For Immediate Release
EAI Releases Study of How the ESSEX Carbon Tax Would Impact VT Households
During the last legislative session, environmental groups released a Carbon Tax proposal which they called The ESSEX Plan. The ESSEX Plan would place a per-gallon excise tax on gasoline (32¢), heating oil and diesel (40¢), and propane and natural gas (24¢). The ESSEX Plan would use the revenue collected from the Carbon Tax to lower electric rates for businesses and residences, as well as to provide special rebates for low-income and rural Vermonters.
At the time of its unveiling, legislators asked proponents of the ESSEX Plan if they had information detailing how the Carbon Tax and rebate scheme would impact their constituents at the household level. “When someone asks me how much is this going to cost me at the end of the day, what do I say?” was a typical question. That information was not available.
So, over the summer, the Ethan Allen Institute surveyed over eighty Vermont households about their fossil fuel use and demographic information. With that information, we were able to calculate how much each individual household would pay in ESSEX carbon taxes versus how much they would receive in rebates, if anything.
Today, EAI is releasing half a dozen “Carbon Tax Profiles” which show how these households, each with a different makeup and geographic location, would be financially impacted by the ESSEX Carbon Tax. Our goal is to let Vermonters in similar situations gain an understanding of what passage of the ESSEX Carbon Tax would mean for their own household budget. We will continue releasing one profile a week over the next month.
Click here to see the full report.
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Please also profile vermont businesses. After all, many vermont households probably don’t realize the myriad of ways they are consuming fossil fuels. For example, renters in a state decried as “unaffordable.”