VNRC Co-Hosts Successful Forums on Biomass

In June and July 2010, VNRC co-hosted three forums around the state to create and elevate a strategic discussion about the potential role of biomass in Vermont's energy future. Below is a synopsis of the goal of the forums, the principles that the sponsoring organizations offered as a way to frame the dialogue and all of the notes from the forums.

Letting a Crisis Go to Waste?

There is certainly a lot to worry about these days. The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico — which is devastating the livelihoods of thousands, drowning wildlife in oil and irrevocably ravaging ecosystems — is the most recent and deeply disturbing of our nation's worrisome events.

In Vermont, a series of leaks of radioactive water at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, no comprehensive energy plan for Vermont, significant and semi-debilitating budget constraints, a noticeable trend, for the first time in a century, of a loss of our forestland are among just a few of the challenges facing Vermonters.

Op-Ed: A Perfect Storm for Clean Energy Innovation

How are we going to meet our energy needs, both now and far into the future? Nations, communities and individuals are pondering this question with an increasing sense of urgency. Fortunately a perfect storm is brewing across Vermont ― one that holds promise of a new, green, clean and locally-based renewable energy future for the Green Mountain State. Vermont’s perfect storm has three basic aspects...

Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network

The Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network — VECAN — is a collaborative of statewide nonprofit and membership-based organizations, including VNRC, who's goal is to start and strengthen town energy committees.

'Atlas' Maps Vermont's Renewable Energy Opportunities

On Earth Day 2010, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund released its eagerly anticipated renewable energy mapping tool - Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont. This GIS-based web application uses state-of-the-art technology to identify, analyze and visualize existing and promising locations for renewable energy. The Atlas is an accessible tool for any interested Vermonter seeking more information about potential resources out their back door. The VSJF specifically also targeted the tool to serve as a resource for Vermont's growing network of community energy committees.

Vermont Senate Denies Vermont Yankee

Over 250 Vermont Yankee opponents gathered at the State House on February 24 for the Senate's vote to decide the future of Vermont's sole nuclear power plant. They asked lawmakers to retire Vermont Yankee in 2012 - as planned. In an overwhelming, bipartisan vote, the Vermont Senate yesterday chose to do so, sending one loud, clear message: “The time is now to retire Vermont Yankee.” The vote was 26-4.

Close Vermont Yankee As Scheduled: There’s a Better Way Forward

The operating license of Vermont’s aging and decrepit nuclear power plant is scheduled to terminate in 2012. Vermont Yankee’s owners, Louisiana-based Entergy, are seeking a 20-year extension to operate the imperiled facility. Vermonters have a huge stake — and, thankfully, a voice — in what will likely be one of the most significant decisions regarding public safety, our energy future, and Vermont’s reputation for environmental stewardship, that the state will ever face. Read VNRC's reasons for closing the plant, as scheduled, in 2012.

VNRC Moves to Intervene in Vermont Yankee Proceeding

As elevated levels of radioactive isotopes continue to leak into groundwater surrounding the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant - and potentially into neighboring drinking water wells - VNRC today filed a motion to intervene in the docket before the Public Service Board on Vermont Yankee. VNRC cited our interest in protecting the state’s groundwater – a resource legally held in trust for the common good of all Vermonters – and the critical need to assure the state interprets the new groundwater public trust law correctly.

VNRC Motion to Intervene in PSB Proceeding on Vermont Yankee

Read VNRC's 'Memorandum in Support of of Its Motion to Intervene' in the Public Service Board Docket regarding the Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee power plant.

Why Risk Our Economy for Vermont Yankee?

The Vermont seal of quality carries with it a cachet that few other states can claim. Over the years we've done a great job leading the country on issues that affect the common good, such as land stewardship, energy efficiency and environmental conservation. We've set the bar high — from the passage of Act 250, Vermont's comprehensive land use and development law, to the nation's first feed-in tariff, designed to jumpstart the in-state generation of renewable energy; and from the creation of Efficiency Vermont, the country's first energy efficiency utility, to the 2008 legislation that took the visionary step of declaring groundwater a public trust resource.