About 11,500 Vermont homes and businesses lost power after gusty winds - the remnants of Hurricane Ike - blew through New England, downing trees and power lines.

Vermonters are going to be getting more electricity from garbage.

Vermont's four largest electric utilities believe the state needs new generating plants to replace at least some of the power they buy from outside sources. As VPR's Ross Sneyd reports, the companies say the plants should be powered by renewable energy, such as wood or wind.

Green Mountain Power wants to make it easier to build renewable projects; the U.N. honors a Vermont housing agency; the Vermont Food Bank is going into farming; state Rep. Jim Hutchinson has died.

Here are the top stories at 7:30 a.m.: The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given the green light for Entergy Corp. to spin off Vermont Yankee and four other nuclear plants to a newly created company;  Green Mountain Power says it ultimately wants to rely more on environmentally friendly power - and less on nuclear; The wood harvesting program that state officials plan to expand is a multiyear initiative to help Vermonters heat their homes...

Vermont's second largest electric utility has drawn up a plan for where it will get its power over the next quarter century. Green Mountain Power says it ultimately wants to rely more on environmentally friendly power - and less on nuclear. VPR's Ross Sneyd has more.

The outgoing chairman of a Vermont House committee that dealt with utility issues has taken a job with Vermont's second-largest power company.

Customers of Green Mountain Power Corp. who have been thinking about installing solar panels on their roofs now have a powerful new reason to do so: the opportunity to sell their excess electricity to the utility.