This commentary is by Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont GOP.

This week the Democrat-controlled Senate is preparing to burden Vermonters with a new tax, and they are about to do it with zero Republican input. I wrote a few weeks ago that Senate Pro Tem Philip Baruth had broken longstanding tradition to unfairly and inappropriate stack the deck in the Senate to ensure that there was not a single Republican on the Natural Resources Committee when they put forward a new carbon tax. According to the committee schedule the die is cast for this massive new tax to get rolled out this week.

Senate Bill S.5 is the remix of the old vetoed “Clean Heat Standard,” but since Democrats love to advance the same old, broken ideas — just under new terms for better branding — they are now taking the Orwellian approach of calling it the “Affordable Heat Act.”

Paul Dame, chairman of the Vermont GOP

But the fact is that the Unaffordable Heat Act will be twice as expensive for Vermonters as the failed Clean Heat Standard. First of all, it will pressure Vermonters through multiple means to buy a brand new heating system. Depending on the system, it could cost Vermonters an out-of-pocket expense of upwards of $20,000 to come in to compliance with the new standards. This could include buying a brand new heat pump. Many of these systems have limitations in the kind of cold weather we had last week with temperatures at -20. Ironically they can also cause users to consume more electricity in the summer when peak loads are already high, because they also double as an air conditioning system.

Chairman Chris Bray opposes some of these figures because they count the cost on the front end. He made it clear in his remarks that he expects Vermonter to go in to debt and borrow money to make the necessary upgrades. This could actually make the project even more expensive over time in an environment that has seen rising borrowing costs.

In addition to a four-to-five figure upfront cost, some stakeholders are estimating that Vermonters could be paying 70 cents to possibly a dollar per gallon extra for home heating fuel. This comes on top of an additional nearly doubling of fuel prices, spurred in part by a national energy policy that has left energy developers hesitant to explore and develop to bring in new supply.

The movement of this bill, and its nearly guaranteed passage on Friday, is anther example of why single party rule does not produce the best outcomes. Democrats are intentionally choosing to relegate any opposition to token testimony, and barring any Republicans from the committee so that they can’t influence the agenda, testimony and actual legislation until it comes out on the Senate floor with a pre-arranged 5-0 vote.

Democrats do not want to see an exchange of ideas; they are once again imposing their will on the people, and won’t permit a discussion of sound reason that might slow them down on their way.