Throughout January and February 2020, Vermont state officials and regional planning commission staff are hosting four public information meetings to discuss the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI).
On Jan. 24, the House Committee on Energy and Technology held a hearing on H.688, the Global Warming Solutions Act. Among the witnesses who gave testimony were Vermont Treasurer Beth Pearce, Mary Powell and Jen Duggan of the Conservation Law Foundation.
The Global Warming Solutions Act would simply bestow on state bureaucrats the power to force Vermonters to submit to an endless list of expensive and invasive rules to comply with arbitrary emissions goals, and eliminate any shred of our elected representatives’ accountability for those actions.
Debate over the Global Warming Solutions Act in the House Energy and Technology Committee grew philosophical about whether or not democracy is an appropriate form of government for dealing with climate change.
David Blittersdorf, CEO and founder of AllEarth Renewables, has become synonymous with industrial-scale wind power over the past decade, and for the second time in as many years, he’s calling it quits in Vermont.
Vermonters are more than willing to roll up our sleeves and work together on climate solutions that are sensible, affordable and that can be measured locally in the short term for accountability. But joining TCI would hobble us.
If TCI burns to the ground, our Legislature is going to feel pressure to “do something” they can spin as a positive step to solve climate change. And that “something” is likely to be the Global Warming Solutions Act.
A bill to create a legally enforceable system by which Vermont state government will reduce its statewide greenhouse gas emissions and establish strategies to mitigate climate risks and build resiliency will be the focus of the House Energy & Technology Committee this week.
Tens of millions of dollars are and will continue to be extracted from Vermonters in the name of climate change. Regarding how the dollars are spent, Vermonters will have no say. This is a bad precedent and only getting worse.
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.