Vermont Yankee

So, this weekend I've been in the homegrown capital of the world known as Montpelier VT. We had our practicum weekend which is pretty much a crash course in organizing on foot. 19 GC students worked with VPIRG (Vermont's Public Interest Research Fund)to use grassroots organizing to get the people of VT to shut voice that they want to shut Vermont Yankee down. So, Vermont Yankee is a nuclear reactor that opening in 1972 in VT. The plant is dirty, dangerous, and unreliable. Last year one of its cooling towers collapsed, they have documented 76 cracks in their steam dryer, their have been three fires in Vermont Yankee's tranformer station. So, the nuclear waste sits on the banks of the Connecticut River where it will likely stay indefinitely. The company is a huge corporation based out of Louisiana, despite the fact that they have been running pricey ads in local newspapers with the headline "Vermonter to Vermonter," claiming to be a homegrown business. The plant is trying to renew their permit, that will expire in 2012, for another 20 years, and we think the legislature should 'shut er down' as we say in the south. So, we went door to door trying to get businesses to endorse us and getting people to send letters to their representatives to tell them how they feel. We had 54 businesses sign on and over 100 letters sent out, and we held a press event the next morning where we had a great press turn out. Very exciting weekend. I'm excited to be in VT, but the capital is SOO small, it's like a very tiny Asheville. It's like hippy town USA, very homegrown. But I love it.