The Vermont Climate Council voted on the controversial recommendations of the Biomass Task Group it set up to resolve the question of how burning wood to generate electricity should be handled within the Climate Action Plan.
On April 7, I was able to do an interview with Annette Smith of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, who received a response from the Public Utility Commission regarding their public records request on the Clean Heat Standard Working Group documents.
“I did not vote yes for the things I did not have the ability to do a deep dive in. And I think there is some confusion in the public regarding that. … I will never go into the public and say that as a climate councilor I was behind the Clean Heat Standard, because I’m not.”
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.
I’m realistic enough to know H.74 will not be considered in today’s political majority in Montpelier. However, I will not stop in advocating for a balance in what Vermonters can achieve and afford in efforts to reduce our green house gas emissions.
More than a dozen House Republicans are looking to repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act and scrap the Vermont Climate Council.
Several witnesses (and basic math) are on record that Vermont is not on track to achieve those reductions by the first milestone in 2025, nor the second milestone in 2030, so the anticipated lawsuit now appears inevitable.
Sen. Rebecca White’s Clean Fuel Standard would require fuel providers to gradually reduce the carbon intensity of motor fuels by mandating an increase in the amount of biofuel blend motor fuel that is sold in state.
On Tuesday, Annette Smith, executive director for Vermonters for a Clean Environment, testified before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy regarding Vermont’s plans to meet ambitious reduction targets for carbon dioxide emissions.
Even if Vermont reduces GHG emissions to zero by 2050, the total reduction between now and then would be just over 100 million metric tons — one day’s worth of world emissions. So, nothing Vermont does will have any measurable impact on world climate.