By John McClaughry

The Unaffordable Heat Act is now law, the governor’s veto overridden by the Democratic supermajority. It can’t take effect, however, until the next General Assembly gives it the green light in January 2025.

In the week before the House vote, the Ethan Allen Institute polled 300 registered Vermont voters online and by telephone. Only 189 knew something about the bill but of those, 40% opposed the legislation, with only 27% favoring. That’s not a landslide of opposition, but it’s still surprising given the years-long climate crisis drumbeat by the environmental groups, backed by a compliant media and a near unanimous Democratic majority party, all urging spending billions of dollars to defeat the supposed Menace of Climate Change.

The Ethan Allen Institute also found that if respondents knew that the act would raise heating costs, 61% of those polled are against the bill’s implementation, while 26% gave strong or somewhat approval.

The poll also showed that 53% of those polled would vote against a senator or representative supporting the bill, but only 18% would vote for their representative who voted for it. .

The poll results show that 64% of those polled feel Scott’s veto should be upheld, while just 18% favored overriding the veto. It was however, overturned by both House and Senate, without a single Republican vote..

It will be interesting to see how the public’s view changes as the implications and enormous costs of the act appear over the next 18 months.

John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.