The Vermont Climate Council voted on the controversial recommendations of the Biomass Task Group it set up to resolve the question of how burning wood to generate electricity should be handled within the Climate Action Plan.
What happens then is a toss-up, and will decide whether S.5 becomes law or just the latest in a string of failed forced carbon emissions reduction bills.
While he didn’t win the race for New York governor last fall, Lee Zelden is largely credited with helping multiple GOP federal and state candidates win in the Empire State, including four U.S. House members.
On Friday, members of the House Environment and Energy Committee voted 8-1 against an amendment that would have forced them to reveal their positions on home-heating energy policy mandates ahead of the 2024 general election.
The Vermont House of Representatives on Thursday passed S.5, the clean heat standard bill, by a vote of 98-46. Every Republican present voted no. Only seven members listened to their constituents and broke with their parties to vote “no,” six Democrats and one Progressive.
Lee Zeldin spoke to the Chittenden County Republicans at a dinner in South Burlington Thursday night. Beforehand, Vermont Daily Chronicle asked him, “what can Vermont do to become a more Republican state?”
The governor appeared on the “Morning Drive” radio show Wednesday to discuss his stance on the budget proposal from the majority party in Montpelier — and he continues sounding the alarm on big new spending proposals.
Vermont continues to see spikes in housing prices with the median home price rising 15% in 2022, according to the Vermont Housing Finance Agency. Communities and state officials alike have spent a lot of time discussing how the growth of short-term rentals in Vermont has contributed to the state’s housing crisis.
Whether towns and cities can charge farms for stormwater utility fees is at the center of a bubbling debate between state agriculture officials and municipal leaders around Vermont.
Vermont municipal leaders and developers have given their support to a legislation aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing across the state through incentives. However, a decades-old law bubbled back up to the surface.
Advocates for S.5, dubbed “The Unaffordable Heat Act” by critics, continue to lament and challenge Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore’s estimate that the program will add $0.70 to each gallon of heating oil, propane, natural gas and kerosene.
Last week the Green Mountain Unified School Board took on the controversial topic of school mascots and political correctness.