Last Friday, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy met with Xusana Davis, Vermont’s executive director of racial equity, on how racial equity themes play into energy policy as they work through the Affordable Heat Act.
While Davis was adamant that the economic health of the lower class and minority communities should be protected from the bill’s impact, she called for “high enough” penalties for energy producers that fail to meet carbon emission reduction targets.
Xusana Davis, Vermont’s executive director of racial equity
“We recommend to make sure that … these penalties are high enough that they would actually be meaningful to these entities and not just written off as another cost to the business,” Davis said.
When speaking more about these penalties, she alluded to oil spills of the past.
“I suppose that depends on how much you care about ducks being covered in oil — ducks being covered in oil don’t like it. Make these penalties [sufficient],” Davis said.
Green tech not always green?
The racial equity director also suggested that in some cases, energy advertised initially as ‘green’ can be misleading.
“We are still learning every day more and more about some of these options, and something that we thought was really ‘green’ ends up being less green than we thought it was. We don’t want people to feel that we are too locked into those solutions,” Davis said.
She added that the bill, S.5, should have some language that indicates “pending the science” as these technologies are explored.
She also made the point that, as she currently sees the bill, there’s nothing that guarantees the primary cost burden won’t fall on lower- and middle-income residents.
“We couldn’t find language in this bill that indicates that the legislature has considered how low- or middle-income residents are expected to pay the upfront costs of any of this,” Davis said, adding that she wanted more information on the cost of new green policies.
“I think upfront costs is really important, and thinking about how that’s going to impact low- and moderate-income people is a big one,” she said.
Lawmaker says the oil/gas companies will support the poor
Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor, suggested that carbon-emitting energy companies will ultimately be forced to take care of their customers’ well-being during this transition. She also acknowledged that green tech is substantially subsidy-driven, not market driven.
“What I was impressed by is when we had a marketplace around renewable energy credits [subsidies taken directly from carbon-emitting energy producers], or when we have a marketplace that is looking at new technology, the cost goes down very quickly in what we’ve seen with solar panels,” she said.
White suggested that the carbon-emitting companies will be “required to support low- and moderate-income Vermonters” but didn’t explain how these added costs won’t be passed on to the users of these products.
After these comments, Davis acknowledged again that the cost of this program is going to be a big hurdle, and suggested using more subsidies.
“I definitely agree with finding creative solutions — use what we have, whether it’s from federal or state dollars or other funds,” she said. “And also I just want to make sure that when it’s all said and done, the first people are not still the same people who have always been more likely to have access to these types of programs in the first place.”
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
while you’re at it, make sure you fire any white state employee for singing rap music.
Some state police are on leave while an investigation is on going of their music choice, taste and abilities.
If we have any cultural appropriation, perhaps we should have some jail time. City folk singing country music……not only will we take your dog, we’ll throw you in the slammer.
BIPOC playing some bourgeois Mozart, we’ll get you immediately in social programming courses and psychological assistance. Further incidents will result in jail time.
We must monitor all music, microphones will be placed in people’s cars and showers! We can’t have any white people rapping!
IT’s happening in Vermont today, we’ve got trouble right here in Rivercity!!!!!!
https://vtdigger.org/2023/02/24/2-state-troopers-placed-on-paid-leave-during-investigation-into-racist-misogynistic-language-at-off-duty-gathering/
For Vermont to have a “Social Equity Director” is to confirm that there was not Social Equity in Vermont.
Where was the evidence for this prior to this hire on the taxpayers dime?
And who got to decide that evidence was evidence?
Or was this all part of the “Keep Vermont Weird” Movement?
You don’t get equity if you haven’t invested anything.
The race baiter moron was just whining about the cost of gwsa to the poc’s last week now she want’s to whack companies with higher penalties using scare tactics like “ducks covered in oil”. Does ol susana not have a clue about how finance works? Crap runs downhill and imposing more cost on business makes their product more expensive to all that use it, including poc’s. Stick with your whitey hate mongering ’cause you suck at finance.
all they want to do is vote this in and they dont have all the answers on how it will all work. so they can just make it up as as they go alongl
NO NO NO Vote No
People talk about mis-tagging energy as “green”, including nuclear, natural gas, biomass, and wood.
Wind and solar are surely not carbon free either. The amount of hydro-carbon fuel needed to mine, process, and produce the materials needed to build both put them on a long break-even period to offset the initial “carbon” spend. The machine tools used to create the parts for these “renewables” burn electricity provided by hydro-carbon fuels. Same applies in spades for the batteries needed to provide back-up power for the days or weeks without sufficient wind or sun!
Don’t forget to replace with new turbines and panels 15- 25 yrs later, or less, restarting the “carbon free” clock.
Somehow burning wood is called “green” here in Vermont while putting out huge amounts of CO2 (not that it matters since CO2 is not a driver of Earth’s warming). Wood becomes green after another tree grows for some 60-80 years!
Nuclear has the highest energy density, smallest footprint, highest efficiency/reliability for electric output and certainly is GREEN compared to alternates.
Both ms. white and ms. davis are glaring examples of the Peter Principle in action.
It certainly appears as though our ‘racial equity director’ is a moron. It sickens me that she collects a paycheck from my tax dollars.
What’s great about democracy is you get the politicians you deserve. Maybe you don’t get what you want, but you do get what you deserve.