The Vermont Working Landscape Partnership announces the release of Investing in our Farm and Forest Future. This nonpartisan Action Plan offers five recommendations to help reinvigorate the state’s rural economy.· Build a major campaign to celebrate the distinctiveness of the working landscape that is Vermont.· Target strategic investment through a Vermont Agriculture and Forest Products Development Fund.· Designate and support ‘Working Lands.’· Develop tax revenue to support working landscape enterprise development and conservation.· Create a State Planning Office and activate the Development Cabinet. The Vermont Working Landscape Council developed this plan. Its sixteen members have deep expertise in issues pertaining to farm and forest enterprises and rural development in Vermont. Its report also identifies challenges and opportunities for the working landscape, trends for the future, and goals for the proposed policy changes.‘We have an historic opportunity for a Natural Resource Renaissance that will keep Vermont’s land working for all of us for many generations,’ explains VWL Council Chair and Former Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee. ‘But we must all support the significant investment it will take to rejuvenate our land-based businesses.’The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) launched this broad-based partnership as a way to focus efforts to keep our farm and forest economy healthy and prosperous. The report is available online at www.vtrural.org(link is external) or by contacting VCRD at 802-223-6091 or by email at info@vtrural.org(link sends e-mail).‘We know how much Vermonters value and benefit from the Working Landscape,’ says VCRD Executive Director Paul Costello. ‘Implementing these recommendations is our best strategy for ensuring the future of our greatest asset.’This focus on the Working Landscape stems from the extensive work by the Council on the Future of Vermont. In interviews and surveys with thousands of Vermonters, the state’s working landscape emerged as a top priority.The Partnership formed following a packed State House summit in December of 2010. There are currently almost 500 individual and 170 organizational members from all parts of the state and the numbers continue to increase. To learn more visit www.vtrural.org(link is external) .Use this link if you prefer to go directly to the .pdf of the report.http://vtrural.org/sites/default/files/library/files/working%20landscape…(link is external)
FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPrint分享S&P Global Market Intelligence ($):Colorado regulators approved an EVRAZ PLC subsidiary’s unique agreement with Xcel Energy Inc. for the steel company to have a 240-MW solar plant built on its mill property in Pueblo, Colo.Xcel Energy subsidiary Public Service Co. of Colorado on Aug. 15 applied to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for approval of a special energy services agreement and rates the utility said would enable EVRAZ to use power generated by the solar plant for its operations.EVRAZ is Xcel Energy’s largest retail electric customer in Colorado and now receives service directly through transmission lines from the Comanche Generating Station. Xcel Energy plans to close two units of the coal power plant with a total capacity of 660 MW as part of its Colorado Energy Plan.The commission on Sept. 10 approved the plan, which Xcel Energy said was essential for clearing the path for EVRAZ to build the solar plant. Allowing solar to replace coal will free up transmission capacity for the solar plant to export surplus energy and for the mill to receive power from other sources when solar output diminishes, according to Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz.An as yet unnamed third-party independent power producer will build and own the solar facility for EVRAZ, and no information was available as to when the plant will be built. Details remain confidential because the EVRAZ board of directors has not yet approved the facility, Stutz said.EVRAZ said its ability to maintain stable energy costs at its Pueblo mill is critical to its decision to continue operating that facility, which employs about 1,000 workers. With the pending closure of the coal plant, EVRAZ alternatively planned to move its mill operations to the southeast U.S.More ($): Colorado approves agreement for steel mill to replace coal plant with solar Colorado regulators approve Xcel plan to power steel mill with solar