Current News

A Massachusetts and a Vermont company that each store significant amounts of oil are facing EPA penalties of up to $177,500 for failing to take adequate precautions meant to prevent and contain oil spills.
Specifically, EPA’s New England office alleged in a complaint filed recently that Knight Oil of Salisbury, Mass., and Rowley Fuels of Allburgh, Vt., failed to adequately prepare and maintain Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure plans, known as SPCC plans. Both complaints were based on inspections by EPA staff.
The complaint against Knight Oil alleged the violations took place at its facilities at 49 Congress St. and 91 Congress St. in Amesbury. Among other things, SPCC plans require adequate containment to prevent spilled oil from reaching surface waters. Several surface waters, including the Back River, Clarks Pond and the Powwow River, could be affected if oil were spilled from either facility.

The Vermont Energy Education Program (VEEP) is offering two institutes this summer to help teachers understand the science, as well as the costs and benefits, of producing electricity using renewable energy. The goal is to give teachers the knowledge and hands-on experience they need to explore topics related to solar power and wind power with their students and have a greater understanding of current energy issues. The two 4-day institutes cost $300 each. A limited number of scholarships are available through VEEP.

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) hails a major new rule targeting cross-state air pollution and cleaning Vermont’s air that has been in the works for more than 20 years. Leahy said the release Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of a final Cross-State Air Pollution Rule ‘goes directly to the distant sources of pollution that have long bedeviled clean air strategies in Vermont, New England and other areas of the country. This will substantially reduce the wayward drift from dirty old coal-fired power plants that have been one of the thorniest problems in cleaning the air we breathe.’

When it comes to property and casualty insurance, Vermonters have the best insurance market and the best regulators, according to the Heartland Institute. The ranking is below.
The Heartland Institute’s mission ‘is to discover, develop and promote free market solutions to social and economic problems.’ The institute annually rates the states’ insurance departments against two criteria: ‘How free are consumers to choose the property and casualty insurance products they want?’ and ‘How free are insurers to provide the property and casualty insurance products consumers say they want?’

Ken Gibbons, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank is happy to give a child a little lift this weekend. Caleb Nelson is the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Vermont winner of a hot-air balloon ride at the 25th Anniversary Stoweflake Hot Air Balloon Festival July 8-10. The prize was conceived of and donated by Union Bank; Make-A-Wish Foundation of Vermont organized the drawing; and the Stoweflake Mountain Resort & Spa donated townhouse accommodations during the event for Caleb and his family.
Caleb is from Ryegate and is 9 years old. He was diagnosed at an early age with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, a pulmonary disorder. Make-A-Wish’s mission is to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Union Bank is a strong proponent of their mission and wanted to use the opportunity of the Balloon Festival to add to the life experience of a Make-A-Wish child.

There were 664 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 596 from the week before. Altogether 7678 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 154 from a week ago and 2,649 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 1,603 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 41 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 783 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is a decrease of 13 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/. Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc
Vermont's unemployment rate increased one-tenth in May to 5.4 percent. See story HERE.

Engelberth Construction, Inc recently began renovations to the Hartness Library at Vermont Technical College in Randolph Center. The $1 million project includes renovations to the interiors, exterior envelope, as well as renovations to the mechanical and electrical systems.
The planned alterations reorganizes the interior and provides a new office suite for the library staff and director, a new conference/media room, new staff room, new unisex bathrooms, group work rooms, enlarged computer work area, quiet study area, coffee area and cafe seating. The CM project, managed by VTC graduate Glenn Terk, is scheduled for completion in August prior to the start of fall 2011 classes. Banwell Architects of Lebanon designed the project.

Approximately 2,100 Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) members lost power in the wake of a thunderstorm that rolled through the VEC territory on Wednesday afternoon. At the peak of the outage about 3,500 VEC members lost power caused by high winds that brought trees and limbs down onto power lines. Damage occurred throughout the VEC service territory, but is primarily focused along the western slopes of the Green Mountains and ranges from the Lake Champlain Islands to the Northeast Kingdom.
VEC crews have been deployed and wll work until all outages are restored. Contract crews have been called in to provide additional restoration support.
An outage affecting approximately 165 members in Huntington and Richmond was expected to be restored shortly after midnight. Another outage impacting 250 VEC members in Essex was expected to be restored before 5 am on Thursday.

Governor Peter Shumlin today took a strong position in support of fuel security, jobs, and a healthier future for Vermonters and all Americans, writing to President Barack Obama to voice support for a single, national emission standard for passenger vehicles and light trucks.

California and the federal government are in negotiations to harmonize their standards in to a single national standard. Governor Shumlin wrote the President and California Governor Jerry Brown to express Vermont’s commitment to efforts to fight climate change.

College For Every Student (CFES) in Cornwall has been awarded $3.8 million by the GE Foundation for its college access programs in six GE operating communities nationwide. The GE Foundation donation signifies its long-term commitment to ensuring college access for low-income students that has put thousands of underserved youth on the path to higher education. The grant will support the continuation of CFES initiatives in schools in Harlem; Cincinnati; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Stamford, Connecticut; and establish the innovative ‘Scholars’ model in schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Lynn, Massachusetts.

USDA Rural Development funds will be used by UVM Extension to strengthen and build community and economic development within three locally based non-profit organizations: Newport Renaissance Corporation, Gilman Housing Trust and Northeast Kingdom Community Action. UVM Extension will work with these local non-profits in order to build the skills necessary to effectively and efficiently plan for and recruit new businesses, promote trade and tourism, and to evaluate the quality of housing available in the region. In the past these non-profits have hired consultants to conduct the proposed work which has not allowed these non-profits to retain these skills year after year.

A line of severe storms that rolled across the state last night knocked out power to about 12,000 CVPS customers at the peak of the event around 6:30 p.m. The storms caused outages in Franklin, Chittenden, Addison, Orange, Windsor, Rutland and Bennington counties, before largely sparing the Brattleboro area and leaving the region.
The high wind gusts broke several utility poles (five in the Middlebury area alone), brought down trees, tree limbs and power lines, and lightning strikes caused damage across the state.
CVPS crews and support staff worked through the night last night and will continue working through today to restore power to the fewer than 300 CVPS customers still out this morning. Those customers should have their power restored by late this afternoon, barring any other problems.