Middlebury College climate activist Bill McKibben gave some advice to President Biden last week, after West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin put an end to Biden’s  $2 trillion dollar Christmas Tree spending bill.

The House Transportation Committee is about to take up H.552 - An act relating to transportation initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, which would, among other things, impose new taxes (or fines, depending upon how you look at it) on vehicles that get less than 24 miles per gallon of gasoline or diesel.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has made a career out of claiming that rich people aren’t paying their fair share of income taxes. But I don’t ever recall Bernie actually citing Federal income tax data to back up his charges.

Vermont is at a “high risk” of having its redistricting process fall prey to partisanship, below only “extreme risk.” RepresentUs, a activist group with a decidedly progressively flavored website, notes “High-threat states are ripe for rigged maps, but may see minor protections in their current political landscape, basic transparency requirements, or simple legal standards for mapmakers. With few exceptions, current politicians control the redistricting."

Members of the Vermont legislature returned to the statehouse just long enough to pass a resolution ensuring that they won’t have to come back again for at least two weeks, instead choosing to work remotely. Must be nice. These are the same people who say they want the schools open, hospitals staffed, tourism industry serving visitors to our state in hotels, restaurants, spas and ski slopes.

Matt Cota, executive director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, is a very good source of information on the consequences of implementing the Vermont Climate Council’s sweeping recommendations. Here’s some of what he reported last week:

The Vermont Climate Council and their so-called “plan” to cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions were delt another blow when the national Democrats’ “Build Back Better” spending extravaganza wound up in the policy morgue next to the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI). The “plan” was counting on “free” money from the feds to pay for their wish list of projects which, according to one chart presented at the Council’s December 21 meeting, tops a half a billion dollars.

The Tax Foundation released its annual State Business Climate rankings for 2022 on Thursday. Overall, Vermont scored 2^nd worst in New England at #43, behind only Connecticut at #47.

It is too generous to call what the Vermont Climate Council presented on December 1 a “plan.” A plan would consist of all the major and most of the minor details of how to complete a project, or at the very least a key phase of a project. A plan to build a house, for example, would include an overall design, list of necessary materials, a list of contractors (framers, excavators, carpenters, plumbers, etc.), a thorough understanding of the zoning regulations and permits necessary, a timeline, and – the big one – how much the thing will ultimately cost to complete.

Peter Suderman of Reason.com keeps a close watch on Federal fiscal issues. Here’s what he tells us from the recent annual report of the Medicare trustees.