The EAI Blog is a forum for our members and followers to post and share a variety of perspectives on topical issues. We encourage diverse, and civil debate. These opinions do not necessarily reflect the position of the Institute.

Climate Censorship

The Wall Street Journal had a really concerning editorial entitled: The Climate Change Censorship: The left is demanding that social media shut down debate even on solutions”.

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Moon Landings? Mars?

From 1969 to 1972 the United States completed six crewed missions to the moon that landed 12 astronauts, not counting Apollo 13, that NASA dramatically rescued in one of the great engineering performances of all time..

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Vermont State Lawmakers Ranked 5th Most Liberal in US

ALEXANDRIA, VA (October 13, 2022) — The voting of Vermont’s state lawmakers has placed the legislature as the 5th most liberal in America according to a new 50 state analysis conducted by the Center for Legislative Accountability (CLA), a project of CPAC Foundation and the American Conservative Union Foundation.

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Climate Council Finds GWSA Trickier to Sugarcoat, even with Generous Assumptions

For a couple of years now, progressives and Vermont bureaucrats have emphasized how important they believe reducing carbon emissions is. In order to sell this vision to those outside the far left, they often describe how spending more upfront will result in long term savings. For example: Vermont needs to spend millions on solar to get “free energy from the sun.” The argument goes something like, “even if you don’t have to believe in earth-rending climate change, these policies make financial sense to implement anyway, at some point in the distant future.” This was part of the attitude undergirding the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act. At that time in 2020, no one bothered to put a serious price tag on these policies before they were voted upon. Part of that façade is starting to disappear in 2022, and the costs are becoming disturbingly apparent.

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Costs of wind and solar

Longtime environmentalist Michael Shellenberger said in an October 1 lecture in Sydney, Australia that one of the “most misleading ways wind and solar sales people sell their technology” is to claim the electricity produced by wind and solar is cheaper.” 

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The Costs of Producing Motor Fuel

Jim Geraghty, the energy expert at National Review, said last week that ‘U.S. refineries are running at full capacity, or just short of full capacity. This is why oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases got sent to Europe and Asia, because they had the room and equipment to turn it into actual usable fuel. The U.S. currently has no more spare ability to turn the oil from the reserve into stuff that will actually make your car move; yelling at the oil companies isn’t going to change what is fundamentally an engineering problem.’

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Arizona Expands School Choice

Under a bill signed in July, Arizona created the nation’s most expansive school-choice program. All families will be able to spend their children’s state-funded education dollars—about $7,000 a student each year—on any approved education expenses, including private-school tuition and fees, tutoring and instructional materials.

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Vermont Cannabis Subsidies

The further Vermont goes down the road to legalized state-controlled marijuana marketing, the more interesting surprises come to the surface. The most recent was published by Kevin McCallum in Seven Days three weeks ago. Here’s the headline: “Vermont’s Electrical Ratepayers Are Providing Generous Subsidies to Indoor Cannabis Growers”.

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California Emission Goals Lead to Blackouts, Could Vermont be Next?

The progressive think tank Energy Innovation reports that California “is not on track to achieve its climate goals. Compared to historical trends, California will need to more than triple the pace of emissions reductions to hit its 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.” And this despite enduring an electric blackout in 2020 and narrowly avoiding a blackout this month, due to heavier reliance on solar.

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Dour Housing Predictions

​​In EAI’s August survey asking, “How do you anticipate housing shortage situation to progress?” 82% of respondents chose, “This is a long term, self-inflicted trend that is here to stay unless Vermont officials reform local zoning laws and Act 250 restrictions.”

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