BRATTLEBORO — Last week, Gov. Peter Shumlin and Public Service Department Commissioner Christopher Recchia announced the receipt of $5.3 million from Entergy Vermont Yankee for the development of clean energy.
Half of the money that Entergy deposited into the Public Service Department's Clean Energy Development Fund (CEDF) will be earmarked for Windham County projects.
How will that money be used? That will be the subject of a public hearing that will be held on May 14, at 5:30 p.m., in the multipurpose room at Brattleboro Union High School.
After a brief presentation on the CEDF, its goals and mission, and the types of clean energy projects it has supported in the past, the CED Board will take questions and comments.
The CEDF is particularly interested in investing in the development of the distributed generation clean energy sector of the Vermont and Windham economies in coordination with state and regional economic development organizations.
CEDF fund manager Andrew Perchlik said last week that “these are the last funds the CEDF expect to receive from Entergy and we want to be sure to leverage these dollars to achieve maximum economic and clean energy benefit to the state and Windham County.”
Shumlin and Recchia also confirmed last week that Entergy has deposited $10 million as its first payment into the Vermont Yankee Site Restoration Fund.
Both the CEDF and Site Restoration Fund payments were part of the Settlement Agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Entergy and the state signed in December 2013.
“We are pleased that with these deposits Entergy VY has completed its financial commitments for this year, all in accordance with the terms of the Agreements” said Recchia in a prepared statement. “The Public Service Board's decision to uphold its earlier endorsement of the Agreement made moving forward with these payments possible.”