Lynch: pROTECT bLue Cross SUBSCRIbers

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch is urging Governor Carcieri to protect subscribers of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island from any interruption of treatment or unnecessary costs that may result if Blue Cross and Care New England Health Systems fail to resolve their contract impasse. The contract that places the CNE facilities — Women & Infants Hospital, Butler Hospital, Kent County Memorial Hospital, and VNA of CNE — in the Blue Cross network expires on Dec. 31. Lynch encouraged the governor to involve the Office of Health Insurance Commissioner, as well as the Department of Health, to break the deadlock.

DBR’s online service wins national acclaim

The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation’s online liquor product label registration service has been named a 2008 Excellence Award winner by the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council. The annual awards recognize innovative government electronic programs that have produced measurable improvements in the delivery of services. The winners included five states, one county and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Rhode Island’s Certificate of Compliance Product Label Renewal application was recognized in the “innovative use of the Web in government management practices” category. The application was developed by DBR’s Division of Commercial Licensing & Racing & Athletics, in partnership with RI.gov, the state’s official Web site and online services provider.

Shellfishing aid available to Mass., N.H., Maine

The federal government says $5 million in disaster aid is available to the shellfishing industry in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire after this year’s red tide outbreak. Shellfishing areas were shut down around New England after the toxic algae bloom started in May off Massachusetts and spread north. Eating shellfish with high levels of the toxin can cause potentially lethal paralytic shellfish poisoning. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service said this week that Maine and Massachusetts are eligible for up to $2 million each, while New Hampshire is eligible for up to $1 million. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez declared a commercial fishery failure on Friday following a request by Massachusetts Governor Patrick. The states must now submit plans to NOAA for using the money.

Appeals court upholds N.H. prescription law

A federal appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation law making doctors’ prescription writing habits confidential. The ruling this week by the 1st U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston overturns one last year in New Hampshire saying the law unconstitutionally infringed on free speech. The appeals court said the law, intended to thwart hard-sell tactics by drug companies to doctors, is a valid step to promote the delivery of cost-effective health care. “Even if the Prescription Information Law amounts to a regulation of protected speech — a proposition with which we disagree — it passes constitutional muster,” the court said. Drug companies use the information to target and tailor sales pitches to particular doctors. Patients’ names are not included in the data. Less than a month after the law took effect in 2006, IMS Health Inc., of Norwalk, Conn., and Verispan LLC, of Yardley, Pa., sued to have it declared unconstitutional.

MIT to launch Future Storytelling center

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory in Cambridge has announced the creation of the Center for Future Storytelling, made possible through a seven-year, $25-million commitment from Plymouth Rock Studios, a motion picture and television studio that is slated to open in Plymouth in 2010. Research will range from on-set motion capture to accurate merger of human performers and digital character models; to technologies such as interactive, expressive robotic or animated characters; to holographic TV. It will draw on technologies pioneered at the Media Lab, such as digital systems that understand people at an emotional level, or cameras capable of capturing the intent of the storyteller.

In Mass., a longer road for farm tractors

Notoriously impatient Massachusetts drivers now have another reason to gripe. Farm tractors that were previously allowed to plug along state roads for just 2 miles are now allowed to go up to 10 miles. The new rule that took effect last week was part of the Massachusetts Dairy Farm Revitalization Bill enacted in August. State Agriculture Department assistant commissioner Scott Soares called the change “a minor inconvenience” that helps farmers who often travel between scattered plots.

Mass. firm to improve PA. school’s efficiency

Westboro, Mass.-based NORESCO, a developer of energy-saving programs and on-site energy management, has been chosen by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education to implement $5.9 million in energy and building system upgrades at Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pa. Key benefits of the project are improved energy and water efficiency, reduced energy and operating costs, greater system reliability and improved working, living and learning conditions for building occupants. Developed as a guaranteed energy-savings agreement, the project will be funded by guaranteed cost savings over a 15-year term. This self-funding mechanism reduces the level of capital appropriations needed to pay for energy infrastructure improvements. Annual cost savings at KU will exceed $700,000. Emissions of carbon dioxide, a contributor to global climate change, are expected to drop by close to 5.5 million pounds each year, equivalent to removing more than 1,000 cars from the road or planting almost 1,300 acres of trees.

Development of efficient engine to continue

ReGen Power Systems LLC, of New Salem, Mass., has closed a significant equity financing that will enable it to continue development of its low-temperature differential engine to convert waste industrial heat to power. The $5-million investment, by 21Ventures LLC and the Quercus Trust, will finance the design and fabrication of two prototype engines. The first will be a 10kW engine for evaluation and testing. The second will be a 500kW engine to be installed at a corporate user site for field testing. “As an external combustion engine, our design will be capable of using a wide range of heat sources to produce power,” said company president Ricardo Conde. “Not only will the engine use ‘free’ fuel,” he said, “but its use will produce power without producing a single molecule of greenhouse gas.”

Vt. utilities searching for new power sources

Vermont’s three largest electric utilities have issued a joint request for new power supply proposals, casting a net across the Northeast and Canada, and the state’s two largest utilities have issued an additional request for bids to supply more energy in case Vermont Yankee is unavailable. Central Vermont Public Service, Green Mountain Power and Vermont Electric Cooperative said the solicitations would be the first of several staggered RFPs issued over the next couple of years. The three companies rely heavily on energy from Hydro-Quebec and Vermont Yankee, but contracts with both suppliers end between 2012 and 2016. Vermont Yankee’s license, which expires in 2012, is being considered for renewal. While contract negotiations are under way for new power supplies with both those suppliers, the utilities are also planning to take this opportunity to diversify their portfolios in the years ahead.