Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Public Utility Commission approved today the transfer of the closed Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon, Vermont, to NorthStar, a national provider of large-scale demolition services. NorthStar has committed to an accelerated schedule for decommissioning the plant and restoring the Vermont Yankee site, beginning no later than 2021 and finishing no later than the end of 2030. The transfer avoids the alternative proposal offered by the current owner, Entergy, which would have involved a lengthy dormant period for the Station, with cleanup delayed until 2053 and possibly as late as 2068. The 620-megawatt plant went online in November 1972 and closed on December 29, 2014.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s Pico Mountain, part of the POWDR adventure lifestyle company, is scheduled to kick off its 2018-19 winter season at 9 am on Friday. The sixth annual Opening Weekend Food Raiser will take place December 14-16, 2018, offering discounted lift tickets in exchange for food donations for low-income Vermonters. The Food Raiser is a partnership with Pico Mountain and local nonprofit organization BROC Community Action, which feeds 600 families each month through the BROC Community Food Shelf. Discounted single-day lift tickets will be available Friday through Sunday at the Pico Sales Center for $39 (regularly $81) for all ages with a donation of three non-perishable food items.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) issued the following statements after their legislation to support small businesses with National Guard and Military Reservists unanimously passed the Senate on Thursday. The National Guard and Reserve Entrepreneurship Act will assist small businesses when essential employees, including small business owners, are called up as part of National Guard or Reservist duties, by improving existing loan and deferral programs of the Small Business Administration (SBA) and making them more accessible.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) announced Thursday that the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) will receive a $20 million federal award from the US Department of Transportation’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program. The funding will support the rehabilitation or replacement of 31 rail bridges along 53 miles of the Vermont Railway. The work will be done on the southern section of the state-owned rail line that runs in Vermont between Rutland and Bennington, continuing on to Hoosick, NY. Leahy hailed the award as significant for the impact it will have in bolstering the state’s economic development and climate change goals.

Vermont Business Magazine A new village wastewater infrastructure program will invest $350,000 to boost rural economic development in Vermont and protect the environment. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), in collaboration with other state agencies, federal partners and local organizations, launched a pilot program earlier this month in Wolcott, East Burke and West Burke.

Vermont Business Magazine Kerrick Johnson has joined VEIC’s leadership team. As the new Strategy and Corporate Affairs Director, Johnson brings more than 30 years of experience in the energy industry to VEIC. Johnson was most recently Co-Founder and Chief Ecosystem Officer for Utopus Insights, a New York-based energy analytics startup acquired earlier this year by Vestas Wind Systems A/S. Prior to that he served as Vice President of Strategy and Communication for Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO).

by Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund Vermonters have a long history of heating with wood, and most of us know there is nothing like the warmth of a well-stoked wood stove on a cold winter night. It is only in recent years, however, that advances in technology have made wood a convenient alternative to fossil fuels through whole-building, automated wood heat systems that are controlled by thermostat.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Climate Economy Action Team (CEAT) today announced their 2019 agenda for advancing economic progress and making Vermont more affordable by helping Vermonters use energy more efficiently and meet their heating and transportation needs with renewable energy sources.

Vermont Business Magazine Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett today announced that USDA is investing $1.2 billion to help rebuild and improve rural water infrastructure for 936,000 rural Americans living in 46 states. “Our infrastructure is aging in Vermont,” Vermont USDA Rural Development state director Anthony Linardos said. “We need to be investing water systems across our state to accommodate current and future capacity. These types of infrastructure improvements are essential for community development, and are the foundation for enhancing the quality of life and prosperity in rural Vermont.”

by Maia Segura, Vermont Business Magazine The Cotton Mill in Brattleboro isn’t just an incubator space for artists, artisans, and creative entrepreneurs. It has been at the center of the region’s thriving creative economy for decades. This year the historic mill celebrates the 20^th Anniversary of the Cotton Mill Open Studio and Holiday Sale December 7-9, 2018. Festivities abound as business residents open their doors to offer a look behind the scenes, and host selected outside artists and artisan vendors who all help drive the creative economy in Windham County.

Vermont Business Magazine Grow Compost of Vermont announces its new partnership with the Maine-based company, Agri-Cycle, New England’s largest organic waste hauler servicing MA, NH, ME, VT, and NY. The partnership will provide feed for animals, healthy soils, and energy creation through anaerobic digestion, and will exponentially increase the volume of food waste diverted from Vermont’s only landfill. Increasing the volume of food waste diverted brings Vermont closer to reaching its goals set out in the Universal Recycling Law (Act 148) and continues to use food scraps for their highest and best use, aligning with EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy. The Vermont Legislature adopted EPA’s hierarchy in creating Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law, banning food scrap from landfill disposal by July 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine Loss of habitat. Declining pH levels of our oceans. Global temperature trends. The world around us is being changed by human activity and our reliance on fossil fuels. Recognizing that the study of natural systems is the means for both monitoring and mitigating the human impact on the very ecological systems that sustain us, Sterling College announced today the new Robert B. Annis Center for Ecology.

Thanks to a $350,000 grant from the R.B. Annis Educational Foundation, construction of Sterling’s science and research facilities will begin in May 2019; $50,000 of the award is dedicated to scholarships for ecology students. The Robert B. Annis Center for Ecology at Sterling College will prepare the next generation of environmental stewards with exemplary education and research opportunities, positioning its alumni to solve complex ecological problems.