Current News

by Alan Panebaker vtdigger.orgIn a filing Tuesday afternoon with the Vermont Public Service Board, Entergy Corp. agreed to comply with the requirements in its existing license while the board considers whether to grant the company a new certificate of public good to operate the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
In a one-paragraph letter to the board, the company said it agreed with the Department of Public Service that Vermont law allows the plant to continue operating while the proceeding continues.
The plantâ s state license expired March 21, but it continues to operate, with all of the power generated being sold out of state.
The Department of Public Service, which represents ratepayers before the Public Service Board, has pushed for the company to continue making payments to the Clean Energy Development Fund, which funds renewable energy projects. In its filing, Entergy agreed to continue making payments to the state in the interim.

Kilawatt Technologies announced the results for the first six months of the Energy and Environmental Management project with Vermont Public Radio.

The project involved the installation of a series of Energy Management Nodes throughout the building. These nodes provided for full, web based control and data trending for the entire building. Based on the data and control functions, Kilawatt Technologies statistically analyzed energy consumption data and develop sophisticate control strategies.

The results in the first six months of Energy and Environment Management included:

Total Energy Reduction (Million BTU): Reduced by 22.1%
Electrical Energy: Reduced by 14.7%
Natural Gas: Reduced by 38.5%
Propane: Reduced by 27.2%

From Wednesday, March 21to Friday, March 232012, educators from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont gathered in Norwood for a three-day conference sponsored by the New England Secondary School Consortium.

The conference was held to bring together members of the League of Innovative Schools and other New England secondary schools to learn about strategies for communicating with the media, examine the critical role of local policy development, create a network between schools throughout the five states and share best practices that are transforming learning for students around New England.

Mayor Miro Weinberger today invited all City department heads and other mayoral appointees to reapply for their appointments and share with him their priorities for the next year. At an all-department heads meeting this morning at City Hall, Weinberger provided each city official with a letter stating his goal of assembling a top-notch team ready to tackle the tough, but surmountable, challenges facing our City. In the letter, Weinberger requested that all directors state their intentions regarding continued City service no later than April 30, 2012.
Weinbergerâ s letter stated in its entirety:
â Thank you for your service to the City of Burlington. I decided to take on the challenge of leading this city based on my long-held commitment to public service. I value the role City employees play in making Burlington a strong, vibrant, and well-functioning place to live and work.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.orgItâ s bill swap time in the Legislature. All those legislative proposals that passed out of the House are now going to the Senate, and vice versa.
And as per usual this time of the session, the House is way ahead of the ball game. Thatâ s because representatives are obliged to tackle the big stuff first ‘the budget, the miscellaneous tax bill, the capital adjustment expenditures and the transportation budget ‘and then move on to the smaller bills.
That tsunami of money proposals will now hit the Senate with some force and for the next three and a half weeks the Green Room will play catch-up.

The chief executives of Vermontâ s leading businesses demonstrated increasing optimism in their economic forecasts for the coming six months, improving on results from the previous survey. The survey, which was completed between March 9 and March 23, was released today by Vermont Business Roundtable Chair Steve Voigt, CEO, King Arthur Flour and President Lisa Ventriss.
Key findings from the first quarter of 2012 over the fourth quarter of 2011 include:

An expected three percent increase in company sales;
An expected three percent increase in capital spending;
An expected six percent increase in stable employment levels

6 Months Forecast

2012 Q1
Increase

2012 Q1
No Change

2012 Q1
Decrease

Quarterly % Change
Increase

2011 Q4
Increase

2011 Q4
No Change

2011 Q4
Decrease

Sales

67%

25%

9%

3%

64%

27%

Vermont saw a decrease in non-current mortgages in February from 9.0 percent to 8.7 percent, as foreclosures held steady and delinquencies fell, but the state still fell from 14th best in the nation to 16th best. Nationally, the mortgage market is getting better as foreclosures work their way through the system. The latest Mortgage Monitor report released by Lender Processing Services, Inc (NYSE: LPS) shows that February foreclosure starts and sales reversed course, declining on a month-over-month basis after January's sharp increase in activity.
Foreclosure starts were down 15 percent from the month prior nationally, with sales down 19 percent for the same period. Foreclosure sales decreased in both judicial and non-judicial foreclosure states, dropping 22 and 19 percent month-over-month respectively in February.

by Alan Panebaker vtdigger.orgSome lawmakers say a proposal by the Shumlin administration and the stateâ s two largest utilities to create an efficiency fund is a shell game.
On March 26, the Vermont Department of Public Service, Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service Corp. proposed a memorandum of understanding that would allow the utilities to invest money in measures including weatherization as part of a windfall sharing mechanism.
The idea was to fulfill a requirement that utilities who got bailed out by ratepayers in the 1990s share profits with ratepayers if they are bought for above book value. The $700-million proposed merger meets that threshold.
Rep. Oliver Olsen, a Republican from Jamaica, said the only problem with the deal is the money being invested doesnâ t come from the utilities at all. It comes from ratepayers.

New Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger was sworn in on Monday and delivered his first "State of the City" address Monday evening. While noting that a page has been turned in city politics (he's the first Democrat in 30 years to hold the post), he said he's looking ahead with optimism to meet several challenges facing the city: serious financial problems, not only budgetary but with the city-owned Burlington Telecom; infrastructure repairs; municipal projects, like the Moran plant redevelopment; still-expensive housing, even through the recession; economic opportunities for all; and rebuilding trust between the mayor's office, the City Council and the public, which was frayed most obviously by the problems with BT.
Weinberger said he looks forward to rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. Below is the full text of his speech.
Mayor Miro Weinberger State of the City Address ‘April 2, 2012
"Good Evening.

In the twelve months before July 1, 2011, 154 manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, biologics, and medical devices spent approximately $5.6 million in direct payments to Vermont doctors, hospitals, universities and others. That figure represents an overall spending increase of 17% from the $4.8 million reported the previous fiscal year. In particular, the amount spent on pharmaceutical marketing ($2.2 million) is about 22% higher than the $1.8 million reported in the previous fiscal year.
‘Vermonters have a right to know about the financial relationships between their doctors and drug companies,’ said Attorney General William H. Sorrell. ‘The public can view the disclosure data that sheds light on those relationships on my office’s website.’

As winter closes and mud season arrives, signs of Spring are starting to pop up everywhere, and many Vermonters are already thinking about spring cleaning their homes, offices, barns, garages, and attics. As you sort through the leavings of winter, remember that Vermont’s electronic waste law bans the disposal of certain electronic devices in the regular trash. However, if you are a Vermont household, charity, school district or small business that employs 10 or fewer individuals (covered entities), now is the time to start fresh by taking your old computers, monitors, printers, computer peripherals and televisions (covered devices) to any one of the free recycling locations across the state. To date, the program has collected over 3.4 million pounds of recyclable electronic devices.

Whistling Man Schooner Company, aBurlington,Vermontbased Lake Champlain Sailing Tour Company has been acquired by Crowsnest Sailing Solutions, LLC, ofHinesburg. The business will continue to operate on the waterfront inBurlington and service the many tourists who visitBurlingtonduring the summer months.

This transaction was managed by Kim Wichert, an Associate with Country Business, Inc. CBI isNew England’s largest privately held business brokerage firm.The sale of small and mid-sized businesses is the firm’s principal activity. Since 1976 the company has valued or managed the sale of over 1000 businesses, with sales prices ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to $10 million.

4.2.2012.