While S.5’s start has been postponed for two years, my wife and I are considering converting our 200-year-old home and our transportation needs to all-electric. We obtained cost estimates from our electrician and heating contractors, and from Tesla. Here are our discoveries.
Lawmakers who are intent on pushing through the clean heat standard have been stacking the deck against small, mom-and-pop fuel dealers who stand to lose the most if the clean heat standard becomes law.
If the result of implementing the Global Warming Solutions Act were to mean causing an electricity shortage and price spike in our most populous city/county, negatively impacting politically favored entities such as Burlington Electric, Vermont Gas and UVM, the GWSA would more than likely cease to be a viable state policy.
Marches, protests, anti-S.5 events with hundreds of folks in yellow vests. It paints a picture that will travel around the internet and the world. You’ll find advocates and experts in all corners willing to step up and point out why this won’t do what they say at any price.
A House bill introduced March 1 would have plans in place by 2026 to overhaul the entire Vermont economy into a “regenerative economy.”
Three Democrats, Sens. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, Bobby Starr, D-Orleans, and Irene Wrenner, D-Chittenden North, joined all seven Republicans in voting no. But the one vote everyone was watching was that of Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington.
The Affordable Heat Act with one amendment passed the Senate 19-10 on Thursday. However, opponents won a victory by forcing its supporters to attach an amendment which delayed a vote enacting the legislation until Jan. 15, 2025.
“The way in which the Clean Heat Standard is implemented including the way in which clean heat credits are priced and how incentives or subsidies are offered to households and businesses must be established before meaningful analysis is possible,” Gov. Phil Scott said.
“There is no economic study, no fiscal analysis of the Clean Heat Program, and S.5 currently contains no cost containment provisions. … I am concerned the Senate design will end in disaster,” Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore said.
The people have spoken. They don’t want a carbon tax on home heating fuel. And we don’t need to spend $1.75 million to find out that this whole scheme is unrealistic and unaffordable. It’s not. So, dear public servants, just kill the bill.
The Affordable Heat Act will increase income inequality and punish low and moderate income people, particularly our BIPOC population. It is an immoral, regressive surcharge on the most vulnerable among us.
Sen. Ruth Hardy’s attitude is, I’m not wrong. You are wrong. And I’m not going to pay attention to you — despite that being my job to represent your interests in state government. This is what democracy in Vermont looks like today.