Archive - Aug 2009

Railroad tracks run a few feet from an old factory shed in Middlebury, home of Vermont Organic Fiber. The offices are filled with rolls of finished organic wool fabric and skeins of knitting yarn. On pleasant summer days, frequently joined by the company dog Lucy, Matt Mole, President and Ed Kiniry, CEO, often hold meetings near the open loading dock doors.

Avram Patt, 58, has been General Manager of Washington Electric Cooperative of East Montpelier, Vermont since 1997. He also served on WEC’s Board of Directors for eight years prior to that. In addition to managing WEC’s distribution system serving over 10,000 meters, he is responsible for the company’s power supply, including its conversion to renewable energy, as well as its long-standing focus on residential energy efficiency programs.

Vermont’s energy future could become clearer in the coming months, with key decisions possible by year’s end on the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and on the renewal of utilities’ contracts with Hydro Quebec. Together, Yankee and HQ provide about two-thirds of the electricity currently consumed by Vermont residents and businesses.

Vermont's first pharmacy college opens August 31 in Colchester, with up to 70 students from 16 countries expected to begin pursuing doctoral degrees. An in-state program could eventually help ease an existing shortage of pharmacists in Vermont that's likely to worsen due to an aging population's increasing demand for prescription medications.

The worst recession in decades is having comparatively mild effects on higher education in Vermont. Enrollment is up at most colleges in the state, although almost all are having to provide increased amounts of financial aid in order to attract and retain students. And while the demands for assistance are straining budgets, leading to hiring and salary freezes on some campuses, aggressive fund-raising campaigns are helping to compensate for sharp declines in endowments.

Vermont is getting a great deal from a regional carbon-reduction program that gives the state more than $2 million a year for energy-efficiency initiatives for households and businesses.

The federal government is funding a new effort to make farming in Vermont more cost-effective, self-sufficient and environmentally benign. The highlighted purpose of the initiative may turn out, however, to be less significant than what's being described as a side benefit.

The most sophisticated business in Vermont just may be that cracker-barrel bastion of old-timey Vermont goodness known as The Vermont Country Store. At a time when most real country stores in Vermont are having a hard time staying open, look past the cheese, the crackers, and the barrel and you'll find a complex, multimillion dollar, family-owned retailing business.

According to the latest worldwide statistics on international trade compiled monthly by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global exports plunged at the start of the year. In the first quarter of 2009, the dollar value of exports from 186 counties plummeted by 28.7 percent in comparison with the first quarter of 2008.

Green Mountain Power is continuing to investigate the possibility of a seventeen-turbine wind farm outside of Lowell Mountain, in Orleans County, Vermont. The area has been determined to be an excellent location for generating wind power, but additional evaluations must still be completed before the project is approved.