and Dorothy Allard, Chair, Vermont Endangered Species Committee A little over 40 years ago, the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) was passed into law. In Vermont, it is common to see osprey and loons, so it is hard to believe that merely a few decades ago, these birds were vanishingly rare in our state. These species, as well as hundreds of species of plants and animals from around the country, have been saved from extinction in large part because of the ESA and comparable state legislation like our own endangered species law.
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by John Herrick vtdigger.org
Montpelier hopes to become the nation’s first state capital to be powered entirely by renewable energy. City officials announced a plan to turn Montpelier into a net zero city at a news conference at City Hall Monday. The city is counting on myriad efficiency and renewable energy generation projects to help transition off fossil fuels by 2030.
“We can no longer wait for the federal government or international organizations to address the urgent problem of climate change,” said Montpelier Mayor John Hollar. “It’s the responsibility of each of us – acting individually and acting through our communities – to take action to address this problem that we face as a society.”
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The Vermont Agency of Education announced a collaborative partnership with three regional professional development organizations, collectively known as the Vermont Professional Learning Network (PLN). Our shared goal is to provide statewide access to high quality professional learning.
The focus of the PLN is Common Core State Standards (CCSS) implementation and instructional leadership. “We’ve brought on board someone who has strong ties to Vermont, Dr. Judy Carr,” said Lauren Wooden, co-director of the Vermont PLN. Carr is known for her work in education and leading statewide projects, including the Vermont Middle Grades Initiative. Carr is leading three major PLN projects with the goal of helping school districts to create systems that support productive and engaging classroom instruction and learning.
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by John Herrick vtdigger.org Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, joined more than two dozen Senate Democrats to bring attention to the issue of climate change in a 15-hour all-night talkathon on the Senate floor Monday night.
The “crisis” of climate change, Sanders said, is an issue the nation must confront.
“The scientific community has been extremely clear. Climate change is real. Climate change is man-made,” Sanders said in a statement. “And climate change is already causing severe damage in terms of drought, floods, forest fires, rising sea levels and extreme weather disturbances.”
This comes after Sanders announced a potential bid for president in 2016; climate change, he told The Nation last week, is a problem for the nation.