from:
Jenna Pugliese, Chair of Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS)
Stephan Morse, Chair of SeVEDS Post Vermont Yankee Task Force
John Meyer, President of Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation
We are deeply concerned about the loss of over 650 highly paid jobs and the impacts that will have on the lives of the VY employee families. We are equally concerned about the overall impact to the regional economy and the impact to the many contractors and other businesses that do business with VY.
The announcement that Entergy will close Vermont Yankee in 2014 significantly exacerbates the economic challenges facing Southeastern Vermont. This adds even more urgency to our need to act to implement existing and developing strategies.
Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) has been working since 2007 and officially organized in 2011 to evaluate and strategize recovery of the 20 year economic decline in Windham County. The telltale symptoms of that decline have been stagnant wages, population loss, and loss of younger population. To date SeVEDS has successfully engaged both the public and private sector in supporting, developing, and implementing long term strategies for improving our economy. SeVEDS is nearing completion of a federally recognized Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) which outlines strategies and actions for improving the regional economy.
SeVEDS commissioned the Post-Vermont Yankee Task Force, chaired by Stephan Morse, to report on the additional economic impacts a Vermont Yankee closure would have on the regional economy. While the task force took no position on the timing of such a closure, this report, issued in March 2012, outlined the potentially five most serious impacts: Job loss, GDP decline, major declines in real estate value, major declines in available human capital, and declines in state and local tax revenue. That report can be found here http://seveds.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/PostVY.pdf
SeVEDS is affiliated with and staffed by the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp (BDCC), the regional development corporation serving Windham County. BDCC has a 59 year history of helping to grow jobs in Windham County through business assistance and real estate redevelopment. BDCC has taken the lead in business and economic recovery efforts from severe flooding in 2011 and is currently still engaged in those efforts.
Today’s announcement, given our current economic situation, is a serious blow. We will be working closely with the Windham Regional Commission, local, state and federal government on taking aggressive actions to stabilize the Southeastern Vermont’s economy.
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Press inquiries: Laura Sibilia, Director of Economic Development, BDCC lsibilia@brattleborodevelopment.com 257-7731 ext 217
August 27, 2013
Committee Report
From the Post VY Committee report:
The committee takes note of the fact that at whatever point the plant ultimately closes, its owner will have a major choice available to it: whether the plant is immediately decommissioned, or is put into a long-term SAFSTOR. The committee wishes to go on record as supporting immediate dismantlement (DECON) as opposed to SAFSTOR. The latter would delay reuse of the plant site for up to 80 years and withhold the benefits of work crews doing decommissioning work soon after closure.
http://seveds.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/PostVY.pdf