Clean Heat Standard Archives - Page 2 of 2

Clean Heat Standard Will Hurt Poor Vermonters on LIHEAP Heating Assistance

July 16, 2024July 14, 2024 Rob Roper

The Equity Advisory Group (EAG) to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) heard testimony on July 9th from Richard Giddings of the Department of Children and Families about how the Clean Heat Standard law would impact low-income Vermonters who receive home heating assistance in the winter. The news was not good for LIHEAP (Low Income Heating Assistance … Read more

Night Cap: Wither Goes the Office of Racial Equity?

June 26, 2024 Rob Roper

In my last article, I noted that back in February 2023, the Director of Racial Equity, Xusana Davis, warned in testimony that the Clean Heat Standard in its then-current form was not an equitable piece of legislation, listed a number of problems with the bill, and hasn’t been heard from since.

Equity Advisory Committee Members Souring on Clean Heat Standard

June 25, 2024 Rob Roper

Members of the Equity Advisory Group (EAG), which is assisting the Public Utilities Commission in developing “fair and just” rules to govern the Clean Heat Standard (CHS) carbon tax on heating oil, propane, natural gas, and kerosene, made some surprising—and welcome—remarks during their June 11 meeting.

Night Cap: Expert Gives Masterclass In Why The Thing They Came To Advocate Won’t Work

June 13, 2024 Rob Roper

When you’re getting big bucks to hold a public meeting and nobody from the public shows up, what do you do? Get one of your employees to play the role of “good citizen.” This is what happened at the first legally mandated public outreach forum that was supposed to inform the public about the Clean … Read more

A Truckload of Manure

May 20, 2024 Rob Roper

The rhetoric surrounding the passage of the Clean Heat Carbon Tax (Act 18) was full of talk about “social justice,” a “just transition,” “engaging traditionally marginalized communities,” and “moving at the speed of trust.” Yeah, well, shocker, that was a truckload of manure!

Clean Heat Mess Gets Even Messier – We’re taxing the poor so that the rich can benefit.”

May 6, 2024 Rob Roper

The last time we checked in on the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) as they come up with rule recommendations regarding the Clean Heat Standard (CHS) for the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), they couldn’t decide who should own a financially valuable Clean Heat Credit created by a Clean Heat Measure (installing a heat pump, weatherizing a … Read more

They Made an Environmental Law So Huge No One Knows How to “Lift It”

April 18, 2024 Steve MacDonald

George Carlin used to tell jokes about his time in Catholic school and his smart-ass interactions with The Church, like asking a priest if God is so powerful that he can create a rock so large that he himself can’t lift it. A similar situation has arisen closer to Earth. Vermont close.

The Clean Heat Standard is too complicated to implement

April 17, 2024April 16, 2024 Rob Roper

The Clean Heat Standard (CHS), the “Rube Goldberg” carbon tax on home heating fuels, became law almost a year ago over the veto of Governor Scott. The Democrat/Progressive supermajority that passed the CHS did so without providing – or even considering in any significant detail – how it would work or what it would cost. … Read more

G.E.T. R.E.A.L! G: Global Warming Solutions Act Reform

April 22, 2024March 22, 2024 Op-Ed

Members of the Vermont House and Senate passed the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) in 2020 over the veto of Governor Scott and every elected Republican.

Rearranging One Deck Chair on the Sinking Clean Heat Standard

March 20, 2024 Rob Roper

With just a few days to go before crossover (the day the Senate has to pass its bills over to the House for consideration and vice versa), the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee finally took up discussion of the glaring defects – or, well, maybe one of them — in Act 18, the Clean Heat Standard, which they passed last year over the Governor’s veto.

Will Legislators Fix Their Clean Heat Standard Catastrophe?

March 7, 2024 Rob Roper

Last spring, it looked like the Clean Heat Standard (S.5/Act 18) was headed for a second successful veto by Governor Scott when Senator Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) rescued the “Rube Goldberg” carbon tax on home heating fuels from the abyss by inserting a so-called “check back” clause into the bill.

Already the State Can’t Afford the Clean Heat Standard

February 16, 2024 Rob Roper

The Democrat supermajority passed The Clean Heat Standard (Act 18/S.5) last year over the Governor’s veto. That law appropriated $850,000 from the General Fund to hire three new employees at the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), plus some cash for subcontracting out research and technical support – all for fiscal year 2024. FY24 ends in July of this year.

Clean Heat Standard Exploding on the Launch Pad

February 2, 2024 Rob Roper

The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is the state entity charged with writing the rules for and overseeing the Clean Heat Standard (S.5/Act 18). Their first main task in this role was to create a registry of all fuel dealers in Vermont, collecting data on exactly how much fossil fuel is used in the thermal sector, where it comes from, and where it ends up.

Clean Heat Standard “Not Cost Effective”

December 6, 2023 Rob Roper

So, even the advocates’ number crunchers looking at the Global Warming Solutions Act’s Clean Heat Standard have to admit that the costs Vermonters will have to cover to meet greenhouse gas reduction mandates exceed any potential benefits — by a lot — even after those advocates apply two and a half billion dollars in totally made-up benefits to the ledger via the bogus “Social Cost of Carbon.”

To Pay for Administering the New Carbon Tax on Home Heating Fuels They’ll Need a New Excise Tax on Home Heating Fuels!

November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 Rob Roper

The Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which is charged under the Clean Heat Standard (Act 18/S.5) with operating the “carbon credit” system created by the law, is now soliciting ideas for how to fund said operation.

More Confusion/Delay Ahead for Carbon Credit Banking Scheme

October 2, 2023 Rob Roper

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.

Are $6 Per Gallon Gas Prices Coming to Vermont?

July 16, 2024September 9, 2023 Rob Roper

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.

Climate Committee Says Don’t Run Electric Heat Pumps at Night

September 2, 2023 Steve MacDonald

Climate Change isn’t just about changing the climate outside. It is about you changing the climate inside becasue of their claims about the climate outside. It is undoubtedly a mental disorder, but the inmates running the asylum will not be persuaded to stop the madness.

We Need to Stop Pretending That Vermont’s New Clean Heat Standard Won’t Ruin Someone Else’s Environment

July 16, 2024July 19, 2023 Steve MacDonald

VT Digger recently published an op-ed by a local left-wing environmental lawyer. You wouldn’t know it unless you went looking, but Joslyn L. Wilschek is a Utilities and Environmental lawyer with a law office in Montpelier, and her op-ed is about (drumroll) the environment. It is also blinkered.