Hello to Safe and Green/ SAGE Alliance supporters in the Putney and Brattleboro area:

The second anniversary of the start of the disaster at Fukushima is fast approaching, on March 11. We are planning a unique and meaningful event to bring this tragedy home to our local communities.  A number of towns will host vigils, each highlighting a different community in the area of Fukushima that has been forced to evacuate, most likely for the lifetime of the former residents, possibly forever.

Putney is one of the towns hosting a vigil. We will carry signs and give out information about our “sister town,” Iitate, which you can read about below. Other communities hosting these vigils include Brattleboro, Greenfield, Hanover, NH, Amherst, MA, Northfield, MA, and possibly others. A vigil will also take place at the gates of Vermont Yankee on Sunday, March 10 at 11.

We will be gathering on Saturday, March 9 from 1-3 on the sidewalk in front of the Tavern Green in downtown Putney.  In case of a heavy rain or snow, we will postpone it until Sunday the 10th at the same time and place.

Vermont Yankee continues to operate without a state permit, endangering our communities and families. We need to continue to speak out and remind people of the folly of nuclear power. This event should make strong connections with our neighbors, as well as letting the people of Japan know that we are aware of their hardships and ongoing challenges.

In addition to the vigil, we will be gathering at 4:00 on March 8 at the Putney Friends Meeting to make signs for the event, so please come and help out, especially if you have any artistic talent!

Please contact me if you have any questions or comments about this event, or if you want to help with organizing. Also, please forward this email to your friends and contacts in the Putney area.

Hope you can all make it on March 9,

No nukes!

Nancy Braus

 Here is a link to the proposed changes that are now out for public comment:

http://alturl.com/88r7i 

Some of the critical proposed changes for Special Customers (schools, towns, and low-income housing) and commercial customers are as follows:

• Change the incentive for Special Customers from the current $2.10/W for systems <10kW; and $1.40/W for each additional watt up to a 50kW max to a flat $0.50/W to a max of 10kW.
  
• Lower the kilowatt incentive cap for PV for commercial incentives from 25kW to 10kW
  

• Lower the system size cap for commercial PV incentives from 150kW to 25kW; systems 25kW and larger would thus not be eligible for any incentives under this program

• Change the incentive cap from 50% of the total installed costs for Special Customers to 20% for all incentives for all customers

The CEDF Board will vote on the proposed changes at their meeting on Jan. 24^th 2013.

Please send in your comments before Jan 18th 2013.

It is vitally important to the solar industry in Vermont that these incentives remain in effect, and are not diminished or curtailed. It is equally important to come up with long term funding source (Not Vermont Yankee) and a consistent long term incentive structure that can help stabilize the ups and downs in demand for solar projects, in order to help our solar installers grow and succeed. If the goal is more solar then removing incentives has the opposite effect. The special customers are the ones most in need of financial help on projects.

In spite of many public meetings by the DPS, where town after town voted for clean energy over non renewable or nuclear energy, the DPS appears to be curtailing support for Solar Electric projects for commercial and special clients.
Please send a message that you want to see continued incentive support and no reductions in special customer incentives.

Please send in comments to: Andrew.perchlik@state.vt.us

or to the Clean Energy Development Fund at 112 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05620

thank you!

Daniel Hoviss

Town of Putney Energy Coordinator

WHEN: Sunday, September 23, from1:00-2:00 pm

WHERE:  Governor Hunt Road in Vernon, Vermont

WHAT: Quaker Worship, Vermont Yankee’s Main Gate

This religious witness will go forward regardless of the weather. It is organized under the care of Burlington Meeting (VT)

 

We request that all who plan to participate in this worshipful witness gather at the Putney Friends Meetinghouse that morning at 11:00 am for a discussion of basic logistics and ground rules, and final discussion based on our previous dialogues with Chief Hebert of the Vernon Police Department and Patrick Ryan, Head of Security for the plant.  At that meeting you will also meet the Quaker elders, identified with arm bands, who will serve as monitors during the worship and aftermath.

We ask that no signs be carried; there will be one banner identifying us as under the care of Burlington Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. We also suggest that Friends may want to carry snacks or a sandwich and something to drink, as the plant is in a rural area with no stores or restaurants. Food can be bought prior to the 11 am meeting at the Putney Coop. There are portapotties including a wheelchair accessible one at the Vernon Town Beach about a quarter of a mile away from the gate. There will be a car available to shuttle those who need it.

Chief Hebert has offered to let us park at the Vernon Town Offices parking lot and along the road behind it.  There is no parking at the local school. Both are also within walking distance of the plant gate  We will also be able to have an appointed transport person to drive anyone with health needs from the parking area to the gate and back.  Directions to both Putney Meetinghouse and the plant in Vernon are attached to this letter.

At approximately 12:45 pm we will walk prayerfully in single file, in silence, from the parking area to a designated place at the beginning of the plant driveway and form a circle to continue our standing worship. Please bring a light-weight chair with you if you are unable to stand for the worship period, which will last somewhere between a half hour and one hour, and the booking time after, approximately 30 minutes.

We have had many questions about the issue of civil disobedience  The meeting for worship, which is the primary focus of this religious witness, is being held in a mutually agreed upon spot on the edge of the plant’s property, and participation in the worship will not incur arrest.  There are a few of us who feel we are called to leave the circle during worship, to duck under a rope and continue our worship further inside the plant grounds, about 15 – 20 feet from the first circle. We will form a smaller circle there and continue in worship. We ask that the initial circle continue to hold the worship, while some go inside the grounds.  We will then be asked to leave and if we do not, we will be charged with trespassing and be arrested. The police will walk with us to a small house next to the driveway where our paperwork will be completed, and we will then be released on our own recognizance and allowed to leave. We will not be handcuffed. We ask that the circle hold us in worship while we are being booked, until we come back and join you.  No one is under any pressure to either go inside or remain outside, nor do Friends need to decide that before we gather.

We would be grateful if Friends who are coming for this witness will let us know your approximate numbers and your home meeting or church at the email or phone number below.  We also urge you to carpool if possible.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Email: betsyandjane@gmavt.net

Phone: 802-434-7114

Emergency contact phone for that day only:

802-734-8449

Directions to Putney Friends Meetinghouse:  Take exit 4 off of I – 91.  Go north on Route 5 for about a mile.  The Meetinghouse will be on your left.

Directions from the Meetinghouse to Vernon Town Offices: From Putney Meetinghouse, take Route 5 South, through the downtown of Brattleboro, onto 142 South.  In Vernon, continue onto Governor Hunt Road.  The Town Offices are on the right. The time is about 25 minutes

* * * * * * * * * *

Vermont Yankee Meltdown: What Will We Do?
Lessons from Fukushima
Monday, September 24, 2012
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Stinchfield Hall, Greenfield Community College Main Campus

This should be an excellent opportunity to hear first hand about
Fukushima. Please consider attending this event in Greenfield. The
danger from Vermont Yankee does not stop at the 10 mile evacuation
zone. The Greenfield Guardians Affinity Group.

Ira Helfand, M.D., co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility
and emergency physician in Springfield, MA, returns from a conference in
Japan with the latest on Fukushima. Join us to hear crucial information
for all of us living within 50 miles of Vermont Yankee. Additional
comments by Deb Katz, co-founder Citizens Awareness Network. Discussion
to follow.

Sponsored by Citizens for Emergency Preparedness
More information call: Suzanne G-Sosis 413-774-3585
Press, please call Marian Kelner 413-773-8401

* * * * * * * * * *

WHEN: September 30th, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

WHERE: Upper Valley Food Coop, Route 5, White River Junction, VT

WHAT: SAGE Alliance Affinity Group Meeting

For more information, go to:

by JOSH STILTS, Reformer Staff

Posted:   06/18/2012 05:46:33 PM EDT

Updated:   06/18/2012 05:47:06 PM EDT

“ AS I WENT DOWN BY THE RIVER TO PRAY….”

 FOLLOWING THE RIVER from SPRINGFIELD, MASS to VERMONT YANKEE, VERNON, VERMONT

2012 WALK FOR A NEW SPRING: REMEMBER FUKUSHIMA  March 16 – March 22, 2012

 The Connecticut River has been an historic route for many peoples over many centuries. And now it becomes the route of 2012 Walk For a New Spring: Remember Fukushima. We walk to Remember Fukushima, in the knowledge that nuclear energy is neither safe nor clean. Already the Connecticut River, the earth, and the people have suffered contamination from Vermont Yankee. The threat of any sort of accident at the aging nuclear reactor in Vernon, VT is all too real and the consequences would be unimaginably catastrophic.

 

On Friday, March 16th, 2012 Walk for New Spring: Remember Fukushima will meet up with Grafton Peace Pagoda Walk that has come up from New Jersey and New York. They will meet at AGAPE, in Hardwick, MA and then will journey to Springfield, walking as one body to gather in fellowship at Arise for Social Justice, Springfield.

 

The next morning on March 17^th, please join us at The River Front Park (W Columbus Ave and Memorial Bridge) for the initial ceremony of a week-long series of ceremonies along the Connecticut River.   After the Ceremony, we will walk to Chicopee for lunch, followed by a walk to Holyoke . There will be a second ceremony along the Connecticut River at the farm land of NUESTRAS RAICES (24 Jones Ferry Road, off  Route 5 near lower Westfield Road. At this point, from Springfield, Mass to Yankee Nuclear Plant in Vernon, Vermont, the Walk will “FOLLOW THE RIVER,” journeying along the route of the Connecticut River through Western Massachusetts to Vermont.

 

And therefore, each day,  the Walk will go “down  by the riverside” to offer prayers to the  spirit of the river – prayers for the healing of the waters, prayers  for healing Mother Earth, prayers for the awakening of  all of us for our human duty to shut down Vermont Yankee.

 

WE URGE EVERYONE,(AND PARTICULARLY WE URGE  WESTERN MASS FOLKS), TO JOIN US – March  16th – March 21.

 

JOIN FOR AN EVENING GATHERING IN YOUR COMMUNITY

                        March 16^th:  Worcester to Springfield

                        March 17^th: Springfield to Chicopee to Holyoke

                        March 18^th: Holyoke to Northampton

                        March 19^th: Northampton to Montague

                        March 20^TH: Montague to Northfield

                        March 21^st: Northfield to Vernon

                       

JOIN FOR AN HOUR !      JOIN  FOR A DAY!      JOIN  FOR THE FULL ROUTE ALONG THE RIVER!

 

Join us as we walk together  in love and solidarity for a nuclear free future.

Join us so that together we can search and open the path  to help us realize the possibility

of a more just, sustainable and compassionate world,  built on respect for living beings and for the earth that sustains us.

                                                        

Let’s become a  ground-swell of concerned residents. Let our walking together speak for itself.

By gathering together and walking as a community , we become “the walking prayer:”

“(the)   prayer for the suffering of the Japanese people and a plea to the people of New England

to recognize the grave dangers that nuclear energy poses to our lives, where we live, and all life on Mother Earth.”

               

The children of today and the children of the future call to us to take action.  We answer their call by walking with Walk for a New Spring, following the River, and offering prayers for healing at the River’s edge .

 

details to join the walk or support the walk when it comes to your community,

contact: Tim Bullock:413-485-8469; email:walk4newspring@gmail.com

 

WFNSP sponsored by New England Peace Pagoda, co-sponsors: AFSC Northampton, Arise for Social Change, Sprngfld;

Nuclear Free Future; House of Peace, Ipswich, MA; MassPeaceAction.

• 10 days 17 hours 45 minutes
  Until the Closure of Vermont Yankee