News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
In a cost-cutting move, New Jersey ended its annual auto safety inspections in 2010. State officials cited a lack of evidence that inspections improved public safety. “If we’re going to invest millions of taxpayer dollars year after year in a program, then it is essential that we be able to justify the expense and effectiveness … Read more
Think of this installment as “Part 2” to my previous article asking if our Senate is compromised. As HB649 makes its way to the Senate, I’ve already pointed out some “problem donors” and some of their disturbing amounts donated to Senate Transportation committee members and the Old Battle Axe, Queen Sharon (Carson). Let’s first look … Read more
The news of 2025’s perennial attempt to abolish the “sticker tax,” aka HB649 (ending annual passenger vehicles inspections), is good so far. The House has voted in favor despite the failure of the House Transportation Committee to produce a proper recommendation. The committee did not recommend either pass or fail, which has happened to other … Read more
The Union Leader has a survey (no paywall) asking your thoughts about ending annual passenger vehicle inspections. (Just for the heck of it, I’ll do an X poll here.) From reading comments on Grok feeds across social media, I know there is mixed support for it, but mostly for it, and the UL results as … Read more
The HB649 House roll call numbers are in (HB649 ends mandatory passenger vehicle inspections). 355 (out of 400) reps voted, and 15 out of 183 Republicans went rogue. Without further delay, let’s shame them now. As Chau Kelley would say, “There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.” *The 8 two-time tax-loving Uniparty establishment Rs are … Read more
This is your chance to finally put an end to passenger vehicle inspections in the Granite State once and for all. This is the year we have the state house numbers, but we still need your help. Email the entire House and urge them to vote YES on HB649. You can now do this now using the … Read more
When it comes to the unaffordable climate change policies being pushed on Vermonters by the Democrat majority in the State House, the Clean Heat Standard for the home heating sector has received all the attention for the past couple of years, but heat only represents about 40 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The … Read more
When the people who hate people take control, their policies always give them away. They make motor and heating fuel, water, food, electricity, rent, almost anything and everything more expensive – while insisting they are fighting for minorities and lower-income “families,” and the middle class – whom they hate most of all. They hate people, … Read more
If you missed it, sometime contributor and friend of GraniteGrok, JR Hoell (see also NHFC, Rebuild, and so on), was ticketed for violating New Hampshire’s wholly useless and likely dangerous hands-free law. Anyone driving can attest to the accuracy of that last sentence. A lot of people ignore it. Many create more serious hazards by trying … Read more
Sixty-seven people are dead thanks to the Federal Aviation F-around and Find Out Administration (FAFAFOA). It is a problem that has been growing for over a decade of FAFO hiring policy decisions at the FAA and elsewhere that began during the Obama administration. First things first. The Associated Press reported Thursday that preliminary findings by … Read more
The trouble with Air Traffic Control is much worse than anyone wants to admit. Whenever I see Pearson Vue linked to a government organization, I see threats to the security of the United States. Pearson Vue is not American, and Pearson’s former United States headquarters is not admirable. Regarding government spending, we should reconsider the … Read more
Vermont’s unaffordability crisis is most visibly driven by high taxes that come directly out of our pockets: sky-high property taxes, above-average sales taxes, fees on our electric bills, the new payroll tax, etc. A “clean heat” surcharge on fuel bills would be easy to spot. But the mandates our legislators saddle local businesses with – … Read more
Vermont tied its increasingly rickety wagon to California’s air quality standards for motor vehicles. Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) “requires manufacturers to produce vehicles certified to increasingly more stringent emission categories, according to schedules based on vehicle fleet emission averages for each manufacturer.“ Vermont legislators handed authority over Vermonters to wingnuts in California and they … Read more
It has been nearly ten years since (then) Governor Maggie Hassan signed the hands-free law prohibiting motor vehicle operators from using handheld electronic devices. We were told it would reduce traffic fatalities (Death on the Highway!). I never believed it and suggested things would get worse. They did. New Hampshire reported 95 motor vehicle-related deaths … Read more
Electric vehicles aren’t going away just yet, but the industry has been having a rough year. Multiple manufacturers have scaled back production and retooled EV facilities for gas-powered vehicles or, like Ford, are shifting some capacity from EV-only to Gas Hybrid. The company said it won’t build fully electric three-row SUVs due to battery costs. … Read more
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the Debt Machine, is all handshakes and smiles after milking future taxpayers for another 31 million dollars. Shaheen, who ran in 2008 opposing more debt, has added 25 trillion more during her tenure in the US Senate. What’s another 31 million at this point, eh? The rebates will help selectees purchase 110 … Read more
I am interested in knowing more about some money trails related to the cost of renewing my New Hampshire vehicle registration. With the price of a stamp jacked up a few cents last month, I’d like to know the costs compared to the current online processing fee they push (should a local vehicle owner want to … Read more
San Francisco has deteriorated steadily under progressive policies that have seeded overdoses, homelessness, an exponential increase in crime, and plummeting housing prices. In the midst of San Fran’s Mad Max despair, innovator Zoox is planning to launch a fleet of shiny EV robotaxis to ferry citizens around the City by the Bay. The contrast between urban decay … Read more
The slander of cows for their existential threat to humanity has focused on methane emissions, which allegedly warm the planet unsustainably. This dubious claim is premised on the sketchy logic that methane production negates any beneficial bovine ecological impacts (especially of urine and manure) and ignores the effects on the environment and food system if … Read more
I was never likely to buy a Hybrid vehicle – too expensive -but if you put that idea in the perspective of an energy transition, that would have been the only way to begin. Transition suggests a phasing in or out. What we got instead was an all-electric Vehicle vanguard. Push combustion engine vehicles off … Read more