Vermont

updated 5:08 p.m.

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Doug Racine sabotages single-payer in Vermont

As reported last week, gubernatorial candidate Senator Doug Racine "unveiled his long-awaited health care reform bill", In fact, his bill is a revision of S.88 , an already-introduced bill to establish a single-payer system and universal coverage in Vermont (along with its companion bill in the house, H.100 ). Racine's version, however, changes it to instead establish a committee to study a ...
Kirby Mountain - 8:40 a.m.

CURVED HORIZONS: the real deal re: Hydro-Quebec

More than 2 years ago I looked like a nutcase predicting that electricity prices will rise significantly when the contracts with Hydro Quebec (HQ) and Vermont Yankee (VY) expire, whether VY is closed down or not. Now we are starting to see what the new deal(s) will look like. The offer from VY was for an increase in price of more than 40% to start with, followed with an upwardly adjustable pr...
Vermont Commons - Sun 3:44 p.m. - 3 clicks 3 clicks

STICOMYTHIA: Future Governor Dennis Steele Asks Key Question in UVM Debate

  03-07-10 Democratic candidate gubernatorial forum and debate Listen for yourself. When the moderator goes to the floor for questions, Dennis stood up immediately and was able to confront the candidates about bringing home the Vermont National Guard. One candidate cited the official Tax Foundation statistic... of $1.08 in federal money returned to Vermont for every...
Vermont Commons - Sun 8:22 a.m. - 3 clicks 3 clicks

CURVED HORIZONS: Airport traffic down but Burlington doesn't get it

As I predicted here a while back, the volume of passengers passing through the Burlington airport has declined in 2009. The BFP reports that: "In January, 50,490 people flew from Vermont's largest airport, a 5.5 percent decline from January 2009 -- and the weakest January tally since 2004. The decline marked the 10th consecutive month of sagging year-over-year results at Burlington...
Vermont Commons - Sat 9:44 p.m. - 3 clicks 3 clicks

RELOCALIZING VERMONT Exelon To Pay Over $1 Million For Tritium Leaks

UPDATED Entergy keeps operating Vermont Yankee while leaking tritium (though it's not clear whether there are any new releases to the groundwater), trying to limp along until the scheduled April closing for refueling. Meanwhile, in Illinois, Exelon will have to pay big bucks for tritium leaks at three of their nuclear power plants. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced yesterd...
Vermont Commons - Fri 9:23 a.m. - 5 clicks 5 clicks

Senate Campaign Kick-off Potluck, Bluegrass with the Bayley-Hazen Boys

Date: Saturday, 10 April 2010 Time: 5:00 – 9:00 PM Location: Ripton Community House Route 125, Ripton, Vermont Bayley-Hazen Boys read more ...
Vermont Commons - Fri 7:29 a.m. - 4 clicks 4 clicks

VERMONT LIBRE: Imagine Free Vermont, The Switzerland of North America (Thomas Naylor)

If Vermont were to secede from the United States empire and become an independent nation-state, how could it possibly survive as a separate republic? How would it function? Are there any examples of smaller, sustainable nation-states which might serve as a role model for a state like Vermont, should it decide to leave the U.S.? There is at least one such nation that might serve as a viable model ...
Vermont Commons - Fri 4:22 a.m. - 5 clicks 5 clicks

The Essential Next Step in Health Care Reform for VT

I am excited to tell you about something I've been working on for several weeks. All of us candidates for Vermont governor have been saying how essential it is to achieve universal access to affordable health care -- and I've been figuring out how to actually make that happen. The escalating cost of our current system is crippling our state, our families and our businesses. Health care in Verm...
DailyKos (Vermont) - Wed 7:22 a.m. - 3 clicks 3 clicks

The wonders of landfill methane! Take a tour right here!

Washington Electric Co-op (WEC) has produced a video tour of its landfill methane generating plant in Coventry, Vermont. The ten minute video was recorded during an open house held at the plant on November 4, 2009, and follows the tour actually given to visitors on that day. Read all about landfill methane and take the tour below the fold. ...
DailyKos (Vermont) - Tue 3:03 p.m. - 5 clicks 5 clicks

Dennis Steele Confronts the Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates on Bringing Home the National Guard

Dennis’ question sparked a quite interesting discussion; check out the podcast on Radio Free Vermont! ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Mar 8 - 3 clicks 3 clicks

Single payer now ... or in 2017? If in 2017, why not now?

As reported by Ryan Grim at Huffington Post, at his recent meeting with House progressives about the health insurance regulation bill that was supposed to be a health care bill, "Obama pointed Kucinich toward single-payer language that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was able to get into the bill. Kucinich fought for an amendment that would allow states to adopt single-payer systems without getting s...
Kirby Mountain - Mar 6 - 5 clicks 5 clicks

On the Question of Instant Runoff Voting (I.R.V.)

For those readers who neither live in Burlington, Vermont, nor are political junkies, IRV stands for Instant Runoff Voting, and it has been the center of some local controversy recently.  A few years ago, Burlington voted in a referendum to change its voting system by which the mayor is elected from requiring a plurality of [...] ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Feb 19 - 3 clicks 3 clicks

A Proposal for Vermont Healthcare: VermontHealth

For generations the delivery of medical care has been a highly disputed and controversial issue in the United States.  In general, the left side of the political spectrum continuously attempts to develop government run health programs on the state and federal levels, while the political right often resists these attempts.  There are many variables to [...] ...
American Socialism for the Rich - Feb 6 - 2 clicks 2 clicks