Current News

Phil Scott today laid out his plan for improving Vermont’s roads and bridges, and reiterated his opposition to higher transportation taxes, a carbon tax and infrastructure debt supported by his opponents. At an event where he also accepted the endorsement of the Vermont Vehicle and Automotive Distributors Association, Scott highlighted his work to reduce the Legislature’s raid on the Transportation Fund and outlined his plan for transportation when he serves as Governor.

“I am proud to have VADA’s endorsement. Supporting small businesses, and making Vermont more affordable for families and business, is critical to growing our economy, so I applaud VADA’s ongoing work to champion transportation related businesses, and fighting to ensure those businesses and their employees thrive,” Scott said. “Transportation is a key piece of growing the economy and making Vermont more affordable and I appreciate the opportunity to release my priorities in this area.”

Vermont Business Magazine Phil Scott, candidate for governor, today released a new television ad highlighting his priorities leading up to the August 9 primary election. Scott, who throughout his campaign has outlined his priorities to strengthen the economy, make Vermont more affordable and restore faith and trust in government, explains in the ad, “trust and integrity are very important. Vermonters are yearning for that again.”

“I firmly believe that we cannot tax people any more. There isn’t that capacity,” he continues. “So we have to grow the economy. We have to build that revenue in order to ensure prosperity for Vermonters.”

Watch the full advertisement here:

Vermont Business Magazine Former Governor Howard Dean, and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee, today announced his endorsement of Sue Minter for governor. “I am proud to support Sue Minter to serve as the next Governor of Vermont,” said Gov. Dean.  “She is a strong leader and a true progressive who has the experience and dedication we need to keep moving Vermont forward.”

Gov. Dean said Minter’s call to address challenges ranging from cleaning up Lake Champlain, expanding access to affordable health care, and ensuring working Vermonters can afford college and job training programs are critical to Vermont's future. "Sue has proven she can get the job done."

Gov. Dean also articulated his support for Minter’s economic vision for the state, and her focus on helping working families.

Vermont Business Magazine For the third consecutive year, FreshTracks Road Pitch will take place August 1-5. Road Pitch is a five-day motorcycle tour of Vermont in which a gang of “business bikers” (comprised of investors, entrepreneurs and business advisers) ride around the state and stop in 10 towns to listen to entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts. This year, the tour will stop in Essex Junction (Aug 1), Rutland (Aug 1), Bennington (Aug 2), Brattleboro (Aug 2), Barre (Aug 3), Randolph (Aug 3), St Johnsbury (Aug 4), Lowell (Aug 4), Hyde Park (Aug 5) and Grand Isle (Aug 5).  

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today lifted the “Do Not Drink” order for Pownal’s municipal drinking water system, Fire District Number Two. The system had been contaminated with slightly elevated levels of the possible carcinogen PFOA. Results this week show that a new treatment system is effectively removing all PFOA from the town’s drinking water. Governor Shumlin will hold an event on Monday Auugust 1 at 3:30 pm to acknowledge the milestone and community members involved in achieving clean water again. The gathering will be held at the site of the town’s supply well and treatment system at 735 Route 346 in Pownal.

Vermont Business Magazine A new unpermitted sewage discharge has been reported this morning by the ANR – Watershed Management in Poultney. High levels of bacteria were found in a municipal storm drain leading into the Poultney River. Unpermitted Discharge Incidents are discharges of wastewater, industrial process water, dumping or spills into waters of the state either directly or through stormwater-only drainage systems or other conveyance. These discharges have been identified and found that they may pose a threat to human health or the environment

This report by the ANR is auto-filled to show all current incidents that are under review or are working towards a resolution as well as incidents that were resolved in the previous 30 days.

NEWLY REPORTED Incidents

Vermont Business Magazine As part of the South Lake Champlain Partnership, the Poultney Mettowee Conservation District and the Rutland Regional Planning Commission have teamed up to facilitate flood resiliency education, planning and project implementation in the Flower Brook Watershed shared by Tinmouth, Danby, and Pawlet. The watershed approach used in our project, titled Weathering the Storm: Community-Based Planning for Flood Resiliency in Flower Brook , is an important component of flood protection in vulnerable villages and towns, because the effects felt in one town are the accumulation of impacts from upstream. 

In addition to this information sharing and feedback gathered in the three project towns, the Partnership will offer workshops in July and August leading up to a three-town gathering on August 28, 2016 (the 5^th anniversary of TS Irene) from 11-2 at Edie’s Green in Pawlet Village. All events are open to the public.

by Guy Page It rains in Vermont. It rains a lot. And rain contributes to groundwater. Everywhere else in Vermont, groundwater moves subsurface into a nearby rivers or lakes, usually with little or no treatment. But Vermont Yankee is not “everywhere else.” After examining groundwater that had intruded into the lower basements of the facility, Vermont Yankee determined that it contained traces of tritium.  Even though the extremely low radiation level of this tritiated groundwater is approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be discharged into public waters, Vermont Yankee made the decision to ship this water to Tennessee for processing.  

Vermont Business Magazine Bringing to light remnants of the past, Castleton University has partnered with the Vermont Archaeological Society, the Natural Conservancy, and the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation for an archeological dig project currently underway at the Nature Conservancy’s Helen W. Buckner Preserve at Bald Mountain in West Haven, Vermont. Titled the South Champlain Historical Ecology Project (SCHEP), the endeavor is designed to examine long-term patterns in human-environment interactions within the southern Lake Champlain Basin.

Castleton University photo

Vermont Business Magazine Friday, July 29th at 1:30pm supporters of Jill Stein 2016, the presidential candidate for the Green Party, will submit 1,500 certified signatures, as well as necessary consent forms to the Secretary of State’s office at 128 Main Street, Montpelier, Vermont. Stein supporters will be there to give comments to the press. Over the past month, volunteers from all over Vermont have collected signatures by canvassing door to door, and at farmers’ markets, concerts and transfer stations. Signatures were gathered from Bennington and Brattleboro to Burlington, and small towns in the Northeast Kingdom. Signatures came in from over 65 towns across the state. The Green Party is running candidates across the country, and in Vermont there is a rebirth in excitement for Green politics, according to the campaign.

​Vermont Business Magazine Forests are the fabric of New England, fabric that is being increasingly shredded by invasive pests and pathogens, as 47 species of non-native tree-eating insects are known in New Hampshire alone. The emerald ash borer, a beetle native to Asia, is presently established around Concord, NH, and can be expected to eliminate ash trees from most of New England within a decade. Once new invasives are established, there is often little that forest managers or property owners can do to limit impacts. The pathway for protecting our forests is to prevent the next emerald ash borer from colonizing North America by strengthening policies that tackle pest introduction and prevention, according to an open access paper published this month in the print issue of Ecological Applications.

Vermont Business Magazine Renewable Energy Vermont in partnership with the Renewable Energy Resource Center, a project of Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, have launched a new resource for Vermonters looking to install solar photovoltaic panels (PV), solar hot water systems, or modern wood pellet boilers. The project was made possible due to funding from the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF). The Vermont Renewable Energy Business Listing (VREBL) located online at www.revermont.org/vrebl/ offers a detailed, one stop listing of experts ready to help homeowners, farmers, and businesses affordably reduce climate pollution and save money with clean energy solutions.