The Environmental Board goes extinct
After decades of service to the state of Vermonts best interests, the state Environmental Board will go out of existence. This nine-member crew and its similar body, the five-member Water Resources Board, will be replaced by an Environmental Court and a judge.
In the past, this nine-member crew has made decisions and set standards based on first-hand experience. It has kept 100-unit motels out, and enabled Walmarts to come in. The Environmental Boards decisions have almost always sparked debate, though their devotion to wildlife is usually apparent. Gov. Howard Dean supported the workers of the Environmental Board, but after the Senate refused to confirm his reappointment of its head members, they eventually had to be replaced.