Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has reached the next step in filing a suite of new rules and amendments to existing rules related to low emission and electric vehicles. These rules support meeting Vermont’s emission reduction requirements, as required by the Global Warming Solutions Act. These proposed amendments set standards for auto manufacturers that will reduce greenhouse gas and criteria air pollutant emissions from passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, along with engines that are delivered for sale or placed in service in Vermont. The final proposal will also require auto manufacturers to deliver lower emitting and more electric vehicles to Vermont. Vermont’s Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules will review these rules at a meeting in November. Pending LCAR’s consideration of the rules, ANR plans to adopt them by December 1.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Community Broadband Board released a Workforce Development Plan Thursday focusing on targeting, recruiting, and training people to work on all aspects of Vermont’s universal build-out of broadband. The VCBB is partnering with state agencies, the Communications Union Districts, the Vermont Technical College, Vermont State Colleges, and industry leaders to launch education and training programs to address worker shortages, speed up the build-out of universal broadband, and provide high-paying jobs and career paths for Vermonters. The build-out will require the construction of 8,000 miles of fiber optic network over a five-year period. This will create additional demand for more than 200 fiber optic technicians, as well as interrelated jobs, such as tree-trimmers to prepare rights-of-way and electric utility lineworkers.

Vermont Business Magazine Nomad Transportable Power Systems, a company founded by US-based battery manufacturer KORE Power, has sold the industry’s first mobile energy storage unit to Green Mountain Power (GMP) in Vermont. The sale makes NOMAD first-to-market with a utility-scale transportable power solution, which was designed and built in Vermont and will deliver benefits for GMP customers. NOMAD’s power systems can do everything fixed energy storage can do – like boosting reliability and making renewable energy dispatchable – while also providing mobility. They meet any application or project’s energy needs by bringing power where and when it’s needed most. Then, unlike a fixed storage asset, NOMAD’s systems can be re-deployed to meet other needs. NOMAD’s systems bring tremendous value to disaster recovery, on-demand grid support, and off-grid power applications.

Vermont Business Magazine Building upon its longstanding leadership in environmental sustainability, the University of Vermont Medical Center’s Miller Inpatient Building has been awarded LEED Gold Certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is the most widely used green building rating system in the world. This key milestone is an important step toward the goal of becoming one of the most environmentally responsible health care organizations in the country, while supporting the health of our communities. Efficiency, energy conservation and sustainability were key planning principles from the outset of the Miller Inpatient Building project, which officially opened to patients in June 2019.

Vermont Business Magazine Modernizing Medicine, Inc (ModMed), an electronic health record (“EHR”) technology vendor located in Boca Raton, Florida, has agreed to pay $45 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, by accepting and providing unlawful remuneration in exchange for referrals and causing its users to report inaccurate information in connection with claims for federal incentive payments, according to the US Attorney for the District of Vermont on Tuesday

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England regional office today confirmed that New Englanders experienced a slight increase in the number of unhealthy air quality days this year, compared with 2021. Based on preliminary data collected between March and September 2022, there were 24 days when ozone monitors in New England recorded ozone concentrations above levels considered healthy. By contrast, in 2021 there were 23 unhealthy ozone days in New England. There were no such days recorded in Vermont this year or last.

Vermont Business Magazine Customers served by Vermont Public Power Supply (VPPSA) member utilities have another reason to consider driving electric – a free FLO X5 level 2 charger and a $500 dollar rebate to assist with charger installation costs.This limited-time offer is available on a first-come, first-served basis through the PowerShift partnership between VPPSA, their member utilities, and Efficiency Vermont. The goal of PowerShift is to shift the times that grid-enabled devices in VPPSA member homes use energy.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Senate Committee on Committees and the Speaker of the House are currently holding a public application process to fill seats on the newly formed Environmental Advisory Council and are extending the application deadline from November 14, 2022, to December 5, 2022. The Environmental Justice Advisory Council was created by Act 154 to provide independent advice and recommendations to State agencies and the General Assembly on matters relating to environmental justice, including the integration of environmental justice principles into State programs, policies, regulations, legislation, and activities.

Vermont Business Magazine A jury has found Aita Gurung guilty of Murder in the First Degree of Yogeswari Khadka and guilty of Attempted Murder in the Second Degree for the near-fatal attack on Tulasa Rimal. In light of the verdict, Attorney General Susanne Young issued the following statement: “Murder is the most serious charge that can be brought in our system of justice. The Attorney General’s Office has always believed that this matter—the tragic death of Yogeswari Khadka and the near-fatal attack on Tulasa Rimal—deserved to be heard in a court of law and required a response from our justice system."

Vermont Business Magazine The United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced Thursday that John O’Hara, Jr, 43, of White River Junction, Vermont, was sentenced in United States District Court in Burlington to three years of probation following his guilty plea to a charge that he fraudulently converted tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security benefit payments. US District Judge Christina Reiss ordered O’Hara to pay restitution to the Social Security Administration in the amount of $51,346, which is the amount of the SS loss.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger today announced the appointment of Kimberly Carson as the City’s new Director of Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Kim most recently served as the Director of Education and Human Capital Development for the Iowa Judicial Branch Leading Judicial Education and Professional Development for nearly two thousand judicial branch employees and providing strategic leadership for diversity and equity initiatives across the agency.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) announced today that seven additional awards and another $2.15M have been committed to remediate brownfields sites across the state. Since the Brownfields Revitalization Fund (BRF) - State Program opened in October 2021, more than $6.8 million in cleanup funding has been awarded to 20 projects in seven counties (Caledonia, Chittenden, Franklin, Washington, Windham, Windsor, and Orange). The projects combined are anticipated to cleanup more than 35 contaminated acres and create 540 jobs, 288 units of housing, and 115 new hotel rooms.