Last Monday’s Climate Council meeting featured a tense conversation about putting a price tag on what they call the number one “priority” recommendation in their updated Climate Action Plan. The project: a mandatory reporting system for carbon emissions from fuel suppliers and other significant emitters. The price tag, as requested by the Agency of Natural Resources: $800,000. Why is this a priority? Because it will set the stage for a statewide “Cap & Invest” carbon tax on home heating and transportation fuels nobody wants.
The crux of the argument was whether or not the Council should endorse the number $800,000, or just vaguely say, now you go do that. One side, articulated by council member David Mears, was for being up front with the legislature about their goals.
This is a top priority, the Cap & Invest program…. And I would like to show up aggressively as the Council… and say this is a priority, and we think you should fund this, and this, and this, and even suggest [funding] levels…. If we’re going to ramp up and build towards a Cap & Invest type program, the Agency needs time to build the resources and the staff to do that.
The other side, summed up by council member Richard Cowart, was succinct: “I am afraid that asking for that much money will be a poison pill, and we won’t get half a program, we’ll get nothing.” A possibility Mears raised himself.
That much money a poison pill? $800,000. And herein lies the core kernel of the grand lie that is the Global Warming Solutions Act, and its mandates are in any way, shape, or form even remotely feasible policies for the state to have in statute. $800,000 for a state with a $9.2 billion budget is a drop in the bucket – and it’s still too much to ask given all of the other fiscal crises Vermont has to deal with.
So, if the Climate Council recognizes that $800,000 for just collecting the data necessary to move forward with a Cap & Invest program is an unaffordable, unreasonable request, what does that say about the viability of the actual freakin’ program the data collection is supposed to be the launchpad for? Cap & Invest will mean billions in real or de facto taxes on fossil fuels and will cost the state tens of millions of dollars to operate (hundreds of millions if the program includes safety net provisions for low-income Vermonters). It ain’t happening.
It’s not just me saying this; the Vermont State Treasurer compiled an in-depth report just last Spring on Cap & Invest and determined, “I conclude there are no viable cap-and-invest programs available to Vermont at this time.” There still aren’t, and there won’t be. The great hope these kooks were holding out for was that New York would implement their Cap & Invest program, and we could somehow glom onto it. But even Governor Kathy Hochul has come to realize the scheme is insane, unaffordable, and economically and politically suicidal, so scratch that option, Vermont. Unlike you, New York is coming to its senses, at least for the foreseeable future.
And, keep in mind, this is just number one of a “Top Ten” list of priority recommended programs, which themselves are just the highlights of a “plan” consisting of some two hundred and fifty total recommendations. These include: Expand… the Flood Resilience Communities fund, increase funding for existing… programs, weatherize homes…, support utility programs…, identify funding and support for needed workforce…, electrification of vehicles and buildings. Let’s hear the Climate Council’s recommended funding levels for all this spending as well. I’ll bet it’s a heck of a lot more than $800,000!
This is a farce. It’s time to stop wasting money on it. The millions of tax dollars Vermonters are pouring into this endless studying of and laying the groundwork for programs that will never be implemented to meet mandates that can never be met is, at this point, nothing more than theater — of the absurd.
It’s time to dissolve the Climate Council. Its proposals are going nowhere. Scrap the Climate Action Office. Its purpose is to implement programs that don’t exist and won’t exist. Repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act and the vestigial, infected appendix of a law that is the Clean Heat Standard (Act 18). Repeal the going-nowhere, Climate Superfund law that will only lead to millions in legal bills for the state, a.k.a. us. Take the money and put it towards something useful. Better yet, give the money back to us taxpayers so we can spend it on something useful. Our track record is better than yours.
