Commentary: Compact Settlements
Kevin McCallum’s article “Climate Retreat” illuminates the dilemma of the Vermont Climate Council’s obsession with Compact Settlements. Its December 2021 Climate Action Plant is all in on the merits of “Compact Settlements”:
German Boilers
The Germans are among the quickest in the world to mandate drastic practices to defeat the menace of climate change. Starting January 1 gas boilers can’t be used to heat apartment buildings. Instead, the owners will have to install electric heat pumps. But Vonovia, Europe’s ‘largest landlord, says heat pumps are too expensive, and in any case it has been unable to connect seventy percent of the heat pumps because the nation’s power grid is too heavily strained.
The Monster that Ate America
One of my favorite news sources is the libertarian magazine Reason, of which I was a contributing editor for quite a while. In each monthly issue its editors devote a page to nuggets of wisdom from its 60 years of publication. In the current issue, November, they pulled out a quote from an article I wrote in 1983 about the power of the Federal Reserve System, modestly titled The Monster That Ate America.
Commentary: PUC Stands for People Utterly Clueless
The legislature passed the Clean Heat Standard (S.5) into law in the Spring of this year (over the governor’s veto) with a provision that Vermonters can start banking the so-called “Clean Heat Credits” – earned by installing heat pumps, insulating buildings, etc. – retroactive to January 1, 2023. The program itself doesn’t go into full effect until 2025. So, the geniuses in Montpelier created a situation in which folks, in order to get their early credits, are supposed to somehow file paperwork that doesn’t exist with a bureaucratic entity that is not yet in place following rules that have not been written. What could go wrong?
Commentary: Conflicts of Interest in the Renewable Energy Standard Working Group
The first order of business on the agenda for the Renewable Energy Standard Working Group’s September 20 meeting was “Conflict of Interest – Discussion & Clarity.” This should be interesting, I thought to myself. What it turned out to be was ironic.
Commentary: The Debate Over Income Inequality
The evil of “Inequality” has always been a rallying point for advocates of socialism. In 2013 the publication of Capital in the Twenty First Century by French economist Thomas Piketty stimulated a new wave of debate. The title was a takeoff from Karl Marx’s seminal Capital, published in three volumes between 1867 and 1894.
Commentary: Don’t Be Fooled by “Global Average Temperature”
Last week was a banner week for climate crisis headlines. Washington Post: “The world is hotter than it’s been in thousands of years.” AP: “For the third time this week, Earth sets unofficial heat record.” Politico: “Scientists are freaking out about surging temperatures.”
Commentary: The “Bypass Scott” Strategy in Action
The legislature’s enactment of the Community Resilience and Biodiversity Protection Act is another troubling example of how massive changes in Vermont are being engineered these days, whether the democratically elected governor likes it or not.
Commentary: Putting Aside the Science
In this era dominated by aggressive steps to deal with “climate change”, it’s worth inquiring into what the climate activists are working to install in our public school system, presumably to lead their pupils into supporting a long list of policies on the climate change agenda.