Collaboration leads to innovative farm-to-energy biodiesel. Two fields of sunflowers growing in Vermont will have an unusual future: the flowers’ seeds will be converted to biodiesel and livestock feed. The fuel will be used in Green Mountain Power’s fleet of vehicles and for building heating, saving money and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.…

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department will receive a grant for $42,895 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this year to support bat research and monitoring related to white-nose syndrome. This funding will support conservation and recovery of the six cave bat species affected by the deadly fungal disease. Vermont is one of 30 states…

Green Mountain Power (GMP) is pleased to announce that state regulators have approved the company’s proposal to decrease electric rates by 2.46 percent for residential and commercial customers starting Oct. 1. The rate decrease will be the second decrease offered by GMP in three years and is part of the company’s mission to deliver reliable,…

By Morgan True, VTDigger.org If hospitals are going to be paid based on keeping the people they serve healthy—one of Vermont’s health care reform goals—they need to invest in primary care services, according to state regulators and hospital executives. That’s difficult when hospital income is still dependent on fee-for-service—billing for each patient visit or procedure—especially…

By Anne Galloway, VTDigger.org The voter turnout for the 2014 primary election was one of the lowest, if not the lowest turnout in history, according to Eric Davis, a retired political science professor from Middlebury College. Just under 40,000 Vermonters went to the polls, or about 8 percent of registered voters. Davis says of that…

Secretary of Transportation Brian Searles reminds candidates for public office and their supporters of the need to comply with Vermont’s sign control law (10 VSA Chapter 21). “The Vermont sign law prohibits off-premises signs within the state highway rights-of-way,” he said. “Every campaign season we have candidates and their supporters, many of them unknowingly, placing…

By John Herrick, VTDigger.org Vermont’s environmental permit review process must be changed, according to a top state regulatory enforcement official. David Mears, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation, told members of the Associated Industries of Vermont last Tuesday, Aug. 19, that the state must make it easier for developers to apply for environmental permits…

By Laura Krantz, VTDigger.org The number of alleged child abuse or neglect cases filed in courts across Vermont last year grew 21 percent from the year before, according to data from the state. The Department for Children and Families (DCF) attributes the rise to the impact of opiate addiction on child safety. One state prosecutor…

By Hilary Niles, VTDigger.org The state will take public comment on Vermont’s draft Telecommunications Plan Aug. 25-28 at four locations around the state. The Telecommunications Plan is a 10-year policy roadmap for meeting state government’s goals of providing stable and predictable rates for telecom services within a technologically advanced network that reaches all areas of…

By John Herrick, VTDigger.org Vermont electric customers could be on the hook for the cost of out-of-state transmission projects as the result of a federal court decision Friday. The U.S. Court of Appeals – D.C. Circuit upheld an order by federal energy regulators requiring regional planning for transmission projects designed to connect renewable power to…

BROWNINGTON—Curtis Smiley with the Vermont Big Game Trophy Club says a huge bear taken in the 2013 hunting season is the heaviest bear taken in Vermont by bow and arrow since 1898; it is a new record, Vermont Fish and Wildlife announced last week.  Kevin Lamere of Brownington, Vt., shot the bear on Oct. 5,…

By Anne Galloway, VTDigger.org MONTPELIER—A legislative panel has come to an agreement with the Shumlin administration on $31.28 million in cuts to the state budget. Lawmakers approved a rescission that will remove a 1.6 percent increase in Medicaid reimbursements for health care providers, saving the state about $10 million. The 10-member Joint Fiscal Committee initially…

By Anne Galloway and VTDigger staff, VTDigger.org MONTPELIER--Gov. Peter Shumlin on Tuesday, Aug. 12, ousted Agency of Human Services Secretary Doug Racine and replaced him with Health Commissioner Harry Chen. “I felt that Doug Racine had done great things for the agency,” Shumlin said at an unrelated news conference. “It was time for a leadership…

By Anne Galloway, VTDigger.org Sen. Jim Jeffords died Monday morning at the Knollwood Military Retirement Residence in Washington, D.C. He was 80 years old. Jeffords had lived at Knollwood since his wife died of ovarian cancer eight years ago. The Vermont congressman and senator served 32 years in Congress until he retired in 2006 after…

By Tom Brown, VTDigger.org Libertarian candidate for governor Dan Feliciano fell 220 signatures shy of qualifying to appear on the Republican ballot. Now he is appealing to GOP voters to write him in at the polls on primary election day. On Thursday Aug. 7, Feliciano criticized the Shumlin administration’s policies on several issues and faulted…