Category Archives: Business

Phil Scott’s Vermont Climate Action Commission put in the shade by gov’s inaction

Business, local/regional,

In a recent editorial the Times-Argus is shocked that Governor Scott: “In such hot times, this governor seems to have developed cold feet” over implementing the recommendation of his own climate action Commission. […] Now, two years later, we posit: What has this governor done in response to that commission’s hard work and recommendations? The answer is: Very little.

It is worth noting how low the bar is for a GOP governor that The Times-Argus finds the need to praise Governor Scott, crediting him for actually acknowledging the climate crisis, supporting the goals of the Paris accord on climate change and for forming his own 21-member study commission — two years ago.

The editorial praises the commission’s work, noting: […] the commission produced a report that recommended ways Vermont could reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also encouraging economic and job growth — a tenet of Scott’s administration. [ PDF of the 123-page Vermont Climate Action Commission report

Maybe they shouldn’t be surprised by Scott’s reluctance to expend any political capital to actually implement the plan.There were hints — big hints — from the start over his commitment to the goals and recommendations of his climate change commission. The editors might recall or might even have referenced Scott’s tortuously slow journey to be able to speak about the causes of climate change. In 2016 as a candidate he was pretty wobbly walking the line between denial and acknowledging man-made climate change. SevenDays: Speaking on WDEV’s “Open Mike” radio show in June, [then-Lieutenant Governor] said, “whether it’s man-made or not is almost immaterial.” At a Vermont PBS debate in July, he said the climate could be changing “for many different reasons.”

Scott’s language has evolved, meaning he got his foot out of his mouth after taking office and was at least making encouraging noises about support for climate change actions. But then a year into office his administration was found eliminating the term “climate change” from state documents with proposed changes to Act 250 — the environmental development law. Surprisingly few warning bells and whistles were sounded at this point.

So maybe the Times-Argus shouldn’t be so surprised that governor is getting “cold feet” about engaging the climate change commission’s recommendations. He likely had them all along. It ‘s becoming increasingly clear that while the Vermont Climate Action Commission did its job, the governor’s hidden agenda was for the commission to simply provide camouflaging fig leaves of commitment and action for the Scott administration, with little to none of either mandated in the end. Besides, fig leaf attire is so much more heat wave-friendly.

Taking a stand on lemonade

Business,

July fun fact: Vermont, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, North Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut are the only states that allow children to sell lemonade without permits.

Vermonters along the border with New Hampshire take note, our state lemonade stand regulations are not restricting this style of entrepreneurship. Live Free or Die indeed.

Lemonade stands run by children are technically illegal in 34 states, usually due to violation of health codes, child labor regulations or laws that require businesses to obtain permits. The laws don’t directly target lemonade stands, and in some cases are enforced somewhat loosely, usually prompted by a complaint. But the result, from Maryland to Oregon, is the same: officials, usually police, telling children to take down their stands.

And in a clear case of corporate self interest Kraft Foods brand Country Time Lemonade mix * has organized a campaign to challenge state restrictions. The company encourages parents to apply for a reimbursement and include an image of the child’s permit or fine along with a description of what the lemonade stand means to their child. The company will review submissions and will cover permits or fines up to $300 that comply with the terms.

*Ingredients: Sugar, Fructose, Citric Acid, Contains Less than 2% of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Natural Flavor, Soy Lecithin, Maltodextrin, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Sodium Citrate, Magnesium Oxide, Calcium Fumarate, Artificial Color, Yellow 5 Lake, Tocopherol (Preserves Freshness).

Country Time Lemonade mix: Looks like it’s got everything but the lemons!

Bernie’s own book of the month club

Business, National, ,

Bernie Sanders has become a millionaire, and he did it by selling his new book! In blunt fashion Sanders explained his get rich strategy: “I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.” NYTimes.com

During the 2015 primary campaign the pre-millionaire Bernie employed a book buying/selling strategy that never would have gotten him rich but might be worth a glance now as the crowded Democratic primary race heats up.

According to FEC filings, the Sanders campaign bought thousands of dollars of his books. Sanders spent almost $445,000 of his donors’ campaign funds with Verso Books, the publisher of Outsider in the White House, which was a quick re-working of his earlier Bernie book: Outsider in the House. I mentioned the purchase in a diary: Campaign dollars to donuts back then without really taking aim at it; I don’t recall it making any waves in that long campaign.

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Buying your own books with your campaign-donor dollars sure looks a little shady, but it isn’t unheard of or apparently illegal. But since the Citizens United decision super-PAC dark money is running rampant in campaigns — and with the six-member Federal Election Commission often deadlocked, enforcement is spotty.

In recent years candidates for national office have been regularly buying their own books (aka 300-page hardcover party favors) with campaign money. For instance in 2015 the csmonitor.com reported that Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign paid $122,252.00 to the publisher of  his book A Time for Truth. Ben Carson, Sarah Palin, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney all used campaign or PAC funds to buy their own books.

The FEC found a variety of likely violations made by Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign over a book-promotion deal and campaign funding. After three years of wrangling, a deadlocked vote between Democratic and Republican Commission members halted any possibility that the FEC would be investigating the former Speaker of the House.

Now, I’m fine with Bernie Sanders in the millionaire club, despite what some see as hypocrisy. But he really shouldn’t be in that particular book club.

Howard Dean, Canadian cannabis corporation, and Anheuser-Busch

Business, National, , ,

VtDigger.com reported this past weekend that the former Vermont Governor and DNC Chairman Howard Dean has formally joined the board of directors of Tilray, a large (Nasdaq traded) Canadian-based international cannabis company that manufactures and markets cannabis flower and extract products. There was no mention of how much compensation corporate board members receive.

Dean actually “went to pot” months ago, in December 2018, when he, along with former RNC Chairman Michael Steele became advisors to Tilray.

As recently as 2003, when running for president, Dean was opposed to legalizing pot; according to VtDigger.com he said: […] decriminalizing drugs would send “a very bad message to young people.” The country already had issues with alcohol and tobacco, “and adding a third drug is not a good idea.” Fast-forward to 2019: Faced with “the combination of deciding medical marijuana might really have some efficacy, backed up by studies that I thought were reasonable, which I didn’t think were reasonable 10 years earlier, backed up by my daughter’s public-defender experience, I flipped.”

As a physician Dean was impressed with the pharmaceutical operation Tilray is running and he was impressed by research that shows CBD is useful as a treatment for seizures associated with two severe forms of epilepsy.tilrayfortune1

But Tilray is big business and part of a fast growing hyper-competitive industry. Therefore they are looking at a wide ranging menu of possible uses for their cannabis products for shareholder profit. It wasn’t mentioned in VtDigger that early this year, not long after the two former national party chairs signed on  that Tilray  announced that it had partnered with Anheuser-Busch in a $100-million venture to study (and possibly market) not only a non-alcoholic CBD beverage but also one containing THC … the psychoactive ingredient.

I wonder if you will need Doctor Dean’s prescription for that drink.

The Valley News: reporting on the minimum

Business, local/regional, , ,

The business reporter for The Valley News recently did a story about minimum wage changes in the works in Vermont and New Hampshire legislatures. Both states have Democratic majorities with GOP governors who oppose hikes. In 2018 Vermont Governor Scott vetoed a minimum wage increase.

The focus of the VNews article is on “tipped” service workers that are allowed to be paid lower minimum wages than other workers and in theory can make up the difference in gratuities.

At issue in both states are changes to the overall minimum wage and possible hikes to the minimum for tipped workers. Currently: In New Hampshire, the minimum wage for employees who earn more than $30 per month through tips — known as the “tipped minimum wage” — is 45% of the applicable $7.25 per hour minimum wage, or $3.27 per hour.

In Vermont, tipped minimum wage for employees who earn more than $120 per month from tips is 50% of the applicable $10.78 per hour minimum wage, or $5.39 per hour.

Both states have written into their rules that if a server’s tip income falls below the general wage floor then the employer is required to pay the difference to bring the server up to the general per-hour minimum wage.

While that may seem to paint a bleak picture for the waitstaff’s income, the opposite is often true. As a rule, servers are the highest-paid non-management employees in the restaurant business.

Included are  quote and comments from Governor Sununu’s office (who opposes any change) and a representative of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce (a group that has opposed hikes in the past). The reporter also wrangled a couple comments from two high-end pub/restaurant-business owners (who presumably oppose changes). And finally he chatted to three servers who work for tips in the same prosperous local establishments. No comments by low-end tipped workers, a legislative sponsor, or  an economist are included.EPItipped1

If the article had included a supporter of the changes, they might have related a less rosy picture of the current situation … the negative points most people working at a sub-minimum wage for tips experience. The Economic Policy Institute wrote in 2018: that in states that have a lower tipped minimum wage [such as Vermont and New Hampshire] , tipped workers have worse economic outcomes and higher poverty rates than their counterparts in equal treatment states (regular state minimum wage plus tips, the law in eight states).

Now, to be fair I have to assume all the newly elected legislators from New Hampshire and Vermont Democratic majorities who support minimum wage hikes were reluctant to talk to the newspaper. Because otherwise the VNews business reporter would have managed to include a quote from one or even two of them…wouldn’t he?

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The amazing DNC voter data machine: Who gets the profit?

Business, local/regional, National, ,

Some news just washes by like untreated sludge in the stormwater overflow, but here’s some national news with a local angle that fetched up on the shore last week.

Reports are that Democratic National Chairman Tom Perez has organized a new data-exchange operation. Perez is matching the successful GOP voter-data operation on display in the last presidential vote that is believed to have boosted their turnout. The plan is for the Democrats to do as the Republicans did and form a for-profit entity; Perez’s new organization will be gathering all available Democratic data now scattered throughout state party organizations and some non-profits.

The complex operation is coming together  after months of serious internal wrangling. Politico.com reported last December that state party officials were looking to know who exactly would stand to benefit financially from the new for profit data base entity.

Now Howard Dean, with stints as a Vermont governor, a presidential candidate, and as DNC Chairman has agreed to  oversee the new DNC voter-info project. AP reports: The arrangement would allow the national party, state parties, and independent political action groups on the left to share voter data in real time during campaigns. That means, for example, that a field worker for a congressional campaign in Iowa and another for an independent political action committee knocking on doors in Florida could update a master voter file essentially as they work. When a presidential campaign spends big money on consumer data to update voter profiles, the new information would go into the central file as well. And all participating organizations would have access to the latest information.

The new exchange will operate as an independent for-profit enterprise led initially by Democratic strategist Jen O’Malley Dillon, once a top adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. [emphasis added]DNCdata

The deal worked out with the DNC chair to calm the waters among the state party officials divvies up the control over the data-exchange between former Hillary people and people seen as progressives — Howard Dean and Ken Martin (leader of the Democratic state party chairs association, a MN liberal inspired by the late Senator Paul Wellstone).

As APNews reports: Martin and Perez would chair a party committee that would license the party’s voter files to O’Malley Dillon’s group, which would establish its own agreements with PACs and other groups. Dean would chair the governing board of the new outfit, and once assembled, that board will hire staff to run the operation.

Some competition and general wrangling for resources between the national organization and state party organizations are nothing new. But a for-profit business model — copied from the GOP — stocked full of licensed DNC voter data available for a price seems designed to invite grifters up to the campaign table for a big-money feast. And as always there is the ever-present potential for hackers gaining access to all that data — all those eggs in one basket could prove an irresistible target.

By splitting up oversight Perez, Dean, and all the professional movers and shakers in the presidential election industrial complex seem to have decided for now to navigate this one with some care. Except there are still questions: 1) who keeps the profits; and 2) why should state and local volunteers provide free labor to stock a data base for sale to favored, deep-pocketed entities/campaigns, when the “profits” are not going to the parties? I’d hate to see the Democrats following the Republican-capitalist model: privatize the profits and socialize the cost and the consequences.

I hope Perez, Dean, et al., at least manage to keep the peace. After all there’s not much riding on this next election but the whole ball of wax. But let’s not lose sight of our principles in the process.

Using hot highway de-icer: radioactive AquaSalina®

Business, local/regional, National, , ,

In Ohio a Cleveland Plain Dealer report on state legislation surrounding a 2017 public health report details radiation hazards from a salt-brine road de-icer mix used there. And the risk is more than a little alarming. keepback

Salt-brine is defined by the American Public Works Association as a solution of salt (typically sodium chloride, calcium chloride or magnesium chloride) and water.

It seems AquaSalina, the commercial brine mixture spread all over Ohio, has: […] elevated levels of radioactivity in excess of state limits on the discharge of radioactive materials. The average radioactivity in AquaSalina also exceeded the drinking water limits for Radium 226 and Radium 228 by a factor of 300. Human consumption of any amount of AquaSalina is highly discouraged, the report said. [find Ohio Department of Natural Resources pdf here]

Ohio’s Duck Creek Energy, Inc., maker of the trademarked product, says the de-cier brine and dust control agent  “AquaSalina® is a natural saltwater solution produced from ancient seas dating back to the Silurian age almost 425 million years ago.”

That is likely true — as far as it goes — but the “ancient sea water” is also toxic oil-field brine dredged up from conventional (not shale fracking) oil and gas wells. At the wells the waste water is stored in tanks and residual oil and gas is removed after it floats to the surface. The toxic waste water — err, I mean “ancient sea water” — is trucked to Duck Creek facilities where volatile organics and trace minerals — but not naturally occurring radium — are filtered out. What remains is rebranded (apparently with a straight face) as AquaSalina “natural saltwater” road brine and dust control agent.

Problem is: “Heavy metals and radiologicals accumulate in the soil and become problematic for drinking water,” said Trish Demeter, the Ohio Environmental Council vice president of Policy, Energy. “They don’t just go away. The more you use deicers [and dust control agents] the more these toxins build up over a long period of time.” Not sure if Ohioans should feel complacent, even though the report does say they believe radiation exposure from wintertime use of AquaSalina was “unlikely” to exceed human dosage limits. In the previous winter Ohio road crews used one million gallons of AquaSalina, a fraction of the 10 million total gallons of de-icer mixes used. But then again, it is the only proven radioactive mix splashed on the roads.

 The State of Vermont started experimenting with salt-brine highway deicers (the non-radioactive variety as far as we know) about ten years ago. The VTrans FAQ webpage says that the state currently uses them to “jump start” the melting process and to minimize the amount of salt that bounces into the ditches. The salt we typically use is sodium chloride, the same as on your dinner table at home. Then again, VTrans has not yet (that we know of) released the exact chemical make-up of its brine formula.

Road salt, brine de-icing brews, and mixtures are widely seen as culprits that not only pollute streams but prematurely rust car bodies, corrode brake lines, and erode concrete highway structures. In 2017 a Vermont bill that would have banned the use of sodium chloride, calcium chloride and or magnesium chloride brine mixes was introduced but not passed.

Alternatives to salt-based brines are being tested. Carbohydrate sugars in juices left over from commercial industrial processing beets, cheese, potatoes and pickle brine are effective at lower temperatures. Beet wastewater reportedly smells like stale coffee and may change oxygen levels in waterways. Dumping tons and tons of anything on the highways is bound to be problematic for water runoff and throw habitats out of whack.

While it may be difficult to find out exactly what homemade blend or commercial salt-brine product VTrans may be using, an increase in rusty trucks and cars, eroding bridges, and polluted streams seem to suggest there’s evidence of increased harm to balance a supposed increase in vehicular safety on otherwise slick roads. The assumption appears to be that spraying salt-brine  can’t be as bad as sluicing ancient radioactive sea water all over the roadways … or can it ?

Big Pharma drug money & big museums

Business, local/regional, National,

Did you know Vermont went to “war” last September? “We’re going to war with Big Pharma” said Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo along with Attorney General TJ Donovan at a press event to announce that Vermont had joined 23 other states suing the manufacturer of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma. “The basis of our lawsuit is this: Purdue Pharma lied, they misrepresented, they fabricated, they deceived, and they spread falsehoods, and they made billions off of it and they created a path of destruction that the state of Vermont is still reeling from,” Donovan said.

And later Governor Scott announced he wanted to support the effort too, although he accepted and will not return campaign donations from Purdue.drugmoney

The “war” against Purdue Pharma that Vermont joined is being fought on a second front, and the Sackler family — the owners — are beginning to feel heat. Thanks to OxyContin, their wealth rivals that of the Walton (WalMart) and Rockefeller families. The Sacklers are known for their (upscale) philanthropy, and accordingly have donated to and funded dozens of well known museums and universities around the world. Those institutions are now being targeted.

The Guardian.com reports on a recent demonstration: US art photographer and activist Nan Goldin brought the Guggenheim Museum in New York to a standstill on Saturday night as thousands of fake prescriptions were dropped into the atrium to protest against the institution’s acceptance of donations from the family who owns the maker of OxyContin – the prescription painkiller at the root of America’s opioids crisis.

Once addicted herself to OxyContin, Nan Goldin is quoted in January telling Art Forum magazine: “They have washed their blood money through the halls of museums and universities around the world,” she wrote. “We demand that the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma use their fortune to fund addiction treatment and education. There is no time to waste.”

In New York these institutions are recipients of Sackler family foundations:

Seventeen major arts and educational institutions in the UK are major recipients as well as others in France (The Louvre) and Germany.

And even right here in Vermont the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation gave 313 historical Ancient Near Eastern, Chinese, Korean, Byzantine, Islamic, and Pre-Columbian American  art objects to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in 2017 according to a press release.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey alleged in a recent 274 page Purdue suit memorandum that: “[…] the Sacklers flooded Massachusetts with sales reps, influenced state legislation, and financially backed medical facilities and universities so they could tout Purdue opioids.” If these charges are any indication of what is to come, that family’s name may not be what famous-image-minded international institutions want over their front entrance or on their donor list.

The Sacklers did what all upper echelon corporados do: privatize profit and socialize cost/consequences. Is there no PR advisor to these robber barons who might recommend they fund an addiction treatment center in every state instead of more art museums for the rich?

Vermont Yankee enjoying “hot” retirement

Business, National, , , ,

Dismantling a nuclear plant  isn’t exactly retirement but what once seemed like a constant barrage of safety issues at Entergy’s Vermont Yankee has quieted since the plant stopped operating. That said, North Star Services (the new plant owners approved to do the decommissioning) don’t deserve to be completely out of the news.

Editorially the Keene Sentinel in nearby New Hamphire pondered the recent transfer: The sale is good news in that NorthStar plans to fast-track the decommissioning, while Entergy had indicated it might put the site into safe storage (“SAFSTOR”) for decades before starting to dismantle it. The reason, no doubt, is financial: NorthStar is betting it can do the job for less than the $500 million or so that’s in the decommissioning fund.

That raises an obvious issue: If doing the job cheaply is the company’s incentive, will it be done right?

Susan Smallheer of The Brattleboro Reformer reports a little bit of a problem was discovered in 2018 with the Holtec® storage casks used to bottle up and store 42 years worth of radioactive waste sitting along the banks of the Connecticut River at Vermont Yankee. The design of the casks manufactured by Holtec International had been modified in violation of NRC rules. “[…] last year [2018] Entergy Nuclear halted the transfer of fuel using the canisters to inspect the Holtec canisters it had. No problems were discovered in the canisters at Vermont Yankee, but the already loaded canisters could not be easily inspected.

Michael Layton, division director of spent fuel management for the NRC, who led the NRC inspection team, said it was possible the NRC would require additional canister inspections. Although Layton said he did not believe the Holtec design problems represented an “imminent safety threat” he added “[…] it may warrant additional inspections.”  That, to be sure, is a bit of classic, worn-thin NRC boiler-plate-speak.

It turns out that in 2016 the Holtec company changed the design and failed to alert the NRC — a violation of safety procedures. In the bureaucratic parlance of the NRC, the “pre-decisional enforcement conference” centered on whether Holtec should have alerted the federal agency before making changes to the design of aluminum shims that help center the highly radioactive nuclear fuel in a “fuel basket” inside the canisters.

The New Jersey-based company in 2016 redesigned the canisters by threading stainless steel pins about 4 inches long and a half-inch thick into the shims to improve circulation of helium inside the canister to keep the spent fuel cool.

Two years later The San Diego Union-Tribune reports Holtec became aware of a problem with lose holding pins found on spent fuel canisters being moved at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in southern California. The transfer of loaded casks was halted, and inspections followed.vycasks The investigations, in turn, led the NRC to discover that Holtec had changed the designs of the casks. At San Onofre Holtec has stopped using canisters with the newer design. All subsequent canisters at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) will revert to the original design that does not use pins.

I should mention here that Holtec International is not only a manufacturer but also is in the business of buying and decommissioning old nukes-fast tracking to avoid placing the plants in 60 year SAFSTOR. Much larger and more diverse than VY’s new owner North Star Services, Holtec is not only decommissioning San Onofre but may soon do the same — they say at an accelerated pace — to Oyster Creek in New Jersey, the Pilgrim Nuclear plant in Massachusetts and the infamous Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

Soon Holtec will have the franchise on decommissioning several old nukes in southern New England, despite the casual attitude of Holtec’s founder, president and CEO over the NRC violation. On the 9th of January this year, during an official NRC public “pre-decisional enforcement conference” podcast, Holtec CEO Kris Singh took the stage and dramatically complained  “This inspection, if you were to quote Shakespeare, is much ado about nothing,” Singh said while delivering a 37-page PowerPoint presentation as part of a public NRC webcast. “At least that is our perspective.”

Well sure, Mr. Singh, you say, “much ado about nothing.” But, “what is past is prologue” is it not? And you know this  is about nuclear waste storage in casks for 12+ years. So your unauthorized, uninspected design changes should warrant inspections.

And then again, still quoting the Bard of Avon, “The Devil may quote Scripture for his own purpose.”

Will Vermont brake for THC saliva testing?

Business, local/regional, , ,

All indications are the Vermont legislature is on the road toward a vote on a bill that will legalize a retail, taxable, regulated marijuana market. Governor Scott qualifies his support for such a bill, stipulating there must be a reliable roadside test — such as a saliva THC blood level test — to determine driver impairment before considering signing one into law.

Governor Scott’s own marijuana commission in 2018 recommended saliva THC testing even while pointing out it wouldn’t be especially effective […] there is no formula that can be broadly applied to equate THC levels with individual intoxication. Heavy and light users will vary significantly in the detectable amounts of THC and the effects of similar amounts of THC will vary widely among individuals. [added emphasis.] They did not support establishing a per se limit of detectable THC.

And while state law enforcement officials may be, err… salivating at the prospect of getting the green light to collect DNA samples from drivers, the Vermont ACLU has expressed its concern that tests could be misused. Even when a warrant is required, widespread gathering and storage of DNA samples present serious constitutional privacy questions.

An article on NYTimes.com should burst the balloons of Scott and others who have been fulminating against legalized marijuana on unscientific grounds.  The tests we use for measuring the presence of THC, though, do not measure the level of impairment. They measure whether someone has used marijuana recently. If we legalize the drug, and more people use it, more people will register its recent use even when they are not impaired. So it should be expected that more people involved in car crashes will test positive even if no one is driving while high.

Using a synthetic control approach, Mr. Hansen and colleagues showed that marijuana-related fatality rates did not increase more after [two states passed] legalization than what you would expect from trends and other states.

In Vermont the THC saliva test may function best only to measure how hard Phil Scott is tapping the brakes on an issue he seems reluctant to support or thinks is moving too fast.

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