Our legislators are voting to make a law that will radically transform not just our economy but our entire way of life, not really knowing what it is they’re voting for. They don’t know how it works, they don’t know what it will do, they don’t know what it will cost.
The clean heat standard would intentionally make every kind of home heating fuel more expensive — but we just don’t know how to calculate the increase, or what the total amount will be. It’s one of those common Democrat tactics where they have to pass the bill before they can find out what it does.
“The legislature needs to revisit the Global Warming Solutions Act and expand the narrow priority of the emissions reduction. Any representation that the language in the Climate Action Plan is fully supported by all the Climate Council members, I don’t think is accurate,” Smith said.
Democrats have concocted a “Fake Check” amendment which would allow the PUC to implement a sweeping and costly Clean Heat Standard without a roll call vote of the legislators. They think they can kill the accountable Check Back legislative vote and rally all Democrats to overturn a Scott veto.
So there you have it. H.157 will undermine the Clean Heat Standard by reducing the number of workers available who have the expertise to install heat standard friendly heat pumps, solar water heaters and the like.
H.157 would create a fee-based registry for Vermont’s small contractors, based on the theory that home improvement fraud is a massive problem and consumers don’t have a good way to protect themselves.
The question the Vermont Climate Council and legislators are attempting to answer using schemes like the CHS is not, “How do we heat homes and power cars without fossil fuels?” Rather it’s, “How do we get most Vermonters to live in smaller homes and drive fewer cars?”
The Vermont Climate Council is holding public forums on April 12 and April 13 to share information about its ongoing work and to hear from Vermonters across the state. Vermont’s Initial Climate Action Plan (CAP) was adopted on December 1, 2021.
The lightbulb went off over the heads of the members of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee that the Clean Heat Standard bill only deals with thermal emissions. Not transportation emissions as well. This did not go down well.
“Anyone that sells an electron, produces an electron, counts an electron, distributes an electron or sells a device that needs electrons, they are winning, big time,” Cota said. “Who are the losers? Don’t look that far.”
How is the PUC going to be able to verify that these half a million actions take place all over the state, assign a unique credit value and shelf life to each, and broker sales, track the ownership of, and then retire those credits when they expire?
The planning director for the Vermont Department of Public Service told the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday that while some estimates can be made, officials ultimately don’t know the impact a clean heat standard will have on Vermonters.