McClaughry: Electric vehicles and African child labor
The average battery life on electric vehicles is about eight years. As to the use of cobalt mined by children in Africa for batteries, some EV batteries use little to no cobalt.
Cathy Dodge: Do we really want to change the Vermont Constitution — Part 3
As the previous two segments have demonstrated, because of the vague language we as Vermonters have much more to lose than abortion rights, which are already available in previous law. This segment will look at Costs to Taxpayers, Healthcare, and Who’s Watching Out for Abortion Survivors.
John Klar: Superintendent Millington violates Constitution in Chick-fil-A, BLM flag fight
Flying the BLM flag and policing students from wearing conservative messaging on their clothes (such as “There are only two genders,” “I love Chick-fil-A,” or “Let’s Go Brandon”) while permitting free speech to liberal views, is what has seeded this conflict.
Letter: ‘Sen. Mark MacDonald, you should apologize to every Vermonter and resign’
Vermonters would be wise to elect state senators who do not mock the people who pay their salaries. As for Sen. Mark MacDonald, you should apologize to every Vermonter and then resign.
McClaughry: ‘Ghost guns’ and murderers
“If prior offenders make up 90 percent of our murderers, and ‘ghost guns’ are involved in less than 1 percent of our murders, why are we concentrating on the ghost guns rather than on the murderers?” The answer, Williamson concludes, is “politics, theater and cowardice.”
Tom Evslin: Neither high energy costs nor dependence on Russia are acceptable
We must have both energy independence and a responsible climate policy. The good news is that we can have both without imposing soaring energy prices on those who can least afford them.
Roll Call: House imposes registration with fee for most rental housing
S.210, an act relating to rental housing health and safety and affordable housing, passed in the State House of Representatives on April 22, 2022, by a vote of 88-54.
Tom Harris: Earth Day obsessed with climate crusade — but the public is not
Based on an hypothesis about the causes of climate change, we are letting people suffer today so as to possibly help those yet to be born. As the public come to understand this, they will soon regard the climate crusade as fundamentally immoral.
Paul Dame: The problem with pensions is the pension system is patently unsustainable
Union representatives will tell workers that they “avoid the risk” by having a pension instead of a defined contribution plan, like a 401k. What Governor Scott and Republicans want is just to give our state employees a choice.
Sen. MacDonald says ‘get a blanket for Christ’s sake’ if you don’t like paying extra for heat
Coming off a long winter with record-high gasoline and heating oil prices, this flippant comment is far from amusing. Senators who would pass laws they can’t understand seem to have little understanding or compassion for the very real economic suffering of Vermonters.
Annette Smith: Getting past the hype of the clean heat standard
There is still time to contact your senators and ask them to table H.715 and let the $200 million they are allocating for clean energy do the real world work. Vermont does not need more gimmicks and convoluted energy policies and requirements to buy more stuff.
McClaughry: A Vermont Senate committee’s honest discussion of proposed heat standard
Yes, forcing your heating fuel distributor to buy clean heat credits will drive up the price of that fuel. And who will pay the higher price? You will. The senators now admit what I’ve been saying since early February: It’s a stealth carbon tax.