Before we figured out how to replace whale oil with cheaper, more efficient petroleum, we killed a lot of whales throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in order to light our homes and lubricate our industries, driving most species to the brink of extinction.
Rob Roper
Why is the Vermont Media Ignoring the Slate Valley School Board Story?
About a month ago, I wrote a story about Slate Valley School Board member Curtis Hier’s battle with both the school officials he was elected to oversee and his fellow board members, who don’t seem to appreciate Hier’s desire to get to the bottom of some serious problems in the system that are negatively impacting students.
More Confusion/Delay Ahead for Carbon Credit Banking Scheme
My last article highlighted the fact that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is only now beginning to contemplate how to write the rules regarding how Vermonters can retroactively “bank” so-called “Clean Heat Credits” back to January 1, 2023, and continue to bank them until the Clean Heat Standard goes fully into effect sometime in 2025.
The Entity Charged With Implementing a Carbon Credit System Has No Idea How To Do It
The legislature passed the Clean Heat Standard (S.5) into law in the Spring of this year (over the governor’s veto) with a provision that Vermonters can start banking the so-called “Clean Heat Credits” – earned by installing heat pumps, insulating buildings, etc. – retroactive to January 1, 2023.
Conflicts of Interest in the Renewable Energy Standard Working Group
The first order of business on the agenda for the Renewable Energy Standard Working Group’s September 20 meeting was “Conflict of Interest – Discussion & Clarity.” This should be interesting, I thought to myself. What it turned out to be was ironic.
To Be Anti-Fascist, Support Our Constitution
Text from my remarks on Constitution Day There are a couple of things we hear a lot today in political speeches, on the Sunday morning talk shows, and in letters to the editor in our local papers. One is that we are in danger of losing our democracy!… And another is that “authoritarianism” or some … Read more
The “Expand the Supreme Court” Letter Is a Call for Insurrection.
As we approach Constitution Day on September 17, eighteen Vermont elected officials, including our Lieutenant Governor, signed a shocking letter calling for the expansion of the U.S. Supreme Court by four members. Signing this letter should disqualify them all from holding any public office, not for the idea of expanding the Court – there’s nothing in the Constitution stipulating the number of members the Court has to have – but for the reasons they put forward for the change.
Are $6 Per Gallon Gas Prices Coming to Vermont?
It so happens I am in Seattle, Washington, this week helping my son settle into a new living/job situation, and one of the first things you notice when driving around this city is how absurdly expensive gasoline is.
Another Example of Climate Hysteria Leading to Dumb, Misguided Policy
Wasting money on electric buses when what we need is school bus drivers. Vermont has a school bus driver shortage. We have for years. Google “Vermont School Bus Driver Shortage” (as I did for this story), and the number of news hits you get is astounding. I was looking for “a” story I recently read … Read more
When A School Board Member Actually Puts Kids First
Curt Hier, a public school history teacher and debate coach for thirty-five years who now runs a business helping students get into college, was elected to the Slate Valley School Board this past March. Hier’s background gives him more insight into the actual workings of the public school system than the average school board member … Read more
Business Group Wants 802,000 Vermonters by 2035 – (Ignores Reasons Why People Don’t Move There)
The Vermont Futures Project (VFP), a spinoff of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, is conducting a statewide tour of what they call “community conversations, and … strategic stakeholder visits in all fourteen counties” to gather input for their 2024 Economic Plan for Vermont.
Does Paying Flood Victims to Get Cars That Explode When Wet Make Sense?
Following the recent flooding throughout Vermont this summer, the state very proudly touted a response program that offers victims who lost or suffered damage to their cars the opportunity to replace them with an electric vehicle. Not an internal combustion engine vehicle, just an electric vehicle.
If You Really Care About Donald Trump, Don’t Let Him Be the Republican Nominee
Many Donald Trump supporters I have had conversations and interactions with share an intense feeling of being cheated over what took place in 2020 that can only be assuaged by running – and this time winning – a Trump/Biden rematch in 2024.
“Gold Standard” Study Shows Charter Schools Outperform Public Schools
Ten years ago, I took part in a series of debates on school choice opposite Paul Cillo of the Public Assets Institute and Bill Mathis of the National Education Policy Center and the Vermont State Board of Education. I was for school choice; they were opposed.
Biden Won’t, and Was Never Going to, Be the Democrats’ Nominee
We are just over a week away from the first Republican primary debate, and Donald Trump was out there bragging how he’ll thrash Joe Biden this time. Candidate Nikki Haley is waving the flag that the real opponent they’re all running against is Vice President Kamala Harris, as Biden is likely to drop dead early-second term.
Are Some on the Left Realizing VT Climate Policy Is a Useless Waste?
A couple of left-wing columnists recently penned articles lamenting the fact that Montpelier keeps flooding every decade or so, yet local and state governments don’t do anything about it and aren’t prepared for it when it happens. A keen observation.
Let Health Insurance Be Insurance Again
In what has become an annual story with the predictability of the seasons, Vermonters are about to get whacked with a huge increase in their health insurance premiums.
Want a Balanced Checkbook? Yes, It DOES Have to Be Republicans.
At the end of June, shortly after the Democrat supermajority overrode almost every veto Phil Scott issued, including that of the budget, in what seemed like less time than it takes to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a reporter asked the governor, “What are you going to do to get more Republicans in office?”
NY Unlikely to Save VT Climate Plan – (Empire Staters just as clueless about how to meet GHG goals)
Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) requires our state to meet some very stringent greenhouse gas reduction targets in 2025, 2030, and 2050. To be precise, 26% below 2005 levels by 2025, 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and 80% below by 2050.
Copeland-Hanzas’ and Her Party’s Climate Policy Sets Up More Disasters
Vermonters just witnessed the worst flooding since Irene in 2011, which was the worst flooding since the summer of 1998, which was the worst flooding since 1976, which was the worst flooding since 1938, which was the worst flooding since the most famous of all floods, the one in 1927.