Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Keeping your community covered. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
A developer has a little more time to finish two long-planned hydroelectric projects on the West River.
The Vermont Public Service Board has granted a six-month extension for commissioning hydroelectric turbines at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dams in Jamaica and Townshend, pushing the deadline from Dec. 31 to June 30, 2016.
The projects are being developed by New Jersey-based Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, doing business locally as Blue Heron Hydro LLC. Blue Heron has long-term renewable energy contracts with Vermont, so the state's deadlines are critical for the hydro projects.
“Blue Heron believes that the projects will be commissioned by Dec. 31, 2015, but given the amount of work remaining, Blue Heron seeks an extension to ensure that its standard-offer contracts are not terminated in the event that the projects are not commissioned by that date,” board members wrote in their order, dated Dec. 10.
On a quiet campus nestled among hundreds of acres of woodland, Marlboro College leaders proudly use the phrase “intentionally small.” But even in an egalitarian, close-knit academic setting, it's possible to have too much of a good thing. As college enrollment declines across the nation, Marlboro's undergraduate numbers are...
Rod McCullum has what you might call conflicting feelings about storage of spent nuclear fuel at Vermont Yankee. “The fuel will be safe here,” said McCullum, a senior director at the Nuclear Energy Institute. “The fuel shouldn't stay here.” By that, McCullum was saying he has full confidence in...
Entergy is accelerating its plans to move Vermont Yankee's spent nuclear fuel into more stable storage, with administrators saying they've developed a “safe and efficient” proposal for getting the job done on time. If a state permitting process goes as expected, crews will start transferring the Vernon plant's spent fuel to dry cask storage in 2017 – two years earlier than initially planned. Entergy announced the change on Dec. 16, but had first disclosed consideration of a schedule shift in...
Last month, state officials launched the equivalent of a Hail Mary pass in their attempt to curb spending of the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund. Now, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffers and Entergy administrators are playing defense, deploying a variety of unflattering terms – “duplicative,” “impermissible,” “alarmist,” “meritless” and “vague,” to name a few – to urge the NRC's commissioners to reject Vermont's trust fund petition. Both the federal agency and the energy company take pains to say the scenario state...
Facing what's been called “one of the most important decisions made in town for years,” Vernon residents are divided on how to proceed with the debate over hosting a 600 megawatt, gas-fired power plant. Some, like resident Bronna Zlochiver, are strongly urging officials to “go slow on this, because we need to answer all the questions that were asked. And I know I have a zillion more.” Others, like Vernon Planning Commission Vice Chairwoman Janet Rasmussen, believe that “time is...
Federal officials have issued formal notification that Vermont Yankee emergency operations can be drastically scaled back due to a “significantly lower” risk of radiological accidents at the shutdown Vernon plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Dec. 10 approval of plant owner Entergy's requested license amendment means that the plant's 10-mile emergency planning zone will disappear next year, as will millions in state and municipal funding that goes with it. The NRC action also paves the way for the next big round...
The range of discussion Monday morning at Brattleboro's Latchis Theatre – from questions about butternut squash to concerns about global imports – shows the sweep of the federal government's new food-safety rules. But as federal and state officials worked to explain some of those rules to attendees who traveled from at least six other states, there was a common theme: Public education is critical, as is more federal funding to ensure that such education happens. For Vermont Agriculture Secretary Chuck...
