Green Options

Well, it has been a long time coming, but the US is finally putting some money into high-speed rail (HSR)!

Obama put a strong focus on this in his State of the Union speech last night — “From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains…. Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act. There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information.”

Now, the White House has just announced the 12 rail lines that will receive billions of dollars for HSR in the very near future. If these HSR projects come to fruition, the US may finally be level with Europe and China.

Will this be the start we need to transform our transportation system in the US?

U.S. District Court has sentenced a Vermont man to a week in jail for killing an endangered lynx - after he left the carcass with a taxidermist for mounting.

According to the Bangor Daily News, Vermont Fish and Wildlife officials were tipped off by the taxidermist, who said the man claimed he thought was “shooting at a coyote” while enjoying a deer hunting excursion in Maine.

This marks the third time in less than three years that someone has been sentenced for killing an endangered Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis).

U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk believed the jail time was necessary, saying that

We have the Endangered Species Act to protect, restore and save these types of animals. I do think this defendant deserves jail time. Just a fine would be a meaningless punishment.

The man who killed the lynx, Alan B. Clark Jr. 38, of South Hero, VT, admitted to Kravchuk that he knew it was a lynx when he took it to the taxidermist, and pleaded guilty to the federal misdemeanor crime of possession of unlawfully taken wildlife.

Although Clark faced up to six months in jail, and a fine up to $25,000, his attorney got him a reduced sentence, citing “recent chronic health problems” and “inability to work.” Clark’s jail time starts Thursday afternoon at the Penobscot County jail.

Apparently, Clark’s right to possess guns and hunt will not be affected by the conviction.

I’ve been eying this fetching baby rattle over at the international wonderland that is Kiosk for ages, but I was a little turned off by the paint (even though they are kind enough to use non-toxic kind!) Well, someone must be listening to my silent hesitations because they’re currently offering two stripped down, all-natural versions in simple Vermont wood.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is getting a little greener.

The Waterbury, Vt., coffee maker is adding 530 solar panels to the roof of its distribution center. When complete it will be the largest solar installation in Vermont, the company said.

The 100 kilowatt system will only provide a small percentage of the power the coffee company needs, but the real value of the system is demonstrating that solar can work for business in the Northeast, the company said.

“Renewable energy must be a part of our overall energy strategy,” Paul Comey, Vice President of Environmental Affairs for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., said in a statement.  “We
want to show our state and federal governments that solar energy works, and that we need
a policy that provides a broad-reaching structure for renewable energy.”

Road testing at Vermont’s Green Mountain College on a pair of souped-up plug-in Toyota Prius hybrids has found the cars returning better than 100 miles per gallon in daily commuting. At times, one car topped 140 MPG.

Steven Letendre (pictured above), economics professor and research scientist at GMC, monitored the travels of his colleague James Harding as he drove a plug-in Prius nine miles each way between the college’s campus in Poultney and his home in Middletown Springs during the fall semester. Letendre said he was “amazed” by Harding’s results.

Are there many things more anachronistic in the 21st Century U.S. than the Miss America Pageant? (Come on, even the term “Miss” sounds dated when applied to human females older than, say, 11.) Still, if the storied annual beauty pageant must continue, it might as well do so in a way that’s a bit more up to date.

And so it shall, at least for one contestant: Ashley Ruth Wheeler, aka Miss Vermont, is taking the pageant into modernity by choosing to wear a green — as in eco-friendly — gown. Her dress will not only be locally designed, but made with hemp, organic cotton, organic silk and recycled beads and lace.

Worried those dollars in your wallet might not buy as much as they used to? In a pretty neat report this week, the Worldwatch Institute details on how more communities across the U.S. (and around the globe) are turning to local currencies to protect their regional economies.

In “Local Currencies Grow During Economic Recession,” writer Ben Block describes how the global financial crisis is fueling renewed interest in “complementary” currencies aimed at keeping economic resources close to home.

One of the best known local currencies in the U.S. are the Berkshares, a New England-based note introduced two years ago. Berkshares co-founder Susan Witt says her phone’s been ringing a lot more lately with calls from officials in other parts looking to launch similar currencies in their communities.

Due to studies suggesting vegetarians have stronger immune systems and are 40% less likely to get cancer, as well as recent outbreaks of E.coli traced to a Vermont slaughterhouse, PETA is urging Blue Cross of Vermont to lower insurance rates for vegetarians, while increasing those for meat eaters.

The U.S. Forest Service announced that it will enroll its Rutland, Vermont office in the Central Vermont Public Service Cow Power ™ program.

I can’t be the only one wondering what I’d do if the bottom really drops out of the economy and we’re all left to fend for ourselves. And the best answer I keep coming to is farming, as in growing my own — and others’ — food.

Well, it turns out farming has already come to the rescue of at least one local economy, as Marian Burros reports in a New York Times article titled, “Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town.”

According to reports, the first ever carbon auction of greenhouse gases in the United States exceeded all expectations. All, except for the expectation that a ton of carbon would fetch $4.