At least one legislator is willing to admit it: vehicle feebates are carbon taxes. Worse, he admits feebates may not even stay in Vermont. They could end up in the pockets of out-of-state billionaires funding green energy.
If New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island don’t participate in the TCI program, that would leave Massachusetts — whose governor, Charlie Baker, is probably TCI’s biggest booster — completely isolated.
All four of the top-tier Democratic presidential candidates — Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — have released climate plans that call for massive spending, an overhaul of the fossil fuel industry and increased standards for renewable energy.
Elizabeth Rowe, vice chairwoman of the Pownal Selectboard, called for Marlena Pellon, Jenny Dewar, Michael Slattery, Syd Smithers, Crystal Gardner and Shannon McLenithan to resign from their positions.
The real beneficiaries of this scheme to tax Vermonters for their fuel use are the rich and powerful. State government, with an annual budget totaling over 1.5 billion and a workforce of over 8,000, will grow bigger, administering complex regulations proposed by the initiative.
The Vermont Council on Rural Development has launched a new leadership program for Vermonters working to create climate solutions at the local level.
Any revenue raised through taxes or licenses that raise the costs of fossil fuels should be used in two ways. One is that some other tax should be reduced to offset the revenue. A second is that the additional revenue should be re-distributed to working Vermonters and small Vermont businesses.
Fight global warming by growing more trees and selling their “carbon sequestration” value to climate-conscious carbon emitters? Vermont should move forward — carefully. That’s the gist of the final report of a legislative study committee published Jan. 4.
Officials who manage Glacier National Park are swapping out signs warning visitors that climate change would cause the park’s glaciers to disappear by 2020, CNN reported Wednesday.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has announced his support for three key pieces of legislation that address clean energy needs in New Hampshire, calling them a home run for ratepayers and the environment.
Even a casual look at the regional plan to make Vermont drivers pay 5-20 cents per gallon more at the pump for gasoline and diesel would tell you TCI really should stand for “tax carbon incessantly.” This session, most Vermonters would be happy if TCI stood for “tax cut instead.”