Vermont utility regulators are temporarily softening environmental rules at Vermont’s two wood-burning power plants to help stabilize the logging industry. State officials say the $2.3 billion wood products industry is in a perilous situation after one of the region’s largest paper mills announced in July it will no longer purchase local wood scraps to make its paper. The rule change, announced earlier this month, will allow McNeil Generating Station in Burlington and Ryegate Power Station in the Northeast Kingdom to buy wood that had been destined for that paper mill, even if it comes from timber harvests that have not been inspected by fish and wildlife officials for impacts to wetlands and habitat for endangered species. The Finch Paper Mill in Glens Falls, New York, used to buy some 2,000 tons of “pulpwood” scraps from Vermont loggers and mills each week before its July announcement.