"Safe, clean, reliable" is their motto.

At least, sometimes.

This concerned Yankee (whose name also happens to be "Rob Williams") grows increasingly concerned about the viability of Yankee Nuclear.

World oil production has been on a plateau for the last several years. Is that a temporary leveling off, a geologically imposed peak before long-term decline, or something called "peak oil lite"? The theory of peak oil lite is that human-based reasons, not geological reasons, are creating at least a temporary peak in oil production.

The thing is, it's pretty hard to tell peak oil lite from geological peak oil. When the world nears or reaches geological peak oil, it unleashes human forces that keep production down.

For example, Iran and Venezuela have both said recently that they think OPEC should commit to reducing output at their meeting on September 9, since oil prices are going down. Yes, they're saying that the price of oil is too low!

Because oil production is so tight elsewhere, OPEC has real power to jack prices back up. OPEC's power to raise oil prices is strongest at the time of regional or world peak oil.

Read and view this book at Amazon.com.

How much influence do any of us really feel in national or even state politics? What can we do about the dysfunction we witness? It's easy to feel hopeless with our political system but we do what we can.

Our energy needs seem to put us in a similar boat: we're at the mercy of what the corporate world wants to sell to us, and they set the prices. But in terms of energy, we actually can make individual choices that give us much more liberty, or even complete independence, even without the support of industry and politics.

By Jane Dwinell

Ever wonder what it would be like to live in a really small space with just the basics? Ever wonder what it would be like to do this with your sweetheart? Could you stand to be together in such tight quarters, doing all the activities of daily living along with all the fun things you enjoy? Well, if you have a hobby that takes up a lot of space or needs tons of equipment (or you don't want to be that close with your loved one), living in 250 square feet may not be for you. But it is for me.

Not Invented Here: What Vermont Can Learn from Northern Europe
(And how many small businesses could benefit)

Ralph Meima

While lots of people seem to be whining about high fuel prices (did you know that gas was $4/gallon in Europe in 2001?), Vermonters are getting smarter about their energy use. We can easily cut our energy costs in HALF by being less wasteful. Taking action in our personal lives is a good place to start. Even our U.S. Congress is paying attention to the "Carbon Shredders," a Vermont group that is trying to help people measure and reduce their energy costs.

The following floor statement was made on August 1 by Vermont Congressman Peter Welch.

Sometimes things happen quickly in Vermont! Yesterday I reported on the Health Department apparently violating its own rules when they adjusted the measurement of radiation at the perimeter of Vermont Yankee. Today, the Administrative Rules Committee (see section 817 in the link) met and took up the question on their agenda.

The Rules Committee is made up of four House members and four Senate members, and they have the authority to hold hearings on existing or proposed rules, on their own initiative. I'm told that they decided this morning to schedule a public hearing on the Health Department's rule on radiation from Yankee and how it has evolved. No date for the hearing has been set yet.

It's been reported that the Vermont Health Department just released a consultant's report on 2007 radiation emissions from Vermont Yankee and that they have adopted a new way of counting the dose of radiation. What I don't think has been reported, before today, is that the Health Department is violating its own rules in doing so.

The Vermont Health Department rules say that annual gamma radiation doses at the plant boundary may not exceed 20 millirem per year. A millirem is 0.001 rem, a measure of ionizing radiation's effect on human health.

The Health Department's consultants, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, reported that 8 radiation dosimeters at the edge of Vermont Yankee's boundary measured radiation last year in excess of the 20-millirem limit. However, the consultants also recommended reducing the amount of radiation measured by what critics have called a fudge factor. The new way of measuring radiation reduces the measurements by 40%, and suddenly Vermont Yankee is in compliance with the radiation rules.

The catch is, the Health Department's own rules don't seem to allow the fudge factor. The Health Department has taken the stance that 1 Röntgen now equals 0.6 rem. The Röntgen is the unit measured by the dosimeters. The Health Department's rules say, however, that 1 rem is defined as 1 Röntgen.

One equals one. Simple enough. But the Health Department now says that 1 equals 0.6.

Thomas Weiss broke the news that the Health Department's own regulations rule out changing the dose calculation on WGDR, Plainfield this morning, and I've followed up on it by calling the Health Department for comments.

Bill Irwin, responsible for radiological health at the Vermont Department of Health, disagrees that definition in the rules means what it says it means. He cites another section of the rules, which allows the Department to use "applicable recommendations
contained in the reports of the National Council on Radiation Protection and
Measurements and the National Bureau of Standards handbooks as standards and bases
for calculations."

In other words, when the rules define a rem, it's not a legally binding definition, but rather guidance to the reader. According to Irwin, it just "provides something approximate for the purpose of reading this regulation."

That's not the way I've seen definitions used in law before.

It's possible that the rules are internally inconsistent, but it looks to me as though Vermont Yankee is subject to the definition that 1 rem is 1 Röntgen. If you want to get down in the weeds and judge for yourself, click "Read more."

I’ve analyzed the economics of solar power in Vermont under Green Mountain Power's new "Solar Rate" net-metering program. This program offers people a “market rate” credit from their power bill for solar power generated by homes and sent into the grid, meaning people and businesses can go solar without having to go "off grid.”

Most importantly, the economics of solar power now makes sense, even in Vermont. Even if you don't care about clean power or the environment and you just want to save money. FREE VERMONT! GO SOLAR!