Current News

Merchandise exports from Vermont hit $3.6 billion in 2014. Vermont’s exports in 2014 helped the US achieve a record high for goods and services exports: $2.35 trillion. Goods exports from Vermont supported an estimated 16,000 US jobs in 2013, contributing to the 11.3 million jobs nationwide that were supported by both goods and services exports that year. On average, jobs in these export-related industries pay up to 18 percent more than non-export related industries.

According to data released by the Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, Vermont’s goods exports in 2014 were led by a number of sectors, including computer and electronic products ($2.5 billion); food and kindred products ($207 million); and machinery, except electrical ($160 million).

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims reveersed a recent trend and increased at their greatest rate since the post-holiday period. Claims had risen in the late fall and peaked around the holidays and then fallen back in January and most of February. For the week of February 21, 2015, there were 873 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont. This is an increase of 359 from the previous week's total, and 49 more than they were a year ago. In 2014, claims were consistently below 2013 levels on a week-to-week basis.

Graph shows private employment (nonfarm, nongovernment)

by Elizabeth Hewitt vtdigger.org From health care to bottled water for state employees, lawmakers and the Shumlin administration pieced together a list of suggestions Thursday on how the state could scrape up $29 million to fill another budget gap.

The list aims to solve the latest financial hardship facing the state: filling an $18.6 million void illuminated by a revenue downgrade in January.

The downgrade came on the heels of the governor’s budget proposal, which tries to heal a $94 million deficit. According to projections, the state is spending money at a rate 2 percent greater than revenue is growing.

Algae International Group, Inc, based in Bomar, TX, through its operating subsidiary American Seed & Oil Company, Inc, is today primarily in the business of hemp production in Vermont to supply seed to the expanding hemp farming market, hemp-based consumer products market and hemp-based construction material market. The company is also piloting a number of other cannabis related products and services. 2014 marked the first time in 70 years hemp has been grown legally within the United States.

Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy (Vermont), Ron Wyden (OR), Chuck Schumer (NY), Maria Cantwell (WA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Tom Udall (NM), Al Franken (MN), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Ed Markey (MA), and Cory Booker (NJ) issued a joint comment Thursday following a vote by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on updated open Internet rules. The new rules, which apply to all domestic broadband providers, prevent broadband providers from blocking or throttling lawful online content and ban paid-prioritization agreements through which websites could be charged for priority access. The Democratic Senators who joined to release today’s comment have been outspoken in their support for a free and open Internet for all Americans.

The State of Vermont has appealed the decision last month by an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel denying its petition regarding the preservation of the Emergency Response Data System (ERDS) at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. (The ASLB is a quasi-judicial arm of the NRC that handles hearing requests and petitions and conducts hearings.) The ASLB panel found that ERDS, which provides a direct electronic data link from plants to the NRC and allows the agency to monitor critical plant parameters during an emergency, is only required for plants with operating reactors under existing regulations. The ASLB panel split in its decision and the state uses that information in part of its argument. See the state's brief to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission below.

Mayor Miro Weinberger today announced a mediated settlement agreement among the City, Champlain College, and members of Preservation Burlington, a non-profit neighborhood preservation organization, regarding the Eagles Landing student housing project proposed by the college. The settlement resolves the final legal issues related to the denial of the project by the Development Review Board on April 3, 2014, and its subsequent appeal by Champlain College. The agreement follows unanimous City Council approval of the draft agreement on February 17, 2015 and clears the way for the 104-unit project to move forward.

The denial had been a surprise and a disappoint to the college and the city. The city for many years has encouraged the local colleges to build more dorms to reverse the erosion of housing stock and neighborhoods, as property owners had turned private homes into student apartments.

Vermont’s Congressional delegation received high marks today from the National League of Conservation Voters for their pro-environment voting records in LCV’s 2014 National Environmental Scorecard. The delegation’s voting record stands in sharp contrast to a national trend of anti-environmental voting, particularly in the House of Representatives, according to Lauren Hierl, the political director at the Vermont Conservation Voters.

Vermont gasoline prices have edged up over the last couple of weeks, but drivers could see a steeper increase soon, according to a national rating service. For this week, gas prices in Vermont are at an average of $2.387, which is a modest increase of 3.6 cents from a week ago and 4.3 cents from a month ago. Vermont economists have indicated that the lowered gas prices have put millions of dollars into consumers wallets, which has been perhaps the brightest spot in a slowly emerging economy. A price spike could hurt consumer activity. Still, prices today are more than a $1.20 less than a year ago. However, the transition from ‘winter blend’ to ‘summer blend’ gasoline always brings increases in retail gasoline prices, but nothing we've seen over the past year is likely to match what GasBuddy anticipates over the next two to three weeks.

Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc, (NASDAQ: DNKN), The JM Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) and Keurig Green Mountain, Inc (NASDAQ: GMCR) today expanded their partnership by signing agreements for the manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale of Dunkin' K-Cup packs at retailers nationwide in the US and Canada, and online. Dunkin' K-Cup packs are presently available in Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in the US Keurig is the exclusive producer of Dunkin' K-Cup packs and will remain so with the expansion of the partnership. The JM Smucker Company currently manufactures and distributes Dunkin' Donuts brand premium bagged coffee where groceries are sold under license from Dunkin' Donuts.

Campaign for Vermont (CFV) announces the launch of The Economic Indicators Report. The Report includes data obtained through public records requests as well as some publicly available data that has been analyzed. The February issue focuses on the state of Vermont's workforce. Subsequent reports will be published monthly and examine a specific theme within Vermont's economy.

​Published by CFV with numerous collaborators, the Economic Indicators Report serves Vermonter's need for a nonpartisan, evidence-based discussion of the state's economic climate.

Executive Director, Cyrus Patten said, "Campaign for Vermont continues to serve Vermont by taking a hard look at the data that should be driving policy decisions related to our economy. Vermonters have expressed a need for nonpartisan information from independent sources. This report seeks to meet that need."

Essex Capital Partners, a Massachusetts based developer of utility scale solar projects, and Sunpreme Inc, a US-based solar photovoltaic company that designs and manufactures its own cells and panels, are pleased to announce the completion of 90 day post commissioning of the 2.6 megawatt ground mount solar system developed by Essex Capital (through its subsidiary, Barton Solar), located in Barton, Vermont. The system is one of the largest commercial Solar PV installations inVermont and will generate 3,400,000 kWh of clean, emission free electricity annually – enough energy to serve over 1,500 homes, while providing a centerpiece to the holistic approach to environmental stewardship.