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Vermont Business Magazine Vermont consumers and the State of Vermont will receive a total of over $1.6 million as part of a settlement concerning the wakefulness drug Provigil, Attorney General William H. Sorrell announced today. The settlement ends a multistate investigation into anticompetitive conduct by Cephalon and affiliated companies to protect the monopoly profits earned from Provigil by delaying generic competition. Vermont and 48 other attorneys general entered into a $125 million settlement with Cephalon.

by Lake Champlain Committee On Friday June 17, EPA released a final Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for Lake Champlain. The TMDL sets a pollution budget, defining how much of a given pollutant can enter a water body with water quality standards still being met. It took 5 1/2 years to complete, and is the culmination of hard work by dozens of scientists, engineers, computer modelers and others working for EPA and the state of Vermont. The effort was thorough, and required by law, but it is not a roadmap for cleaning Lake Champlain. The TMDL is only a budget for how much the lake can absorb and meet water quality standards.

The Commons, Brattleboro Over the first several years of his tenure, Governor Peter Shumlin made no secret of his desire to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. And since the Vernon facility stopped producing power at the end of 2014, Shumlin’s administration has repeatedly challenged plant owner Entergy’s decommissioning plans — often without much success, given that the process is mostly federally regulated. It will be up to Shumlin’s successor to set the tone for the state’s interactions with Entergy starting in January 2017. In interviews in advance of the Aug. 9 primary, five gubernatorial candidates discussed their proposed approaches to monitoring and intervening in Vermont Yankee decommissioning.

Vermont Business Magazine The final weekend of July 2016 was unlike any other weekend at the Johnson headquarters of Vermont Electric Cooperative.  While VEC is always prepared for emergencies and the unexpected, on July 30 and 31, VEC had the opportunity to participate in a national level emergency response exercise called “Vigilant Guard”.  The exercise, sponsored by the National Guard, was designed to improve cooperation and relationships between civilian, military, and federal partners in preparation for emergencies and catastrophic events. 

Vermont Business Magazine When Vermonters think of September, they picture the last days spent swimming in our lakes and rivers, or the first cool nights that signal the start of fall. However, for many Vermonters, September also signifies the perfect time of year to put on some work gloves and join friends and neighbors in hauling tires, refrigerators and shopping carts from our rivers and streams. September is Vermont's River Cleanup Month and Watersheds United Vermont invites interested volunteers to get involved.

Vermont Business Magazine Farm-Way, Inc recently celebrated the grand opening of its expanded operations at its family owned and operated store in Bradford. Twin State Fertilizer and its predecessors manufactured and repackaged seeds, fertilizer and pesticides for 50 years or more on the site where Farm-Way’s expanded facility is now located.

Vermont Business Magazine This summer is a season of transition for the Lake Champlain Basin Program. After more than 17 years as director of the program, Bill Howland “graduated” to retirement on June 22. During that time, Bill was instrumental in building a program driven by sound science that brings together diverse stakeholders in collaboration. Starting this month, Eric Howe continues that legacy as the new director of the LCBP and the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership.

by Mike Faher/The Commons After many delays, a large-scale landfill solar project in Brattleboro is under new ownership and appears to be moving ahead. Windham Solid Waste Management District officials say a multinational solar developer has partnered with a Burlington company to build a 5-megawatt array on Brattleboro’s closed and capped landfill.

The previous developer ran into financial problems and was unable to do much with the project, which was enabled by special legislative language in 2014. But officials say they’re seeing welcome signs of progress.

“We’re very optimistic because both of these companies have already put a lot of their resources into this project,” said Lou Bruso, chairman of Windham Solid Waste’s board of supervisors.

Vermont Business Magazine Through a grant provided by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as part of the State’s Clean Water Initiative, the Town of Jericho and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) will develop a Stormwater Master Plan for the Town. This type of planning is needed now as the 2016 Jericho Comprehensive Town Plan predicts a 5% increase in population by 2030, with new development concentrated in the town’s three state-designated village centers.

Vermont Business Magazine Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) on Tuesday reported second quarter 2016 earnings per share of $3.16 on an as-reported basis and $3.11 on an operational basis. Second quarter 2016 EPS were $3.16 on an as-reported basis and $3.11 on an operational basis, compared to second quarter 2015 as-reported and operational EPS of 83 cents. Current period results were favorably impacted by income tax items, which resulted from resolution of previous positions at Utility, as well as a tax election at EWC.

Consolidated Earnings (GAAP and Non-GAAP Measures)

by Joshua E Brown Imagine a nurse who gets the flu while working at a hospital. He goes home to recover—and an uninfected replacement nurse comes in. This kind of substitution happens all the time in the real world—teachers, doctors, firefighters and others with essential societal roles get sick and a substitute comes in to fill their role. A new study shows that this kind of health-protecting behavior—a “relational exchange”—can explosively accelerate the spread of some epidemics. This finding is in striking contrast to the standard “mass-action” disease models—like many used by the US Centers for Disease Control and other health organizations—that don’t account for this reality.

Vermont Business Magazine Creditsafe, the world's most used provider of company credit reports, today released surprising data about which US states are home to the companies that are timeliest bill payers. Vermont was fifth best. According to the Creditsafe report, companies in Alaska, New Hampshire and Hawaii lead the pack in taking less than two days to pay bills while companies in Mississippi, Illinois and Louisiana are the most delinquent by taking more than seven days.

"We don't often think about how quickly the companies headquartered in a state pay their bills, as the economy is tightly focused on consumer debt and the national debt. It turns out there is quite a significant variance in the each state's overall payment behavior," said Matthew Debbage, president of Creditsafe's American and Asia-Pacific Operations. "In fact, some of these results are quite surprising."