Gas prices are expected to remain high over the holidays and rural Vermont drivers will have to accommodate those added expenses despite President Joe Biden’s move to release strategic oil reserves.
Just before the Vermont Climate Council voted to pass its Climate Action Plan under the Global Warming Solutions Act, member Sean Brown, who is also Commissioner Department for Children and Families, issued this dire warning for rural Vermonters.
The Vermont Climate Council adopted the initial Vermont Climate Action Plan today. The plan will help Vermont meet the emissions reductions requirements outlined in the Global Warming Solutions Act and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Two weeks ago, the commission voted to reject a three-year energy efficiency plan and slashed funding for energy efficiency programs over the next two years, in a move aimed at providing relief to energy consumers who help fund the program.
Who expected the giving season to come in November rather than December? More surprising is the giver, the Governor’s Offices of Massachusetts and Connecticut. What a wonderful present, especially to those of us who are fossil fuels users.
The Global Warming Solutions Act created a 23-member Vermont Climate Council to develop a Climate Action Plan strict enough to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 80% over the next 28 years. Vermonters can weigh in on this collection of proposals during the coming legislative session, and on Election Day 2022.
What this means for Vermont is that a foundational component of the Climate Action Plan has been pulled out from under, calling into question both the overall viability of the plan and the judgment of the people putting it together.
Massachusetts and Connecticut abandoned the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) last week, citing high gas prices and irreconcilable differences. Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., also joined the agreement which promised to cut transportation emissions 25% and raise $3 billion for clean energy projects.
There’s an awful lot of reconstruction, adjustment and averaging done by somebody to produce this “hottest ever” report. The data adjusters at NOAA went for the most frightening headline and literally hundreds of news outlets trumpeted that statement.
The American Automobile Association’s gas prices tracker shows the national average of a gallon of regular gasoline is about $3.41, which is $1.20 more expensive than the same time last year.
What could be more out of touch with voters’ priorities than increasing prices at the pump when gasoline and diesel costs are at multi-year highs with no signs that they are coming down or even leveling off anytime soon? TCI wasn’t popular when gas prices were low.
“The Baker-Polito Administration always maintained the Commonwealth would only move forward with TCI if multiple states committed, and, as that does not exist, the transportation climate initiative is no longer the best solution for the Commonwealth’s transportation and environmental needs.”