Current News

Don Rendall of Green Mountain Power Corporation and the President of the Board of Directors of the United Way of Chittenden County announced today that Martha Maksym of Grand Isle has been named the new Executive Director to succeed Gretchen Morse who announced her retirement effective June 30th. A wide range of applicants was considered by a search committee of the Board during a process that took several months.

Associated Industries of Vermont Vice President William Driscoll issued the following statement Tuesday regarding Entergy Vermont Yankee's US District Court suit against the state of Vermont. Entergy is seeking to operate the Vernon nuclear plant until 2032, 20 years beyond its license expiration in March 2012. It recently received such approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is challenging in court the state's insistence that Entergy receive approval from the Vermont Legislature. AIV is the state's largest manufacturers' association.
http://vermontbiz.com/news/april/entergy-vermont-yankee-sues-state-vermont
Associated Industries of Vermont Vice President William Driscoll, April 18, 2011:
"We have always had two fundamental goals and interests in the fate of Vermont Yankee, directly tied to our economy and the welfare of working Vermonters and their families.

The Green Mountain Club today announced the choice of Will Wiquist as the organization’s new executive director. Wiquist is the first new director in more than a decade for the 101-year old, 10,000 member club which maintains Vermont’s Long Trail network and seeks to promote the role of the mountains in people’s lives.
Wiquist previously served for more than three and a half years as press secretary for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Among other public relations responsibilities, he managed the senator’s highly active social media presence including leading the way in building the largest Facebook page in the U.S. Senate.

Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) will release the 2011 edition of ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont’ at a press event at 12 noon on Thursday, April 21, in the Statehouse Cedar Creek Room in Montpelier.
The 2011 update is the 10th edition of the annual report first published in 2002.
It shows, despite a long-term recession, that rental prices have continued to escalate making the gap between Vermonters’ wages and their cost of housing larger. Furthermore, the future of Vermont’s affordable housing is in jeopardy as federal subsidies are set to expire, and pressure grows to reduce national debt by cutting the federal budget.
WHAT
Release event: ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont’
WHEN
12:00 noon, Thursday, April 21, 2011
WHERE
Cedar Creek Room, Statehouse, State Street, Montpelier
WHO
Sen. Vincent Illuzzi

Citing personal reasons, Lyndon State College President Carol A. Moore announced her resignation
from the college, effective July 1.
‘President Moore has served Lyndon State College and the community with distinction. Over the course of the thirteen years she has been at Lyndon, she has worked through some significant challenges and sustained the mission of delivering a high quality, accessible and affordable education to its students,’ commented Vermont State College Chancellor Tim Donovan.
Moore came to Lyndon State College in 1998 from Mercy College in New York City, where she served
as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. During her time at Lyndon, Moore focused on

Statistics show that although construction in Vermont during the month of February looked to be slowing, overall contracts for future construction are above last years values. This includes residential, non-residential and nonbuilding construction.
February and year-to-date data for Vermont:

Similar statistics for the state of New Hampshire also show a significant increase in future construction contracts for the year 2011.
February and year-to-date data for New Hampshire:

Source: McGraw-Hill Construction

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Major General Michael Dubie, the Vermont National Guard commander, broke ground today on an $8.5 million solar installation that will be one of the biggest in Vermont.
Sanders is chairman of the Senate green jobs subcommittee. He has worked with the Vermont National Guard to make its base one of the greenest in the country.
‘It is appropriate that we are here today to break ground on what will be one of the largest solar energy projects in Vermont because Vermont is one of the most environmentally conscious states in our nation. We lead the country in energy efficiency and, through projects like this, are making progress in increasing our use of sustainable energy,’ Sanders said.

The chief executives of Vermont’s leading businesses appear poised to hold steady for the spring and summer months of 2011, when compared against the previous survey period. The survey was completed between April 1 and April 15 and released today by Vermont Business Roundtable Chair Steve Voigt, CEO, King Arthur Flour and President Lisa Ventriss.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and utility leaders today hailed the Public Service Board’s approval of a 26-year contract with Hydro-Québec, a key element of Vermont’s energy future.
‘I am glad that the Public Service Board approved this agreement for clean, reliable, and favorably priced power for Vermonters,’ Gov. Shumlin said. ‘Hydro-Québec has been an important partner in Vermont for many years, and will continue to be a key player in Vermont’s energy future.’
The PSB order, issued late Friday, is the culmination of a more than a year-long process that began with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Central Vermont Public Service (NYSE-CV), Green Mountain Power and Hydro-Québec in March 2010. The MOU led to a contract last August, now approved by the PSB, which will benefit not only CVPS and GMP customers, but people across Vermont.

The other shoe has finally dropped. Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) announced this morning that two of its subsidiaries, Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC (ENVY) and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc (ENOI), have filed a complaint in US District Court for the District of Vermont in Burlington seeking a judgment to prevent the state of Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to cease operation on March 21, 2012.
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and Attorney General William Sorrell said that they expected the suit, have been preparing for the legal action and will use the full powers of the state to fight it.

FairPoint Communications has announced it has embarked on an investment in its VantagePoint network that will support more high-speed wireless services and extend fiber into more communities across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
This fiber-optic build supplies critical infrastructure known as "backhaul" for wireless traffic in the region, and will address the exploding bandwidth needs being driven by new applications for smart phones, tablets and other wireless devices. Today FairPoint supports 3G service on more than 1,600 towers in its northern New England footprint. In the transformation to 4G, FairPoint will have the capacity to provide Ethernet-over-fiber service to more than half of the towers with this initial network expansion.

IBM issued the following statement yesterday regarding conversations its executives have had with Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and his staff concerning the administration's health care reform effort. IBM, as many large companies, is self-insured. It previously has expressed concern over the health care refomr making its way through the Legislature, in particular proposals that the plan would be funded through a payroll tax on all Vermont workers and their employees. IBM has suggested that this would constitute a kind of double insurance premium for itself and its employees.
The most recent meeting between IBM and the governor was last week. IBM issued this statement concerning the meeting:
"IBM Senior Vice President for Human Resources, Randy MacDonald, met with Governor Peter Shumlin and had a productive discussion on the Governor’s health care reform legislation. There were several outcomes.