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Thirteen of seventeen Senate Democrats joined every Republican in repealing Act 18, the Clean Heat Standard, in a significant moral victory for the GOP. (For those wondering, the four colossally out of touch “no” votes came from Andrew Perchlik (D/P- Washington), Ann Cummings (D-Washington), Becca White (D-Windsor), and Tanya Vyhovsky (D/P -Chittenden C.) But it … Read more
Going into the November 2026 elections, Vermont Democrats are eager to impress voters with the notion that the Clean Heat Standard, the “Rube Goldberg” carbon tax scheme they passed over the veto of Governor Scott in 2024, is dead and gone. A bad but fading memory to be hopefully forgotten about by this coming fall. … Read more
When the Democrat supermajority passed Act 18, the Clean Heat Standard, back in 2023 it came with a provision called the “check back” wherein the legislature would have to vote to approve (or not) rules subsequently drafted by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for operating the law’s carbon credit exchange. During the 2024 campaign, incumbents … 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 Vermonters want to see it repealed. Privately, a meaningful chunk of Democrats want to see it repealed.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
This week, the latest on the Clean Heat Standard, Education funding…more Please like, follow, or subscribe to The ‘Grok on Rumble and YouTube and check for Replays of Granite State Live, GrokTALK! and Right Side Up, or follow these links to their podcast pages. Our Current Local Podcast Lineup
When Vermont voters threw out a historic number of Democrats in the November 2024 elections, including the chair of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee chair, breaking the supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature, a very big reason was the Clean Heat Standard. That was a signal that nobody apart from the special … Read more
Vermont Democrats passed the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2020 over the veto of Governor Scott and the Republican legislative minority. That law mandates strict targets and timelines for greenhouse gas reduction set at 26% below 2005 levels by 2025, 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. And, so … Read more
Okay, we have established that the Clean Heat Standard is an unnecessarily costly, unnecessarily complicated, ruthlessly regressive, unworkable word salad of legal confusion. But, hey, at least, so bleated its supporters incessantly for three plus years, it wasn’t/isn’t a tax, fee, surcharge on home heating fuel, right? So, what’s are the options for moving forward … Read more
A Case Study In How Not to Govern After eighteen months of attempting to build a governing structure for the Clean Heat Standard, the Public Utilities Commission concluded, “…that this program is not well suited to Vermont.” It’s expensive, complicated, and, as they illustrate over a dozen pages in section X of their report, Problems with … Read more
The first attempt at spinning the Clean Heat Standard (Act 18) was that it was a “solution” to “global warming” in the thermal sector, hence the name of its mother law, the Global Warming “Solutions” Act. But after bouts of major flooding throughout Vermont made it obvious to everybody that this and programs like it … Read more
So much to unpack from Thursday’s big reveal of the Clean Heat Standard rules package from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC)! The big news is we got an “official” cost impact estimate – sort of. Just shy of a billion dollars over ten years with the impact per gallon of fuel oil bouncing from 8 … Read more
Next to perhaps property taxes, the biggest issue to motivate voters’ rejection of the Democrats’ supermajorities in the last election was that party’s tone-deaf attitude regarding the Clean Heat Standard carbon tax/fee/surcharge on home heating fuels. In a state where people are struggling mightily to make ends meet the idea of adding a $1-$4 tax … Read more
Following the loss of their supermajority in the 2024 General Election, Democrat leaders in the State House seem willing to reconsider or even potentially abandon some climate and environmental policies they have long championed. We’ll update you on another much more distressing Vermont National connection, which is the Norwich grad who was inside that Tesla … Read more
While the question remains to be seen if a majority of elected legislators got the message on November 5th that Vermonters want nothing to do with home heating taxes or any other fees and charges that make life in our state more unaffordable than it already is, one entity assuredly did not get the message: the … Read more
To whom it may concern: Advocates for the Clean Heat Standard insist that the program will only add a few cents to the price of fossil home heating fuels (oil, kerosene, propane, fossil natural gas), that the law, Act 18, is “only a study,” and that, if implemented, it will help low-income Vermonters by lowering … Read more
The Public Utilities Commission is tasked with setting up the Clean Heat Standard, a tax on heating fuel from regional providers to subsidize experimental electric heating technologies. After one year on the task, they appear to be waving a white flag on a complex carbon credit trading scheme, but they are still recommending a simple … Read more
In the movie Tootsie, Bill Murray’s character is a playwright who has a running conversation with Dustin Hoffman about a scene he’s writing, “the necktie scene,” that’s just not working. He finally surrenders to Hoffman’s diagnosis of the problem, “I’m rewriting the necktie scene without the necktie.” I was reminded of this joke when I saw … Read more
You know the story. For over three years, Joe Biden’s critics repeatedly pointed out what should have been obvious to anyone paying attention that the guy wasn’t mentally with it. However, despite evidence steadily piling up supporting that conclusion, the President’s supporters insisted he was fine. Even great! A sycophantic leftist press corps eagerly went … Read more
A key architect and proponent of the Unaffordable Heat Act, Rep. Laura Sibilia, recently penned a defense of the program. Since she likely speaks for all or most of the 107 members of the Vermont House and 20 members of the Vermont Senate who voted to override Governor Scott’s veto of this absurdly expensive law … Read more
If you are a rank-and-file Democrat in the Vermont House of Representatives – a soldier in the Supermajority – you are told by Party leadership how to vote. The majority leader will, in fact, hold up a paper sign, Yes or No, informing you how to cast your ballot on key issues. And you better … Read more