“The (change in the) aesthetic criteria would allow us to build more new renewable energy,” said Ben Edgerly Walsh, climate and energy program director for VPIRG. “This is what the climate crisis demands, and that’s why we support it.” To Annette Smith, the amendment is “a very bad idea.”
South Burlington officials want to eliminate 60 percent of the city’s carbon footprint by 2030, and with transportation accounting for two-thirds of that figure, the city’s climate action plan finalized last October is pushing for more electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.
When Gov. Phil Scott vetoed S.5, the clean heat standard bill, he needed to convince at least one senator to change his or her position or four or five more representatives. In the end, no senators switched, and four representatives did — only to oppose Scott, not support him.
While our climate-crazed legislature advances toward full decarbonization of Vermont energy and its replacement with electricity, our main source of electricity — HydroQuebec — is warning that it’s facing demand that may be more than it can provide.
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.
The grid’s transmission capacity would need to grow 60% in less than seven years and grow 200% in less than 30 years. And this is just the grid infrastructure, not what would be needed to power it.
Needing a two-thirds majority vote to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of Senate Bill 5 on Thursday, the House of Representatives voted 107-42 to pass the measure, which one public policy group said could cost Vermonters billions of dollars in the coming years.
S.5 is clearly very regressive, leading race activists to criticize it strongly. But these experienced voices are trumped by children whose brains are undeveloped and who have never had to pay rent, heat or real estate taxes from money earned with their own labor.
The public policy group said that while 31% of those polled strongly opposed the bill, only 13% strongly supported the legislation.
Michelle Bloodworth, president of America’s Power, alleged that the rule was “designed specifically to cause the premature closure of coal power plants,” which she characterized as “one of our most dependable and affordable sources of electricity.”
One of the favorite talking points supporters of the Clean Heat Standard, S.5, like to pull out is that it will at most only add pennies to the cost of a gallon of heating fuel.
The Vermont Senate on Tuesday morning voted by the required two-thirds majority to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of S.5, the Affordable Heating Act.