Current News
by tim
Ending years of often bitter litigation, 14 Vermont utilities and the state’s independent power producers on January 29 filed a proposed settlement that would save Vermont consumers between $11 million and $45 million, according to a statement released by the utilities and the Vermont IPPs. The Public Service Board would have to approve the agreement.
The settlement would initially reduce power costs for the 14 utilities by $11 million to $15 million, or 5 to 8 percent annually, over the next 10 years. The parties also agreed to work together to seek legislative approval for securitization of remaining IPP costs, which would save an additional $20 million to $30 million for ratepayers.
by tim
The University of Vermont has chosen the most academically oriented of its finalists to become the school’s 25th president.
Daniel Fogel, the executive vice chancellor of Louisiana State University, was named on January 28 to head a state university that has had trouble not only with funding, but with admissions and, most glaringly, with leadership. Since Lattie Coor ruled the campus from 1976 to 1989, the head office has been in flux if not in turmoil.
Coor went to Arizona State University and was succeeded by George Davis. Davis suffered through the takeover of his office by students and a tent city on the green protesting the lack of diversity on campus. He quit after serving less than a year.
by tim
Sanders to run for re-election
By Timothy McQuiston
Bernie Sanders has announced that he will run for re-election to a fifth term in Congress, rather than run for the open governor’s seat.
Sanders said at a press conference on November 6 that though he indeed would want to be governor, the pressing needs in Washington, especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks, led him to seek re-election to “a job I love.”
Sanders has run for governor three times, the last in 1986 when he was still mayor of Burlington.
“It’s just not something I can undertake at this time,” Sanders said, thus ending speculation that he might run for the state’s top post. The congressman said he made the final decision the previous weekend.