plus 3, Auto racing: Daytona 500 resumes after lengthy track repair - Honolulu Advertiser

Auto racing: Daytona 500 resumes after lengthy track repair - Honolulu Advertiser
Vermont utility pulls out stops to gain wind project approval - Burlington Free Press
Auto racing: Daytona 500 halted for track repair - Honolulu Advertiser
Race resumes after red flag, track repairs - Raleigh News & Observer

Auto racing: Daytona 500 resumes after lengthy track repair - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 02:21 PM PST

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Daytona 500 has resumed after a 1 hour, 40 minute delay because of a pothole in the pavement, an embarrassing setback for NASCAR's biggest race.

It was unclear how or when the hole developed on an area between turns one and two, but officials stopped Sunday's race with 78 laps remaining in the 200-lap season-opening race.

Cars parked on pit road for about 30 minutes, then NASCAR allowed drivers to get out of their cockpits for a break. Track workers patched the hole, which was about 18 inches long and 8 inches wide.

NASCAR chairman Brian France said moisture and cooler-than-normal temperatures made repairs difficult and slow.

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Vermont utility pulls out stops to gain wind project approval - Burlington Free Press

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 02:28 PM PST

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Myers has become an enthusiastic supporter and agreed to be featured in one of GMP's radio advertisements. She likes both the clean energy, she said, and the tax benefits.
"All you hear around here is people complaining about their taxes. Here is an opportunity to help us out with our taxes," she said.

Hills roll up to the east and west of Lowell village, a handful of houses and small businesses scattered along Vermont 100 about 15 miles from the Canadian border. Farms, forestry and an asbestos mine a few miles south once provided plenty of work.
Now the mine is closed; all but four farms have sold their cows. Small auto repair businesses and the like offer some work; most people commute out of town for jobs, some all the way to Chittenden County.
Unemployment in 2008 stood at 10.7 percent, more than double the state average. Median family income in 2007 was 11th lowest in Vermont.

To many people in Lowell, Green Mountain's wind project comes with no downside.

"Clean energy made sense to me. The fuel is free and plentiful," said Tetreault, 66, a retired dairy farmer who was enthusiastic about developing wind energy well before he and his wife, Gert, went to work for the utility. They receive a $1,500 a month stipend from Green Mountain Power for organizing community support, for use of their home as a local base of operations and to cover expenses they incur.

"I find them so majestic," Gert Tetreault said one day last week, referring to the wind turbines. She added more wood to the stove in the couple's home on Vermont 100, across the road from an electric substation. "When you really see them they are beautiful — I just like them."
Amber Chambers, a Lowell resident, had stopped by the Tetreaults' home with a letter to the editor ready to mail in praise of the wind project. "We need the energy and Lowell needs the tax money," the letter concluded.
Green Mountain Power believes the ridgeline will accommodate at least 18 turbines, perhaps as many as 24. Each would have a capacity of 2.5 to 3 megawatts, although they would not generate at maximum capacity most of the time.
The company has signed a lease for three miles of ridgeline with landowner Trip Wileman. If the town votes "yes" March 2, the utility hopes to submit an application for state approval by April.
Green Mountain's information campaign lays heavy emphasis on the project's in-state control and benefits. That's reflected in the development's name, Kingdom Community Wind, and in the utility's pledge that all the electricity will be used in Vermont.
The company will sell 10 megawatts of the power, at cost, to Vermont Electric Co-op, the utility serving Lowell. GMP will retain the rest for its customers.
Wind energy would mean a windfall for the town. Green Mountain will make annual payments to Lowell of $400,00 to $535,000, depending on the number and capacity of turbines installed.
Lowell's town budget this year is $424,501. Town Treasurer Pam Tetreault made some calculations. She said she assumed the town would not choose to eliminate town taxes altogether. If the current municipal rate of 50 cents per $100 of assessed value was reduced to just 4 cents, the owner of a $200,000 home would save $920 — about one-third of the homeowner's combined town and school tax bill, she said.

Don Nelson, 68, has lived on the lower slopes of Lowell Mountain since he was 6 months old. His 600-acre farm could be a Vermont postcard: rolling fields, red barn, 160-year-old white farmhouse, forests that run up to the ridgeline behind the house.
The 440-foot-tall turbines of Kingdom Community Wind would loom over his home.

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Auto racing: Daytona 500 halted for track repair - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 14 Feb 2010 01:45 PM PST

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The Daytona 500 has resumed after a 1 hour, 40 minute delay because of a pothole in the pavement, an embarrassing setback for NASCAR's biggest race.

It was unclear how or when the hole developed on an area between turns one and two, but officials stopped Sunday's race with 78 laps remaining in the 200-lap season-opening race.

Cars parked on pit road for about 30 minutes, then NASCAR allowed drivers to get out of their cockpits for a break. Track workers patched the hole, which was about 18 inches long and 8 inches wide.

NASCAR chairman Brian France said moisture and cooler-than-normal temperatures made repairs difficult and slow.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.