Clean Heat is a Win-Win In 2008, Vermont set a goal of weatherizing 80,000 homes by 2020. But having failed to make the investment necessary to reach that goal, our state today is on a path to fall woefully short on weatherization. To make matters worse, the rising price of fossil fuels means the typical …
Updating Vermont’s Bottle Bill recycling program to include water bottles, sports drinks and other non-carbonated beverage containers would have a number of benefits, including: 1) Recycling an additional 96.7 million cans and bottles in Vermont each year, 2) Reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking more than 1,200 cars off the road annually, 3) Creating …
For Immediate Release: January 2, 2013 MONTPELIER, VT – Today President Obama will sign into law a bill that extends key tax credits for wind power and averts the ‘fiscal cliff.’ The main federal incentives for wind power – the renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the offshore wind Investment Tax Credit (ITC) – …
President Obama, Congress Save Wind Power in Fiscal Cliff Agreement Read More »
Three months after a plan to switch much of Montpelier’s downtown from oil to wood heat got a new lease on life, the Montpelier City Council cast a final vote on the project last night. Up for debate was whether to pump the extra heat from an upgraded wood fired boiler run by the state to Montpelier’s municipal buildings and local businesses. The City Council’s decision to build the full project rather than a shorter line that wouldn’t reach the business district or municipal buildings was well received by the attending crowd.
In August, the Montpelier City Council approved an initial leg of the District Heat project while getting bids for remaining connections, which would include Union Elementary School and City Hall. Since then, city staff members are hard at work enlisting business customers needed to make this renewable heating project work even better. On Wednesday, November …
Sunday’s VT Environmental Summit, co-hosted with Toxics Action Center, was a real highlight of my time working with VPIRG so far. Over 75 people joined us at Vermont Technical College to spend a day meeting new people, learning more about the issues we all care about and how we can make the biggest impact working …
The fight to retire Vermont Yankee is not over! For months we’ve been waiting for this. Mark your calendar now for a few key dates that will help us to close the books on VY once and for all! Retire VY March & Rally Saturday, November 17th ~ 12:30 – 2 pm Get fired up …
Retire Vermont Yankee: March, Rally, Training & Hearings Read More »
Clean Heat: Comfortable Homes, Affordable Future examines the energy fuel sources we use for heating. Clean Heat focuses on Vermont’s thermal fuel mix, inclusive of residential, commercial and industrial uses, and lays out the path Vermont can take to nearly eliminate fossil fuels by 2031. With “thermal energy” posed to be at the top of …
We wanted to make sure you didn’t miss Environment America’s report, When It Rains, It Pours, (downloadable below) when we released it at the end of July. With Hurricane Sandy already hitting communities across the eastern seaboard and heading north, we thought folks might find this interesting reading (perhaps by candlelight when the power goes …
As Election Day rapidly approaches, Vermont Public Interest Research Group’s 2011-2012 Legislative Scorecard provides real data on how legislators voted on public interest issues. As the state’s largest consumer and environmental advocacy organization, VPIRG is involved in a broad range of policy debates in Montpelier, from health care reform to banning fracking. The 2011-2012 Legislative Scorecard tracks …
