Current News

In his first interview as governor with Vermont Business Magazine, Peter Shumlin talks about why he ran for governor, the differences between being a governor and a legislator, his steadfast opposition to the renewed operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and his hopes for renewable energy. He reiterated his stated position that the Vernon plant is old and leaking and should be decommissioned when its license expires in 2012.
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Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) today announced Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC has completed negotiations on a 20-year agreement to sell power from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to customers of Vermont Electric Cooperative, Inc, the third-largest electric distribution utility in Vermont. Entergy also stated that it will not sell the plant.
The agreement is subject to approval by VEC’s board of directors, and is contingent on the plant running after March 2012.
‘Entergy continues to seek successful resolution related to the long-term future of Vermont Yankee to benefit all stakeholders, including the approximately 650 men and women who work at the plant,’ said Richard Smith, president of Entergy Wholesale Commodities. ‘Securing agreements with the local electric companies to sell power from the plant at affordable prices is one of the efforts that has been under way for some time.’

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org March 30, 2011 The T-bill, or state transportation bill, as it’s known, took a $42 million hit this year when the federal government ended funding for state transportation projects in 2011 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Most of that money is coming out of paving and road building.
Last year, the state spent $595 million on total transportation ‘ highway, rail, public transit and aviation. The grand total this year is $553.7 million. About 60 percent of that outlay for fiscal year 2012 would be spent on the state’s highway system. The remaining $165.1 million is slated for administration, facilities, public transport, aviation and rail projects.
Lawmakers in the House will take up the T-bill on Thursday.

NRG Systems, manufacturer of wind measurement equipment and long-time proponent of healthy workplaces, received the silver Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Worksite Wellness Award yesterday at the annual Worksite Wellness Conference held in Burlington. NRG Systems’ wellness program, called NRGize Your Life, was recognized for its healthy workplace and wellness initiatives that encourage ‘people to engage in physical fitness activities and eat nutritiously, both on and off the job.’
‘NRG Systems recognizes that healthy and happy employees are more productive employees,’ said Jan Blittersdorf, president and CEO of NRG Systems. ‘Sustainability is central to our mission and it applies to both the long-term health of our company and our employees. We’re constantly on the lookout for new ways to promote healthy lifestyles for our employees at work and at home.’

Excavation work began today on lower Church Street as part of a $1.6 million project which will significantly re-design pedestrian and streetscape elements of lower Church Street and Saint Paul Street.
In 2005, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity: A Legacy for User (SAFETEA-LU) act provided transportation funding to communities across the country. Through the efforts of Senator Patrick Leahy, the City of Burlington received $3 million for specific improvements on the Church Street Marketplace as part of the Church Street Marketplace Improvement Program and $3 million for improvements on the side streets to the Church Street Marketplace.

Three communities were awarded grants this week by the Vermont Downtown Development Board to fund local infrastructure improvements such as new sidewalks, signage and streetlights.
The Vermont Downtown Development Board announced the awards totaling $127,594 on Monday for Morrisville, Rutland City and St. Albans City. The funds, which are from the state’s Downtown Transportation Fund, are available to communities that are part of the Vermont Downtown Program. Established in 1994, the Vermont Downtown Program helps invest in the economic growth and cultural landscape of Vermont’s cities, villages and towns.
Funding Awards:

The Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) has teamed up with Purdue University’s Technical Assistance Program to offer Green Generalist Online training, an interactive and educational online course that provides awareness of the key environmental issues facing companies and ways to redesign their business practices using environmentally friendly techniques. The Green Generalist Online workshop is appropriate for the entire workforce and all business sectors.
Green Generalist Online has seven sections, seven tests, and three interactive simulations. It takes up to four hours to complete. The cost is $175 per person using a special ‘Discount Code’ available through the VMEC website. A Green Generalist Certificate is also available from Purdue TAP upon course completion. Registration is possible through the VMEC website atwww.vmec.org or www.vmec.org/online-courses.

Draker Labs, a provider of high performance turnkey monitoring systems for large commercial and utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, has been selected by Ray Angelini Services, Incorporated (RAI), to monitor 11 solar projects located throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Seven of the projects have been commissioned and the remaining ones are currently under development. The projects include a mix of commercial sites and educational institutions.

Utility Risk Management Corporation (URMC) today announced the introduction of new thermal imaging technology ‘ Thermal Directâ ¢ ‘ capable of enhancing the reliability and efficiency of the nation’s electric grid. The technology represents a break-through for the industry in that it precisely measures conductor temperatures, enabling utilities to: improve system reliability and capacity; enhance the security of transmission assets; demonstrate compliance with applicable regulatory requirements; and reduce mitigation costs associated with compliance by as much as $2 billion dollars over a period of three years. In recent testing confirmed by Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) sensors, Thermal Direct’s accuracy presented a 95 percent confidence level, with residual error of only 3.75°F or 2.09°C.

Saint Michael’s College associate professor of physics, Dr Alain Brizard, learned this month that he will be the recipient of a grant from the Department of Energy for $33,000 each of the next three years to support his research. The funding comes from the DOE’s office of Fusion Energy Sciences of the Office of Science.

On Tuesday, March 29, NOFA Vermont joined dozens of farmers, seed producers, agricultural businesses and non-profit organizations across the country and Canada, as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Monsanto Corporation. The suit challenges the validity of the chemical giant’s patents on a number of its genetically engineered (GE) crops. It also asks the court to prevent Monsanto from continuing its unwarranted and damaging patent infringement lawsuits against farmers and others for alleged patent infringements when their organic and non-GE fields and crops become contaminated by Monsanto’s GE crops.
The suit was filed on behalf of the plaintiffs in federal district court in Manhattan by patent attorney Dan Ravicher, Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation, a not-for-profit legal services organization affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org March 29, 2011 Darcie Johnston, a political campaign consultant for GOP candidates, is galvanizing support ‘ and money ‘ for a campaign to kill the universal health care bill that just passed in the House. Johnston started her organization Vermonters for Health Care Freedom, a ‘free’ market group that opposes a ‘single-payer’ style medical coverage system for the state, just a few weeks ago as a Facebook campaign.
Her mini movement has ‘ thanks to money from an unnamed source ‘ migrated from the somewhat limited realm of social networking sites to a website and a burgeoning list of 200 donors, ‘friends’ and supporters. Johnston, who is the volunteer prime mover of a faction of disaffected conservatives, rallied the anti-single payer flag and got dozens of opponents of H.202, the universal health care bill, to come to the Statehouse last weekend to decry the evils of government-controlled payment systems for medical care.