Current News
by tim
by Mike Faher/The Commons Brattleboro When it’s time to remove spent nuclear fuel from Vermont Yankee, it appears likely that will happen via rail — not trucks. That was the takeaway last week for local officials and for plant administrators after meeting with a visiting team from the Department of Energy. That team was in town to begin planning for the eventual transport of 3,880 radioactive fuel assemblies stored at the Vernon plant.
There still is no national, permanent storage site for that material, meaning federal officials can’t offer a firm schedule for a fuel move. But those who sat down with Department of Energy representatives say they now know more about what to expect when it happens.
“They said rail is the way to go for us,” said Joe Lynch, Entergy Vermont Yankee government affairs manager.
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Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Fish & Wildlife’s annual fish stocking work is underway and the Department plans to stock over 750,000 fish into Vermont waters in the coming weeks. Exactly 768,500 trout and salmon will be stocked, including nearly 300,000 that will be catchable-sized fish, as well as almost 20,000 trophy trout.
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Vermont Business Magazine Vermont continues to lead the nation when it comes to clean energy jobs, according to the 2016 Clean Energy Industry Report announced today by Governor Peter Shumlin and the Department of Public Service. In the past year, there has been an increase of over 1,400 clean energy jobs, bringing the total number of Vermonters employed in this industry to 17,715. With one in every 17 workers - or about 6 percent of the State's workforce - now part of the clean energy economy, Vermont has the highest number of per capita clean energy jobs of any US state.
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Vermont Business Magazine The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) has recently released a collection of resources for farmers and communities about land use issues for rural enterprises. Rural enterprises are businesses, often on farms, that are suited to a rural area because they are supportive of agriculture or forestry activities and provide employment opportunities.
“Understanding land use issues and how they pertain to farm businesses can be very complex,” said Erin Buckwalter, NOFA-VT’s Market Development Director. “These documents provide an overview of many of the issues farms and communities may encounter, as well as resources for more in-depth information.”
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Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University is hosting the Institute for Sustainable Communities’ inaugural Resilient Vermont Conference Friday and Saturday, May 20-21. This interactive event will bring together community leaders, municipal officials, organizations and agencies working to strengthen Vermont’s resilience to climate change and other challenges. Participants will gain the skills, ideas, inspiration, connections and resources for on-the-ground action to make the community stronger, more vibrant, and better prepared.
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Vermont Business Magazine The Public Service Department today announced the next meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel will be held on Thursday, May 26, 2016, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM in the Multi-Purpose Room at Brattleboro Area Middle School, 109 Sunny Acres Road, Brattleboro. At the meeting the Panel will receive decommissioning updates from the State of Vermont and Entergy. The Panel will hear a presentation from the State of the Vermont on the comments the state filed in response to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking for decommissioning of power reactors. The Panel will also discuss the federal taxation of nuclear decommissioning trust funds and consider an amendment to the panel Charter regarding public access to panel meetings.
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Vermont Business Magazine Renewable Energy Vermont would like to announce at this time, that due to popular demand and conflicts arising due to the deadline's proximity to the end of the Vermont Legislative session we have EXTENDED the deadline from Friday, May 13th until Friday, May 27th at 5 pm. In a statement, organizers said, "Thank you so much to all who submitted prior to original May 13 deadline, if you would like to make use of this extension time to tweak or edit your existing submissions we will gladly accept updated proposals.
by katie
Vermont Business Magazine - On Thursday, April 28th, employees at Sugarbush Resort collected 70 bags of trash and 36 bags of recycling in honor of Green Up Day. A total of 100 resort employees collectively spent 224.5 hours greening up on resort property, as well as along German Flats Road, Sugarbush Access Road, Inferno Road, and Golf Course Road.
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Vermont Business Magazine Vermont's small businesses are the best credit risks in the nation, according to a new report that looked at analytics such as bankruptcies and foreclosures. Because of the profound, far-reaching impact of small business on the US economy, Experian, the leading global information services company, teamed with Moody's Analytics to develop the Experian/Moody's Analytics Main Street Report. The new quarterly report benchmarks the overall financial health of small businesses, identifies emerging trends and provides insight into what these trends mean for small businesses and the economy as a whole. The states with the highest average business credit scores were Vermont (62.6), North Dakota (61.8) and South Dakota (61.7)
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by Mike Faher/The Commons Brattleboro Several days after the end of the 2016 legislative session, Windham County Senator Jeanette White still sounded tired. That’s no doubt due to the normal wear and tear of the session’s frantic final debates and deliberations. But the Putney Democrat also acknowledged deep disappointment about the failure of one of her key causes — marijuana legalization.
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Vermont Business Magazine At its 2016 annual dinner on May 12th, the Lake Champlain Islands Economic Development Corporation awarded the Bullis Family Farm the Business of the Year award and David C. Carter the 2016 Community Service award. The event was held at Shore Acres Inn & Restaurant in North Hero.The Bullis Family Farm is a 4th generation dairy farm in Grand Isle also known as Savage View Farm. The farm operation began in 1927 and has grown to be one of the Champlain Islands’ largest businesses.
L to R: Travis, Tyler, Dwight, Monica and Ryan Bullis, Bullis Family Farm - Business of the Year. photos: Connie Boutin
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Vermont Business Magazine On May 11, 2016, Google announced that it will ban advertising for high-interest personal loans, sometimes referred to as “payday loans.” In 2014, as part of a statewide crackdown on high-interest lending, the Vermont Attorney General Office’s collaborated with Google. “I am pleased that Vermont led the states in working with Google to stop online advertising by predatory lenders,” said Attorney General Sorrell. Over the past two years, Vermont identified for Google hundreds of online lenders who violated Vermont or other state law by: (1) charging excessive interest, often 300% APR or more; or (2) failing to obtain a license as required by Vermont and other states that regulate personal loans. Consequently, Google disabled advertising for the identified illegal lenders.