Scott indicated that when the clean heat standard policy, costs and impacts are more fully worked out, a “revised” CHS might yet win his support. That was not encouraging news to the fuel dealers and their customers who will pay the CHS bill.
Humility will be required to admit that the Global Warming Solutions Act is a failure; courage will be required to repeal it. Neither animates Montpelier.
Aside from the minuscule amounts of emissions from heating by Vermont households, what VPIRG doesn’t explain is the unfeasibility of the alternative heating systems touted in the Clean Heat Standard, something EAI pointed out last December.
Almost immediately, Rep. Bock reportedly experienced serious pressure from the House Democratic leadership to change his vote — something allowed under little-known House rules. “I cannot imagine why I would change my vote,” Bock told the Vermont Daily Chronicle.
H.715, a bill that would have mandated a switch of heating methods and fuels in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, fell one vote short of the two-thirds required for passage Tuesday in the Vermont House of Representatives.
The vote is likely going to be first thing tomorrow morning so it is imperative you call today and make sure to get that message to them as soon as possible. Keep it simple.
“What the Legislature has passed is a bill that includes some policy, with absolutely no details on costs and impacts, and a lot of authority and policy making delegated to the Public Utility Commission (PUC), an unelected board.”
Our best hope now is a veto from Governor Scott who has indicated that the bill does not have his support. But after that we need to put pressure on just a few Democrats or Independents to sustain his veto of this new tax.
H.715, an act relating to the clean heat standard, passed in the State House of Representatives on May 3, 2022, by a vote of 88-37. It obligates the PUC to design the Clean Heat Standard program, and then check back with the Legislature in 2023 and 2024.
H.715, an act relating to the clean heat standard — Bray Amendment — passed in the State Senate on April 28, 2022, by a vote of 23-7.
Senate lawmakers decided against adding further amendments to the clean heat standard bill H.715 Friday morning before it passed on third reading on the Senate floor.
Coming off a long winter with record-high gasoline and heating oil prices, this flippant comment is far from amusing. Senators who would pass laws they can’t understand seem to have little understanding or compassion for the very real economic suffering of Vermonters.