As reported back in March, Vermont is pretending to be concerned about arbitrary man-made emissions reduction targets. Two months ago, experts predicted the state would miss by as much as 12%. All the usual suspects were pearl-clutching and hand-wringing, despite decisions about the things measured being as arbitrary and man-made as the target.
What counts as emissions is arbitrary, which we also covered here, making the entire exercise an act of fraud, perpetrated at great expense and discomfort to Vermonters. The state could just as easily hit its target the way it pretended to miss it.
[T]he report estimates that Vermont fell 18-39% short of meeting its first legal obligation under the Global Warming Solutions Act, the 2020 law that requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 26% below 2005 levels by 2025, 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below that mark by 2050.
The pre-report guess was up to 12%, and the post-report guess is 18-39%. It’s actually a lot more. The state ignores emissions from its wood-burning power plants because it feels like it. The theory goes like this: Trees sequester carbon. Burning it releases it, but then we grow more trees, so it’s renewable.
With the exception of time and scale, fossil fuels are sequestered carbon that became oil, gas, and coal. When you burn these hydrocarbons, you release CO2 that creates more trees and plants.
While the greenwashers have been ranting about climate change, the planet has greened significantly. This process has expanded the amount of land that can be used for farming and feeding people while adding plants that capture even more CO2, which, when burned in Vermont, don’t count as emissions.
In 2022, McNeil emitted 375,540 tons of carbon dioxide from its smokestacks, according to Burlington Electric Department. When measured this way, biomass emissions are similar to emissions from a fossil fuel plant, but the energy source is considered to have net-zero emissions — and is not counted in Vermont’s emissions data — because trees grow back to replace those that were cut and burned.
But wildfires are emissions. People burning wood at home are emitting. Volcanic eruptions are natural, but they put more particulates and emissions into the atmosphere than many years, perhaps centuries, of modern living.
Put another way, and I’ve said this before, Vermont can hit its emissions target every time, it just has to treat all fuels that emit gases, including CO2, the same way. If burning wood, which is more polluting than natural gas gets a pass, then give the same credit to natural gas, which is cleaner than biomass.
Emissions targets are obviously ideologically driven political decisions. Things like hydro and nuclear, which have no emissions, are often not included as net-zero. Biomass is a leading source of pollution, and emissions are excluded. Natural gas, which is cleaner than biomass, has its emissions counted. And let’s not forget that CO2 chemically isn’t even capable of the threat attributed to it, and is essential for life on earth, which makes this even more farcical a game.
The real threat is the people pretending what does or does not count, who steal your money and rob you of your livelihood, to mitigate the non-threat.
Mitigate them at the ballot box often enough and for long enough, and it all goes away. You can achieve the target of a more affordable and comfortable life for not just you but your children, and the earth won’t even notice. I promise.
