News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Rob Roper 
A teachable moment (for others, not Bernie, who will never learn). Our senior senator made big news last week in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. When the anchor confronted Sanders about the $221,000 he and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have spent so far on private jets during their Fighting the Oligarchy tour, as … Read more
The latest clash between climate ideology and reality – the requirement in the Global Warming Solutions Act (2020) that Vermont adopt California’s Clean Cars and Clean Trucks standards – is coming to a head. So far reality has been racking up the victories with the Clean Heat Standard for home heating now lying “dormant” as … Read more
Vermont climate activists in the legislature and beyond continue to insist that their policies will ultimately save Vermonters money. How they reach this mathematically questionable conclusion (apart from the scenario where the politicians rob Peter to pay for Paul’s “free” weatherization project and installation of cold climate heat pumps in which case Paul certainly saves … Read more
As the 2025 legislative session winds its way toward the finish line, minority party Vermont Republicans are trying their best to act on the loud and clear message sent by voters last November in regard to such laws as the Clean Heat Carbon Tax, electric cars and trucks adoption mandates, mandates for more expensive renewable … Read more
The chair of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee and Kool-Aid filled climate change religionist, recently penned an op-ed essentially calling on Governor Scott to clean up the catastrophic climate policy mess she and her party created – and blaming him for the mess. It’s a craven political Hail Mary. Let’s take her argument … Read more
A handful of Democrats presented their bill, H.376, which would increase the excise tax on liquor and the gallonage (turns out that’s a word) tax on wine and beer by an estimated total of $16 to $17 million on hard after-working Vermonters. This represents for beer and hard cider a whopping jump from 26¢ per … Read more
Deputy Secretary of State Lauren Hibbert testified before the House Appropriations Committee regarding a number of the office’s budget issues, including elections. Hibbert noted that historically, about 60 percent of Vermont’s $5 million yearly budget to run elections ($10 million for two-year election cycles) comes from federal grants, including those from the federal Help Americans … Read more
A throwaway line during a presentation on Vermont’s Climate Change agenda, how much it costs and how much money we’ll have for it in the future, stole the show this week. The Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) was giving an overview of the OVER HALF A BILLION DOLLARS a year Vermonters spend on climate change … Read more
Just a reminder here that former National Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker once admitted, “When schoolchildren start paying dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of schoolchildren.” True that! And watching the debate in the legislature over how to reign in public education costs and improve student outcomes, I think that sentiment resides … Read more
It’s no surprise to regular readers of Behind the Lines that the so-called “Green” agenda is really just a wealthfare scam designed to make lower-income, rural folks subsidize the high-ticket item toys of their better off neighbors (and the lucrative employment of a large and politically powerful class of otherwise useless bureaucrats and NGO operatives, … Read more
When Governor Scott unveiled his education reform plan, I warned readers to be prepared to “kiss your sister.” There’s a lot to not like in what he came up with, but at least it reduced spending by $180 million in order to cut taxes. The plan the Democrats are putting forward, however, is more like … Read more
While it’s true a majority of Vermonters love the hypothetical (and fantastical) notion of our little state saving the planet from climate change by going “net zero” or some such thing, it’s also true that an even larger majority has absolutely net zero interest in paying for (or living with) the programs designed to do … Read more
With the Clean Heat Standard in a political coma and the proposed Cap & Invest program dead in its crib, the last global warming agenda domino standing is the Clean Cars and Trucks initiative, which phases out the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2035 and starts limiting sales in 2026. And … Read more
Just a reminder here that former National Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker once admitted, “When schoolchildren start paying dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of schoolchildren.” True that! And watching the debate in the legislature over how to reign in public education costs and improve student outcomes, I think that sentiment resides … Read more
In 2024, the Vermont legislature charged the State Treasurer’s Office with studying what a “Cap & Invest” program would look like as a means for meeting the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) targets for greenhouse gas reduction in the transportation sector (aka you driving your car). That report is now complete, and, just as the Public Utilities … Read more
Governor Scott and the House and Senate Democrat majorities are at loggerheads over the motel voucher program that pays to put up homeless people in, well, motel rooms. The governor vetoed the budget adjustment bill over a $1.8 million spending increase for the program and is threatening to do so again if a revised version … Read more
Democrats are in full retreat from the Clean Heat Standard law (Act 18) they passed in 2023. The carbon credit (aka carbon tax) on home heating fuels was and is a policy and political disaster. Vermonters want to see it repealed. Privately, a meaningful chunk of Democrats want to see it repealed. But there is … Read more
It’s been asked a lot lately with budgetary challenges running up against a lack of tax capacity, and the backdrop of DOGE findings of government waste at the federal level, “Do our elected representatives ever go back and evaluate the programs they pass to see if they are working as promised?” Not really, no. And … Read more
You’d think that with everything happening in the realm of energy policy – the need to do something about the trainwreck Clean Heat Standard, the failure to meet the first Global Warming Solutions Act mandate for 2025, the lawsuit resulting from that, the projection that we’ll miss the 2030 deadline as well, the threatened cuts … Read more
It’s safe to say Senator Terry Williams (R-Rutland) and the Republican senators landed a blow with their parliamentary attempt to strip the Natural Resources & Energy Committee of the Clean Heat Standard repeal bill (S.68) and bring it to the floor for an up or down vote. Though all seventeen senate Democrats banded together to … Read more