Carbon tax study estimates impact on real Vermonters
Analysts generally agree that the ESSEX Plan carbon tax will burden Vermonters who need to travel and heat their homes, but a new study from the Ethan Allen Institute finally reveals how much.
Jerry Brown plan for ‘negative’ CO2 emissions based on ‘science fiction’
California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order Monday mandating “carbon neutrality” by 2045, then ordering the state to “maintain net negative emissions thereafter.”
Hurricane Florence is ‘nature’s business,’ not global warming, scientist says
“Major hurricanes are business as usual for nature, just uncommon,” Roy Spencer wrote in a blog post published Monday. Spencer is a climate scientist at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.
Report: Paris climate accord backers are just ‘outsourcing’ CO2 emissions to China
The report, funded by the ClimateWorks Foundation, found that countries are increasingly “outsourcing” their emissions to other countries, like China and India.
Utilities warn solar subsidies could mean higher electricity bills for everyone
Electric utilities in Vermont are speaking out against the state’s solar subsidies, calling the current rules needlessly expensive for companies and ratepayers.
Recycling may not be as financially green as Vermonters think
Since Vermont’s recycling law passed in 2012, the expectation has been that newspapers, cardboard, cans and bottles must be separated from trash to be shipped off to places like China and processed into new materials. Now the costs are rising dramatically, and policymakers must reassess the viability of recycling.
Court order for EPA to ban pesticide spotlights need for ‘transparency’ rule
The rule, called “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science,” would require the EPA to publish the scientific data behind regulations so that the information would be available for public scrutiny.
State Headliners: Solar power nice to ratepayers during hot weeks, but a burden otherwise
It’s OK for the renewable power industry to celebrate when they help keep power costs low, but ratepayers need to know that, at present and on average, solar power has the opposite effect.
Coal association VP celebrates end of Obama’s war on coal, credits Trump EPA
“We just saw nothing but the, you know, the type of consequences you find when you have a president utilizing every resource available to him to ratchet down and do away with the coal industry.”
McClaughry: Congressman Welch and fuel efficiency
If “consumers are demanding greater fuel efficiency in vehicles,” what’s stopping them from buying all-electric Teslas? Especially when they get a $7,500 Obama credit for doing so?
McClaughry: The Perfect Little Climate Conscious State
The report advocates practically every proposal urged on Vermonters by the environmental phalanx since 1970, plus a number of new enthusiasms sparked by the debatable belief that human carbon dioxide emissions are driving the planet toward heat death.
California set to vote on 100 percent renewable by 2045 energy policy
SB 100 would dramatically reform California’s energy mix, mandating a 50 percent renewables target by 2026 and then a 60 percent target by 2030. By 2045, the bill calls for all of the state’s energy consumption originate from zero-carbon sources.