Thursday, April 4, 2013 at 09:54AM As mercury-added thermostats come out of service, manufacturers and states are piloting programs to collect them and avoid mercury from being disposed of in harmful ways. A report by the Natural Resources Defence Council and others showed that Vermont had the highest per capita mercury thermostat collection rate in the country in 2011.
Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 10:06AM Over 200 Vermont businesses have been recognized by the Vermont Business Environmental Partnership (VBEP) for their environmental stewardship efforts. The VBEP is a state program that provides assistance to businesses desiring to “green up” their operations and recognizes businesses of all sizes for meeting a set of environmental standards.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at 10:57AM After showing signs of improvement earlier in the month, E. coli levels were on the rise last week in some area waterways. A volunteer group's latest survey showed E. coli numbers that exceeded governmental safe-swimming standards at nine of 16 tested sites.
Friday, May 4, 2012 at 02:41PM With a 103-36 vote in the House of Representatives, Vermont on Friday became the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing to extract oil or natural gas. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week.
Friday, April 27, 2012 at 03:09PM Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 04:21PM The Vermont House of Representatives gave initial approval for the Working Lands Enterprise Investment bill (H.496) on Thursday afternoon with a 131-5 vote. The bill includes a little more than a $2 million appropriation for a new fund to be directed toward economic development investment in agricultural and forest products enterprises.
Friday, March 30, 2012 at 04:21PM A bill that originally would have banned the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing passed by the Vermont House as a three-year moratorium. Now the chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy says she wants to put the teeth back in the bill and switch it back once again to an all-out ban.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 09:00AM About 100 Vermonters have pledged that, every week from Memorial Day until Labor Day, they’ll take their boats out into the water, take samples, study the water clarity, take notes, freeze one sample, then give all the material to Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation scientists to analyze.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 11:40AM By the end of this year, there will be 7,747 more acres of land in Vermont that will never be developed. That’s the total acreage of new Vermont Land Trust conservation easement projects across the state, which includes 1,241 in Addison County.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 03:21PM U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy hails a new rule targeting cross-state air pollution that has been in the works for more than 20 years. Leahy said the recent release of the rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “goes directly to the distant sources of pollution that have long bedeviled clean air strategies in Vermont, New England and other areas of the country."
Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 01:23PM The federal Environmental Protection Agency has rejected Vermont's cleanup plan for Lake Champlain. The agency says Vermont has made progress, but needs to do more to cut phosphorus pollution in the big lake.
Link to full articleFriday, January 21, 2011 at 03:04PM The federal government is taking a step toward exploring a tugboat sunk in 160 feet of water in Lake Champlain to see if its tanks contain fuel that could leak and cause an environmental disaster.
Link to full articleTuesday, January 18, 2011 at 01:58PM A non-profit group released a report listing and mapping toxic sites by county and town. The Toxics Action Center releases "Toxics in Vermont: A Town-by-Town Profile" once every few years, said Brendan Gallagher, community organizer for the center. He said the report is meant to be a tool for citizens to use so they know potential threats in their communities.
Link to full articleFriday, January 14, 2011 at 02:34PM Should Vermont impose taxes on those who pollute Lake Champlain? The idea, once unthinkable, was squarely on the table this week as a government-appointed citizens committee — impatient over continuing algae blooms and rampant weed growth — struggled to agree on priority actions to recommend to the 2011 legislature.
Link to full articleMonday, December 27, 2010 at 01:35PM The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department announced today it has adopted a plan to guide the restoration and management of bald eagles in the state. The Vermont Bald Eagle Recovery Plan focuses on monitoring and protecting bald eagle nesting sites so that eagles can "produce young on a consistent basis," a news release issued today states.
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