On November 17 the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, called LCAR, voted to approve the decision by the Scott administration to conform Vermont’s clean air rules to the latest version set by the California Air Resources Board. Vermont first signed on to the California rules in 1996. It signed on to amended rules in 2001 – as decreed by Gov. Howard Dean over the objections – twice – of LCAR.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the price of heating oil, a fuel most commonly used in New England to heat homes, has gone up by 65% since October 2021. Counting propane and kerosene, 58% of Vermont households rely on petroleum heating fuels, other than natural gas.

The smoke has cleared from Vermont election. Popular Republican Governor Phil Scott won a 70% victory over a token Democratic opponent. No other Republican came close to winning a statewide office, although Senator Joe Benning, ran a credible race against former Lt. Gov David Zuckerman, who again put himself into the Number Two slot to make another run against Governor Scott in 2024.

In early August, a law took effect in Maine that will leave many Vermonters thinking “if only...”

The Independent System Operator – ISO – manages the New England power grid. One if its greatest concerns is maintaining the reliability of the power grid.

Peter Suderman of Reason reports that “in a recent interview with The New York Times, White House economic policy adviser Jared Bernstein said: ‘Our budgets have been heavily fiscally responsible, and they build a very compelling architecture toward critical investments and fiscal responsibility. So it would be a mistake to overtorque in reaction to current events.’"

This year, the Ethan Allen Institute (EAI) embarked on a 5-year strategic agenda to significantly expand the institute's annual budget, followers, and operational capabilities. We began a comprehensive process to rebuild our organizational infrastructure by implementing innovative technologies and outcome-focused internal systems to support this ambitious vision. 

The September 29 presentation David Hill of the Energy Futures Group’s gave to the Climate Council Cross-Sector Mitigation Subcommittee was quite informative. It outlined the 17 goals the group had recommended for meeting the GWSA’s requirements including one reducing car miles driven.

It has been nearly a year since the multi-state, New England/Mid Atlantic Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI-P) collapsed do to only one of the thirteen states (MA) actually signing onto the program, the rest taking a hard pass or offering a polite maybe later.  TCI-P was a carbon tax scheme on gasoline and diesel motor fuels designed to increase the cost of those products, discouraging their use, while simultaneously extracting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from drivers for the participating states to spend.