We have until 2017! That is FIVE years!!! FIVE!!! The whole world is at stake – nut just Africa!

Tears run down my face in fear – yet we MUST stay strong and Get IT DONE!

What are YOU… yes, YOU doing – not your neighbor?  Don’t wait until it is too late!

Do you even know what to do? Where to start? The answer lies within our Transportation, Buildings, which are the two worst offenders to our emission levels.

Please Don’t drive unless it is absolutely necessary. Never Idle. Car and Van Pool, Use Rideshare to connect!  In Vermont: www.ConnectingCommuters.org  (800-685-RIDE) or www.uppervalleyrideshare.com (802-295-1824 x204). Take the bus, train, ferry, bike, e-bike, walk, ski… and drive energy efficient vehicles. Our future transportation infrastructure needs to start now!

Seal and Insulate your Buildings to reduce the emissions caused from the use of dirty non-renewable fossil fuels. You can’t seal them tight enough!  Zero Energy Buildings ARE achievable. This should be the goal and not to settle for anything less!

Renewable Energy – this is the solution! Clean energy from Solar, Wind, Micro-hydro*…  We need Community Solar and Wind Farms… We can’t get solar installed or wind turbines up fast enough!  It is about TIME!  NOW is the time to G.E.T. going!

Learn more in every issue of Green Energy Times… New Issue coming out on Dec. 15th with a Front page article about the 2017 dilemma directly from the IEA warning, that Anjali Appadurai refers to … The new issue will be online next week, so ck back with us! AND, watch for G.E.T.  at newstands near you or subscribe on this website out and about in VT and NH at the same time!

* Micro-hydro is an untapped goldmine of energy producing power that runs 24 hrs a day and does NOT harm the environment in ANY way. The Federal Gov’t is the only block in making this happen.  It is time to get that changed.  Go to your state representatives and government officials and let’s get the micro-hydro laws changed!

Tell the Bureau of Land Management not to allow coal mining near Bryce Canyon National Park.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Protect Bryce Canyon National Park from a new coal mine.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is on the verge of approving a massive 3,500 acre coal mine right next to Bryce Canyon National Park.1

The BLM’s own analysis shows that the mine will cause major adverse environmental impacts like increased water and air pollution,2 devastating a huge area directly next to Bryce Canyon’s unique ecosystem.

Despite these concerns the BLM just released its environmental review proposing that the mine be approved. BLM is currently accepting public comments on its proposal and strong public opposition is needed to convince the BLM to reverse course and reject this dirty coal mine.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Don’t allow coal mining next to Bryce Canyon National Park. Click here to submit a public comment.

The Bureau of Land Management’s review identified more than a dozen negative impacts this proposed mine is likely to have. These include water quality degradation, increased hazardous air pollution, loss of wildlife habitat, increased coal truck traffic and noise levels, adverse effects to recreation resources and an increased risk of fuel leakage, solid waste spills and wildfires.

In addition to the problems the BLM identified, burning coal from the proposed mine would also be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, which experts say are now growing faster than previously anticipated worst case scenarios.3

Given all of the problems this mine is expected to cause, it simply isn’t in our best interests. Yet the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed action is to allow this dirty, 3,500-acre coal mine to move forward.

National Parks and federal lands belong to all of us, and BLM needs to hear from people who don’t want these special recreation areas and wildlife habitats — especially not Bryce Canyon — to be endangered in order to mine for dirty coal.

Tell the Bureau of Land Management: Don’t allow coal mining next to Bryce Canyon National Park. Click here to submit a public comment.

Thanks for fighting to protect Bryce Canyon from the threat of coal mining.

- Nancy Rae, CEO Green Energy Times

Submitted from Josh Nelson, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. Dirty Coal Should Stay in the Ground, Natural Resources Defense Council, November 3, 11
2. Alton Coal Tract Lease by Application Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Bureau of Land Management
3. Biggest Jump Ever Seen in Global Warming Gases, Associated Press, November 4, 2011

Watch for it at a newsstand, supermarket, and local stores and establishments near you – throughout 85% of Vermont & 45% of New Hampshire! Be sure to pick up copies when they first come out or they may be gone when you come back.

If you can’t find it near you – let us know so that we see if we can make it happen… you can also subscribe right from this website on the Advertising/Subscriptions Tab (above).

Enjoy, learn and most of all we hope you find something to help move us forward on our path to energy independence and reducing our carbon emission levels.  Share your stories with us!  We love to hear from you!

The goal of this site is to encourage more people to donate and volunteer to help their Vermont neighbors.

Sonya and Brad have been organizing groups of people to volunteer since the beginning of September. “When we travel to these areas and see the devastation firsthand, we see the need to get more people involved. Talking with homeowners and business owners inspired us to create this website to bring their stories to more people. When they tell their stories of loss and also how they have been helped, people who have not been to these areas will better understand the ongoing need”.

Please do what you can to spread the word about this site. And if you have any suggestions as to how we can improve it, post them on the site or email Brad Pettengill.

AND, if you have your own stories and photos, please post them. Early and often.

Special thanks to: Steve McIntyre and everyone at Marketing Partners for hosting the site and helping us create it; Jim and Larry at L. Brown and Sons Printing for the flyers we are passing out in affected communities to spread the word; and Mike at Pop Color for even more flyers to help spread the word.

After nearly three decades in the electric business, I thought I’d seen it all, but never have I seen a response to tragedy quite like the response to the remnants of Hurricane Irene.  As Vermont’s largest electric utility, Central Vermont Public Service was well prepared for the calamity that struck – yet we were challenged by its ferocity and overwhelmed by the incredible outpouring of support from Vermonters of all walks of life.

From residents of towns isolated by washed-out roads and bridges, to utility and road contractors, to local, state and federal agencies, the question we heard over and over was simple yet welcome: What can we do to help you?

When a natural disaster of this magnitude strikes, disorganization often wreaks tension, discomfort, delay and sometimes failure.  In Vermont, thanks to our dedicated employees and dozens of outside entities, we affected a quick and focused response that helped us restore electrical service far quicker than we dreamed during the first couple of days of the recovery.

Virtually every customer, contractor, town, city, state or federal official we encountered offered support and encouragement.  Many brought food and drinks to work crews, while others cheered as utility workers rolled into devastated areas to return some semblance of normalcy.

The news media did an extraordinary job spreading the word about recovery efforts, risks to the public and progress – which helped keep affected Vermonters safe and well informed during the power restoration efforts.

Access to remote areas with severe damage was our greatest challenge, but local road workers, private contractors, CVPS employees and state and federal agencies worked cooperatively to overcome major obstacles.  In Rutland County, a few discussions led to an early agreement for CVPS to hire the Belden Company to build a temporary emergency bypass of what was left of Route 4.  This allowed access by utility workers and emergency responders to Killington and Mendon, and eventually towns beyond, which had been isolated by the storm.

Nearly as quickly, town and state agencies began to team up with CVPS to ensure the quickest access possible to even more rural areas.  Direct contacts among us allowed CVPS crews to access places – and restore service – often before there were any roads accessible to the general public.  I’ve never seen such a high level of coordination and cooperation between a utility and road crews in my entire career in New England.  Vermont Emergency Management, the Department of Public Service and the Agency of Transportation were particularly helpful.

At the same time, CVPS employees demonstrated the resilience and tenacity that has earned the company three national Edison Electric Institute Emergency Recovery Awards – the smallest company to win the accolade even once.  Employees used four-wheelers, mountain bikes and an off-road motorcycle to assess the damage in areas where other vehicles could not yet pass.  Others staked and built entirely new lines in areas where large sections of roadway, and the roadside utility systems, had been washed away by floodwaters.

Other Vermont utilities, less affected because of the geography of their service territories, were essential to our recovery, as were crews recruited before the storm hit from as far away as Texas, Missouri, Illinois and Ontario.  Employees from Burlington Electric, Green Mountain Power, Johnson Electric Department, Ludlow Electric, Lyndonville Electric Department, Vermont Electric Cooperative and Vermont Electric Power Company provided invaluable assistance, as did local contractors too numerous to list.

Behind the scenes, employees worked to coordinate the response and feed and house hundreds of field workers who worked 18- to 20-hour shifts.  Others kept our vehicles operating, ensured supplies were delivered where needed, and handled thousands of customer calls, providing calm words, advice and comfort.  Some employees quietly went about their jobs even as their personal lives were turned upside down by the storm.

While Vermont faces an enormous challenge in the weeks and months ahead, I’ve been able to view firsthand the work that has already been accomplished.  Vermont has much for which it can be proud, including a tremendous work ethic, determination and ingenuity.

Those qualities will no doubt serve the Green Mountain State well as Vermont continues to respond to the challenges left behind by Hurricane Irene.  Based on the first 10 days of that response, I have little doubt that the people of Vermont will weather this storm well.

Larry Reilly is president and CEO of Central Vermont Public Service.

Note: If outage numbers increase beyond this point, they will likely be due to cleanup that requires brief interruptions, or new outages unrelated to the storm.

CVPS expects to finish restoration Saturday night

Fewer than 800 CVPS customers remain without power

Much of what’s left is in areas where roads no longer exist

CVPS crews, support staff and contractors are nearing the end of a historic restoration effort tonight, but what’s left to restore is completely dependent on road access, and in many places, roads simply do not exist where they once did.

As of 5 p.m., more than 72,000 of the 73,000-plus customer outages have been restored. Less than 800 CVPS customer remain without power in Windsor, Windham and Orange counties. CVPS expects to restore power to all the homes that we can access and that can receive electrical service safely by Saturday night. There remain a handful of areas cut off by washouts and landslides, and homes that cannot safely take electrical service due to flooding and storm damage.

Many of the homes left without power from Hurricane Irene can only be reached by all-terrain vehicles, not bucket trucks, at this point. Many of the areas left to restore power also require rebuilding entire sections of line in new locations due to washouts.

Forestry Manager Duane Dickinson rode his mountain bike to homes along what was Pikes Falls Road in Jamaica and reported that a river was now flowing through the middle of a home he could reach only after wading through the river, after leaving his bicycle behind.

In Stockbridge, Operations Supervisor Jon Martin reported that there were now boulders as big as bucket trucks where the road used to be in the Stony Brook area. “I thought it was bad in Rochester,” Martin said. “Our four-wheelers have gone as far as they can go in some areas. There are landslides on top of road washouts.”

“We’re not done,” said President Larry Reilly. “Our work week does not end tonight. Crews, support staff and contractors will continue to work until we get power back to every last customer who can safely receive electrical service. There are going to be many who need electrical inspections due to flooding, but when they are ready, we’ll be there to restore power.”

CVPS is also now monitoring forecasts of potentially severe weather this weekend, and Monday including moderate to heavy rain Sunday night into Monday, which may cause flash flooding and additional outages.

CVPS urged Vermonters to use extra caution around waterways, many of which are still flowing at very high levels, and new rainfall can cause and has caused flash flooding.

As we restore power to the last customers, we want to ensure that we are not missing any customers at this point. If your still do not have power, please call CVPS at 1-800-451-2877, and confirm your outage.  However, many customers throughout the state have flood damage to their homes. If a customer’s home or business was flooded, and their electric service panel was affected by water, it has to be examined by a qualified electrician before CVPS can restore service.  CVPS is waiving all fees for temporary service connections required due to the storm.  The fee is normally $80.

Some customers in the most remote areas remain inaccessible due to road washouts, but road crews are improving access for utility vehicles daily.  Collaboration with local and state Agency of Transportation officials, and the National Guard, continues.

In some cases it is not a question of when the road will be re-opened, but rather when will the new temporary road be built.

Up-to-date outage numbers (by town) can be found at: http://www.cvps.com/CustomerService/outages/ and http://vtoutages.com/

CVPS offered several safety tips for coping with the outages:

• STAY AWAY FROM DOWNED POWER LINES. Don’t touch or even go near downed wires! These wires can be energized and can cause serious injuries or death. If the line is blocking the road or in contact with a vehicle with people inside, call your local police or fire emergency number first. Then call CVPS. Instruct others to keep at least 50 feet away, and keep pets and livestock away as well.
• Assume all objects touching the power line are also energized. Never attempt to remove trees or limbs from any utility lines! Notify CVPS of the situation.
• If using a generator, read and follow the owner’s manual before starting the generator. Never operate a generator inside any structure or near a structure. Use a transfer switch to ensure electricity is not accidentally fed onto a line where line crews must work.
• Keep freezers and refrigerators closed as much as possible to prevent food spoilage.
• If power goes out, turn off all electrical appliances except one light so you’ll know when service returns. Then, turn equipment back on slowly.

Christine Rivers
Central Vermont Public Service
Recognized by Forbes as One of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America
(802) 747-5284
(802) 742-2415 (pager)
www.cvps.com

The major highway just Outside of Rutland - Route 4 was washed out in Mendon, east of Rutland, the main road to the east. This is One of hundreds of examples of the obstacles CVPS will face in restoring service.

We are sharing this so you all understand how VT fared from the storm…  pretty wild! See the CVPS update below!

Yet… everything is so peaceful high up here on my mountain – high and dry – well… the soil is saturated and garden is well watered – grass is growing again and the sun is shining.  BEST OF ALL: Our solar power kept us working all throughout the storm, as well as shelter for a number of neighbors who came here for use of electrical needs…  that we had plenty of…  solar is the best…  even when it isn’t shining…  if you have a nice battery bank to store the power… no generator was necessary here…

Micro-hydro would be great, too – but then – wind sure would have been producing, as well *(not considering that all technologies have limitations that may or may not come into play here).

We hope the rest of you on the east coast are ok, as you dig out and rebuild, from all the devastation along “Irene’s” path. Now is a good time to think seriously of the many benefits of renewable energies …

It is also a good time to upgrade many aspects of weatherizing your structure!  As you rebuild, we hope that you take advantage of the opportunity to make your home or business more energy efficient with weatherization measures that will not only benefit your pocket book, but the planet, as well.

• With flooding rebuilds, you might need to replace your wall and basement and floor insulation, sealing the holes and making a nice tight envelope…

• Perhaps you may even be in need of a new roof, if the wind did damage… leading to this being and opportune time to insulate and seal that attic and any seal any penetrations in it.

• New windows might be in order. Replacing damaged ones with triple panes will keep the heat in best. Proper installation is necessary to achieve a good seal along the opening.

• An energy efficient furnace can be down-sized if you insulate correctly and will save you a lot of money, as we approach the fall and winter seasons.

Please ck the Efficiency Vermont and Green Building Network sites for the new standards (R-49), that will save you so much in the end with your cost of living when you are only heating your building – thereby, not wasting your heating and cooling efforts as a consequence of doing all that you can now…

There are a number of weatherizing incentives available that you can utilize if you make your repairs before 2012…  You can read about all of these things on the Efficiency Vermont website, and in every issue of Green Energy Times.  You can download them all directly from this website with the link to the current and past issues.

Central Vermont Public Service

NEWS RELEASE – THIS RELEASE IS ONLY ON BEHALF OF CVPS
For Immediate Release: Aug. 29, 2011 – 7:15 a.m. UPDATE

Hurricane Irene leaves devastation in her path

Because of road washouts, full restoration could take weeks.
Army of crews stymied by washouts, high water, closed roads.

The remnants of Hurricane Irene have moved out of Vermont, but not before washing dozens of utility poles and roads away and leaving Central Vermont Public Service with an army of workers unable to access thousands of customers in need.

CVPS says recovery will entail a monumental effort due to closed bridges and washouts not seen in generations. More than 55,000 customer outages resulted from the storm, with 37,500 still without service as of 7 a.m.

“We have a tremendous roster of workers to assist us, but this will be one of the most challenging recovery efforts any of us has ever lived through,” said Joe Kraus, senior vice president for engineering, operations and customer service.

Kraus, who started his career at CVPS in 1980, said hundreds of crews from as far away as Illinois, Missouri, Texas and Ontario would assist CVPS’s crews, but no one at the company has faced infrastructure damage like this before.

“We are in uncharted territory,” Kraus said.  “In many places, we can’t even get to the damage. It is impossible to say how long it will take to restore power to all customers, but many areas are totally inaccessible, roads are gone, and in some cases, it could take weeks. In areas that we can get to, restoration will likely take days.”

Kraus said it was impossible to provide any kind of reliable restoration estimates at this time but customers should be prepared for extended outages.

“Until roads are rebuilt and bridges reopen, we will be unable to get into hundreds of neighborhoods and hamlets, particularly in central and southern Vermont,” Kraus said.  “While we will work to restore service as quickly as possible, we urge customers to take every precaution to stay safe: stay away from downed power lines and anything in contact with them.  Keep children and pets away.”

A half-dozen substations were submerged in flood waters. Each will have to be inspected in detail, and electric tests will be required in some cases before they can be put back into service.

Kraus said CVPS and other utilities would work closely with state emergency management officials to stay abreast of road openings and make repairs as quickly as possible.

On Sunday, many CVPS workers were stranded by rising waters. Some crews had to spend the night in local offices, and other workers in southern Vermont were invited to spend the night with customers after they were trapped by flooding.

“I’ve seen the most high-water flooding I’ve ever seen, and I hope I never see anything like this ever again,” Operations Supervisor Chris Gandin said.

Up-to-date outage numbers (by town) can be found at: http://www.cvps.com/CustomerService/outages/ andhttp://vtoutages.com/

CVPS offered several safety tips for coping with the outages:

• STAY AWAY FROM DOWNED POWER LINES. Don’t touch or even go near downed wires! These wires can be energized and can cause serious injuries or death. If the line is blocking the road or in contact with a vehicle with people inside, call your local police or fire emergency number first. Then call CVPS. Instruct others to keep at least 50 feet away, and keep pets and livestock away as well.
• Assume all objects touching the power line are also energized. Never attempt to remove trees or limbs from any utility lines! Notify CVPS of the situation.
• If using a generator, read and follow the owner’s manual before starting the generator. Never operate a generator inside any structure or near a structure. Use a transfer switch to ensure electricity is not accidentally fed onto a line where line crews must work.
• Keep freezers and refrigerators closed as much as possible to prevent food spoilage.
• If power goes out, turn off all electrical appliances except one light so you’ll know when service returns. Then, turn equipment back on slowly.
• Power outages: call 1-800-451-2877.
• Additional safety tips can be found at: http://www.cvps.com/Safety/StormSafety.aspx

When electricity goes out, the utilities’ first concern is safety, then restoring service to large blocks of customers and critical facilities, like hospitals.

Who gets power restored first?

• When electricity goes out, the utilities’ first concern is safety.  Line work and downed lines present great risks to employees and customers, so safety is a grave concern.
• Always stay at least 50 feet from downed lines!
  When major storms hit and outages occur, we try to restore service to all of our customers as soon as possible. Here’s a look at our priorities:
  • Problems that present an imminent danger to life.
  • Failure at a key point on the system affecting thousands of customers, such as a transmission line (a main highway of the power system).
  • Critical health and public safety facilities.
  • Main distribution lines, which are smaller than transmission lines, but may serve hundreds of customers.
  • Single lines.
  • Single customers.
  • Cleanup work.
  • Up-to-date outage numbers (by town) can be found at: http://www.cvps.com/CustomerService/outages/ andhttp://vtoutages.com/

Christine Rivers
Central Vermont Public Service
Recognized by Forbes as One of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America
(802) 747-5284
(802) 742-2415 (pager)
www.cvps.com

Tax payers in the city must be breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that the cost of heating their municipal buildings will stop rising – and thus the share of their taxes devoted to keeping buildings warm will stop rising, too (they might even drop a little).

The existing biomass plant, which has run well for 30 years, already heats the Capitol building and some state offices, now it will serve even more:

“This project would upgrade the state’s existing wood fired central heating plant and expand its service area to City Hall, the Police Station, the Fire Station, Union Elementary School and Montpelier High School. The establishment of this heat distribution route would allow private buildings to be served.”

For a full run-down on the project see the this project web page.

Great job, Montpelier!

You can get the latest updates at any time by going to http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23fukushima.

#japan Possible Breach in Core at #Fukushima Reactor; Prime Minister Says Situation ‘Very Grave’ PBS: http://to.pbs.org/ebaOmq

Neutrons detected at Fukushima: Fission occuring in ruined reactors. http://tinyurl.com/4scn2h6 #fukushima #reactor #radiation #meltdown

“@japantimes: #Fukushima plant’s fallout to go around globe http://t.co/mNIHO1L” they have underestimated the Fallout from the start

#Japan expands evacuation zone around #Fukushima http://wapo.st/hlq7Dp

Japan’s Defense Ministry Releases New Video of Smoking Reactors http://on.wsj.com/hIOlxm #Japan #Fukushima

#Japanese Prime Minister: situation at #Fukushima nuclear plant is ‘still very grave and serious’

Irradiated #Fukushima workers being transferred to a new hospital:

Source: Kyodo/Reuters

“the two were exposed to 2 to 6 sieverts of radiation”WHAT?!Wearing shoes!No Rad level B4 work?!GROSS NEGLIGENCE #Fukushima #meltdown #Japan

#Fukushima Nuke engineer Masashi Goto, events that were considered impossible at #Fukushima have already occurred. http://bit.ly/eUe1OQ

#nuclear reactor 3 containment was confirmed broken when the first neutron beam was observed … surely (days ago) ?

RT @superseed77 irradiated workers kept continuing work even though the individual dosimeters sounded alarm ! #fukushima ~How Chernoble-ish.

How the “Peaceful Atom” Became a Serial Killer | Mother Jones http://bit.ly/fS5dkZ #p2 #fukushima

#fukushima #japan #earthquake High-radiation water leaks now found in 2 more reactors: http://bit.ly/fn5Hh7

Amid widespread contamination from #Fukushima, US carrier had to use ship’s barber shop to test crew – http://bit.ly/gtHxQx

Crowd-sourced radiation levels across Japan. http://www.rdtn.org/ #japan #fukushima

RT @stanscates: Deconstructing America’s Nuclear Cult http://j.mp/hfUnH3 #fukushima #nuclear #p2

RT @julianborger: RT @BelferCenter, at #Harvard. Some simple fixes to help stop another #Fukushima http://deck.ly/~jyc2A