This commentary is by Gregory Thayer of Rutland. He is a candidate for lieutenant governor.
Have you seen the price of gasoline at your local gas station pumps? This is the Vermont of Progressives and Democrats. I paid $3.69 per gallon two days ago. This is happening all across the Green Mountain State to working Vermonters already struggling with inflation at the marketplace, and every one of us is affected. This is eroding tour spending dollars. There is more to come under their Climate Initiative (Global Warming Solutions Act). The left does not listen to you; they hand out some “freebies” (i.e., cellphones, drugs, syringes, free health care, taxpayer money, etc.) and they got you!
Gregory Thayer
Solar and wind energy are never going to be able to power Vermont, let a lone all of America. The climate fear-mongers do not want you to know that the manufacturing, moving and upkeep of these products are made by, and dependent on, fossil fuel energy.
The unintended consequences of 100% alternative power by 2035 has some severe issues for people. Just imagine being one of the cars stranded on I-95 south last month for 23 hours in freezing weather in an electric car. Thousands of jobs will be lost, billions of dollars of tax revenues gone.
The cost to working Vermonters will crush family budgets. It will burn holes in your pockets just paying to put gas in your car and provide heat for your family. There will be no money for food, housing, loans, or any entertainment fun. This is the Progs/Dems’ plan for you; they want you controlled by government.
As I said at my campaign announcement on Jan. 27, on the steps of the People’s House at the State Capitol, that the legislators in the building do not care about you, and the consequences they put on you do not affect them. They do not care! The Progressives (socialists) in this building are pushing policies designed by their special interest bosses in Washington, D.C. These people do not care!
To the people who promote these far left, out of touch environmental policies — including the high school students that they get to rally — please study the entire issue. Read real data, not just the stuff they are showing you. Please educate yourself to real facts. Further, if you want to protest, protest the Paris Climate Accord, as it does nothing for the environment. Moreover, the two biggest climate offenders, China and India, have no environmental systems in place and have a waiver for 10 years not to comply with the rules of Paris Agreement. Why?
China is building coal-powered energy plants at a fast rate all around China, and many of the countries throughout Asia and Europe have their “Belt & Road Initiative.” Where is your fight on those fronts? Here in America our environment is highly regulated and enforced. Our CO2 levels are within normal basis, which is pretty good with a population of over 334 million people. Another fact: Vermont shuts down our nuclear plant in Vernon, and the CO2 levels double. Do you all understand the CO2 is widely needed for plant life and for human and animal life, too?
Vermont’s Climate Council is proposing an action plan that will stop growth, stop people from moving into our beautiful state, and force people to change their vehicles and their home and businesses heating systems. This will change life in the Green Mountain State.
As your next lieutenant governor, I will fight for a clean and safe environment — for the cleanest water and air, brooks, rivers and lakes every day. I will do it with the people of Vermont using Vermonters’ input and common sense. I will do it with less burdensome government regulations and tax structures. I believe 100% that we can have a clean and safe environment with strong economic development for every Vermonter. My family live, work and play here, too.
That is the purpose of every “green” action taken by the state: to deprive us of everything. All of the public advocating for this fail to see the outcomes. Take for instance the mandate for electric cars. Even were there enough charging stations in the state, government’s ban of all traditional energy will deplete production of electricity. Consider what that means for vehicle use AND power to homes & businesses. What was experienced in Texas will happen here on a grander scale and for longer periods.
Consider yourself lucky if $3.69 is what you have on gas prices.
I just drove past the gas station here in NH 10 minutes ago and it’s at $4.29 a gallon.
Get ready to saddle up the horses again!!
Over thirty years ago I took a tour of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, N.H.
Part of the tour was the ice core lab. It was very cold in there. A well-insulated woman was shaving thin slices off an ice core taken from a very extensive ancient glacier. Each slice represented an era of time. By analyzing the slices, scientists discovered a lot about the pre-historic climate conditions on earth.
They found that global warming is real and well documented. They found the same for global cooling. This cycle, from warmest to coolest, has occurred over at least the last 400,000 years. CO2 in the atmosphere tracks temperature, or vice versa, peaking at the warmest and bottoming out at the coolest.
This is a natural long-established occurrence, not a new man-created problem that, if we throw enough money at it, we can arrive at a “solution”, despite what our legislators believe.
We can not stop it, but we can learn to adapt to it.
The resources planned to be spent on unreliable alternative resources at great financial costs to us which will reduce our standard of living would be better spent on developing those adaptations
The government should immediately suspend the state and federal gas tax.