When People and Money Leave (and the Plant Stays) – Lessons Learned from the Closure of the Vermont Yankee Power Station: A Tri-Region Experience

Friday, October 14, 2015 2:00 PM

Brooks House Atrium, Brattleboro, VT

Live stream beginning at 1:45 PM facebook/sovermont

Download the report here.

Comments: U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy – Vermont; U.S. Congressman Peter Welch – Vermont; U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Matt Erskine; Adam Grinold, Executive Director – Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation

Presentation: Chris Campany, Executive Director – Windham Regional Commission; Linda Dunlavy, Franklin County – Regional Council of Governments, Tim Murphy, Executive Director – Southwest Region Planning Commission; Laura Sibilia, Director of Economic Development – Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation

This is a harvest of the “lessons learned” by the Tri-State Region team comprised of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments in Massachusetts, the Southwest Region Planning Commission in New Hampshire, and the Windham Regional Commission and Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation in Vermont in the wake of the closure of the Vermont Yankee (VY) Nuclear Power Station.  The Windham Region is host to the nuclear power station itself, while together the Tri-State Region area is home to the vast majority of those employed by the plant and where the loss of VY employees, employee income, as well as indirect and induced job loss, will be most acutely experienced.

We hope our experience will empower the reader to better know:

1. The types of questions you’ll have and want to ask.

2. The kinds of information you’ll want to gather or develop.

3. Things to keep in mind when organizing to act.

While the discussion here relates specifically to the closure of a nuclear power station in a rural area, the lessons learned are applicable to any locale that will or could lose 1) a major employer; 2) a major source of local earned income; 3) a major contributor to the local tax base; and 4) a major contributor to charitable organizations in terms of both funding and volunteer time.  There are also lessons to be learned about a major employer whose site and physical plant present land use and orderly redevelopment questions including plant decommissioning, site restoration, the presence of hazardous materials, and complex regulatory frameworks.