Advert for Clean Heat jobs shreds ‘S.5 is just a study’ line

By Rob Roper

When the legislature passed S.5 into law, “standing up” the Clean Heat Standard program, they appropriated funds to hire six full-time bureaucrats to … do what exactly? The Democrats who voted for the bill defend their unpopular decision by insisting S.5 is “just a study.” Nothing that will eventually cause your home heating fuel bill to spike an extra $0.70 to $4.00 per gallon as best estimates say it will.

Rob Roper

This party line talking point was again stubbornly put forward by Manchester Representatives Kathleen James (D), and Seth Bongartz (D) in a recent op-ed. To hear them tell it, “So instead of putting this program into place, S.5 commits the state to an intensive two-year fact-finding and design process. We’ll get the facts through impartial studies and draft the rules that would govern the proposed program. All of this information will come back to the legislature in 2025 to consider next steps.”

The Republicans who voted against the bill, including Governor Scott who vetoed it, argue, no, S.5 is not just a study. It immediately puts the Clean Heat Standard into law. Regardless of how the legislature votes in 2025 on the rules governing the program, the program will remain in place as the law of the land (unless, as is possible for any law, it is actively repealed.) So, who’s telling the truth?

Well, the first classified ad appeared on the Public Utilities Commission’s website seeking to fill its three newly authorized by S.5 Clean Heat Standard related positions: “one permanent staff attorney, one permanent analyst, and one limited-service (up to three years) analyst.” (The other three positions created for CHS work are in the Department of Public Service.)

Hmmm … Why is the PUC hiring two permanent employees and another to a three-year contract in order to perform just a study that’s due in eighteen months? Seems odd, no?

What will these folks be doing?

“All three new positions will focus on designing and implementing Vermont’s Clean Heat Standard. This is a performance-based standard recommended by the Vermont Climate Council, and recently enacted by the Vermont Legislature, that is intended to achieve Vermont’s thermal sector greenhouse-gas-emissions reductions necessary to meet the requirements of the Vermont Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020.” (Emphasis added.)

“Designing and implementing.” Not studying. Not fact finding. Implementing…. What else does the PUC say these jobs will entail?

“The recently enacted S. 5 requires the establishment of a “clean heat credit” evaluation program, a technical advisory group, an equity advisory group, a credit tracking and trading system, and a registration system.” (Emphasis added.)

“Requires the establishment” of all these elements of the program. Again, not just study. Not just design. The establishment.

The job description wraps up:

“Specific duties of the positions include conducting public process regarding the Clean Heat Standard; researching how to establish a system of tradeable clean heat credits; establishing a registration system and records requirements for obligated entities; reviewing filings related to the Clean Heat Standard; appointing and supervising one or more default delivery agents to provide statewide clean heat measures; developing program budgets; evaluating clean heat measure credit values; drafting proposed rules; representing the Commission at legislative committee hearings regarding the Clean Heat Standard; assisting in the development of Commission policies related to implementation and enforcement of the Clean Heat Standard; and managing consultants assisting with the Clean Heat Standard.” (Emphasis added.)

So, just a study? Just a fact-finding mission? Next steps come later? No, S.5 is definitely not these things. Anybody who tells you different is not telling you the truth. Money talks, and this is what the state is going to pay people to do.

The con game taking place now is the majority party passed an unpopular program while perpetuating the fiction to their voters that they didn’t actually pass it. My prediction for 2025, when the vote on the final rules takes place, is that they will reverse themselves and tell their constituents that the Clean Heat Standard is already in place, and they are powerless to repeal it. The question is, will Vermonters pay close enough attention to recognize the first charade, and remember well enough see through the next one.

Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

10 thoughts on “Advert for Clean Heat jobs shreds ‘S.5 is just a study’ line

  1. What??? The democrats and progressives lied???? What’s new. That is what they do. They also cheat, bully, defame and steal. That is their modus operandi. I wish the people who vote for these fools would WAKE UP!

    • Yup it their leftist commie mouth is moving their lying. Not a one of them has the decency or moral ground to admit they are going with the climate hoax come hell or high water. Bleeding more of your hard earned money to make themselves feel good about doing something while accomplishing absolutely nothing. Anyone voting for these band of liars is as guilty as the liars they keep electing. The minuscule amount of Co2 savings would be eaten up by the wild fires now burning in Canada or China/India continued building of Coal fired plants.

  2. MY OPINION: They slimed their way in with full intentions of implementing their plan to kill, crush, and destroy anything that we Vermonters might need, want or value. They have taken over.

    Has anyone taken a good luck at available VT real estate? From poor to very well off, people are fleeing. And so the usurpers rub their greedy hands in glee.

    In the mean time they have IMPORTED ILLEGAL ALIENS so we-the-people can feed, clothe, and house these fighting age invaders. Never mind the strong young chinese men coming in from the Canadian border.

    Am I the only one who knows that any and all available jobs in VT have been handed to the illegals????

    I am actually a 69 year old female on a cane. I have been censored for well over a dozen years. That’s how I fight. What are YOU doing??? Let me guess-binging on Netflix and popcorn?

    Very old call to arms:

    NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY.

  3. The German afd rightist party which typically did not have 5% of the vote, is expected to have about 30% of the vote in the next German Parliament, which would oust US patsie Scholz

    afd is anti NATO, anti weapons and money to Ukraine, pro nuclear and pro natural gas.

    The German people are grossly pi…d, the US blew up the Nordstream gas pipe lines.

    If it can be done in Germany, it can be done in Vermont, but the Dem/Progs ballot counters and machines and doctored voter lists have to be removed and mail out of ballots have to be ended

  4. So, at what point do you say we have had enough? They lie and you all take it, they abuse, obfuscate and dictate and you take it. Like an abuse victim you just lay there, ya don’t even flinch anymore.

  5. In the not far future, VT is going to PC, WOKE & Climate itself into a fiscal nightmare that cannot be solved easily. All WOKE is soon enough broke. Did you know that Texas is also a “PC” state? But Texas style “PC” means: “Prosperity & Commerce”. Texas has a $33 billion budget surplus and NO income tax. But property taxes high. Now TX is looking to cut in half and later hopefully eliminate them. That is what true PC “Prosperity & Commerce” can do for a State…Fiscal reality will be the “last at bat” for wastrel Socialist PC WOKE VT….it is only a few years away:

    “Gov. Greg Abbott says his goal is to eliminate homeowners’ property taxes in the state of Texas. He says it’s possible to achieve over time because of the significant economic growth of the state….they agreed to dedicate roughly half of the $33 billion surplus, $17 billion, to provide property tax relief. … This is a great problem to have, he notes, when other states like California are running double-digit deficits…. we will put Texans on the pathway to eliminate property taxes.”…. “Texas has the number one fastest growing economy in the United States of America. Our economy is now more than $2.3 trillion a year.”

    • @Jeff, I was told there were discussions a few years ago about VT and CA and their possibilities of bankruptcy. The meeting concluded that CA would be bailed ( too big to fail) but VT would not be bailed out. My question is what happens to a state if it’s bankrupt? What happens to personal property?

      • tboy…Federal Law has it that States are not allowed to declare bankruptcy….but Cities (BTV?) can declare bankruptcy. Vermont at some point will come close to the edge of it. It will be bailout of some kind, but not a real “bail” (they are free). It might entail low interest federal loans for billons, combined with strict oversight Boards created to monitor ALL VT (wastrel) SPENDING…and REMOVE ALL legislative authority.. By that time VT’s credit rating is WAY downgraded…maybe just above junk status. VT will still have a $5 billion pension and retiree health benefit…UNION & UNFUNDED..

        At the same time as a Fed “bail-up” loan, VT will have to raise taxes across the board, but small. But I predict that the Socialist Progressives WILL immediately raise taxes bigly on the 20% of upper incomes who already pay over 65% of ALL VT property & income taxes… and then THEY will start to leave VT ASAP…especially the older or near retirement ones…because it takes just six months & ONE day away in FLA – and you are a FLA resident – NO VT INCOME TAX….but the cherry-on-the-Socialist- cake… will be VT Socialists propose a WEALTH TAX (Calif is trying to propose one now). A wealth tax would be something like taking 1% annually of the total value of your HOME, bank accounts and all your investments. That is when VT goes from “PC” to “C&C”… Communist & Confiscation.

        It’s still a few years away to happen (covid money delayed it). VT will never again get the handful of FREE BILLIONS from the Fed Gov’t…and VT is pissing ALL of it away on nonsense Climate, Gender, BLM, DEI, ESG, LGBGQT and WOKE. I suggest to plan ahead and be out of VT before the fiscal crisis hits…because no one will want to move to VT – if all it is is taxes …no one will buy your house for anything near what you think it is worth…you will lose some of your long time equity…and thus not be able to get badly needed $ for your next house in a low tax state you exit to…and those houses just go up & up & up. VT houses peaked on the covid influx..and will not repeat.

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