Climate, Energy & the Environment: Blog Posts

Market based solutions are the only ones which can affordably conserve Vermont's environment, combat climate change and provide safe, reliable energy to all Vermont households.

"We still face significant conservation challenges, but in the century since Teddy Roosevelt... we’ve written a conservation story worth telling... I am optimistic about our environment and the ability of humankind to invent, collaborate, and innovate our way to conservation solutions. For the doubters and worriers, there’s one more reason to stop and smile at the state of our environment: Optimists live longer. And that means more time for all of us to enjoy our natural world."

-Brian Yablonski, Property & Environment Research Center

All Blog Posts

Costs of heat pumps- one Vermont experience

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · March 16, 2023 · 3 reactions

Here’s an interesting letter that appeared in the Caledonian Record a week ago, from a man who I don’t know, Jonathan Baker of Danville. He writes this from his own experienceRead more

Senator Bray Laments “fear and misunderstanding”

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · March 15, 2023 · 1 reaction

Sen... Read more

Nuclear Regulation's Perverse Incentives

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · February 14, 2023 · 1 reaction

One of my go-to guys on nuclear energy is Jack Devanney, now retired after forty years managing nuclear projects and wrestling with nuclear regulators. Here’s his latest insight:<... Read more

Senators consider 55mph speed limits, gas guzzler tax and “Saving the World”

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · January 30, 2023 · 1 reaction

Th... Read more

Sloppy Climate Change Thinking from the Washington Post

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · January 23, 2023 · 1 reaction

A Januar... Read more

Weatherization savings without taxpayer money

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · January 10, 2023 · 1 reaction

Heating Oil Price Crunch

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · December 12, 2022 · 1 reaction

Ac... Read more

Director of Global Warming Solutions Act calls transportation recommendations “unviable.”

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · October 24, 2022 · 2 reactions

Climate Censorship

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · October 21, 2022 · 1 reaction

The... Read more

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

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · October 13, 2022 · 3 reactions

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 outs... Read more

The Costs of Producing Motor Fuel

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · October 10, 2022 · 2 reactions

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 fro... Read more

Climate Council Discusses “All Economy” Carbon Tax

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · August 25, 2022 · 4 reactions

Why settle for new carbon taxes on just gasoline, diesel, and home heating fuels when you can apply a carbon tax to EVERYTHING! Implementing an “economy wide” “cap and invest” (wh... Read more

Biden’s “Free” AC Coupled with a Less Dependable Electric Grid

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · August 16, 2022 · 1 reaction

A few weeks... Read more

VT Developers Prioritize Housing with Fossil Fuel Heating over Climate Concerns

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · July 29, 2022 · 1 reaction

West Virginia v. EPA

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · July 18, 2022 · 2 reactions

The climate warriors are loudly bemoaning the Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia v Environmental Protection Agency. The case involved a sweeping bureaucratic edict... Read more

Defeating the "Clean Heat Standard" or Carbon Tax on Home Heating

Posted on EAI Blog by Meg Hansen · May 19, 2022 · 1 reaction

PR: EAI applauds Defeat of Carbon Tax on 77% of VT Households heating with oil and gas

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · May 13, 2022 · 2 reactions

Vermont Climate Council’s Clean Heat Standard – a disguised carbon tax on Vermont homeowners, renters, businesses, schools, hospitals and municipal governments, fell one vote sho... Read more

Climate Guru Again Calls for More Nuclear Power

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · May 12, 2022 · 3 reactions

The New... Read more

Electric Vehicles and African Child Labor

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · April 28, 2022 · 3 reactions

A few... Read more

Senate Committee Contemplates Adding Motor Fuels to Clean Heat Standard

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · April 06, 2022 · 4 reactions

On Monday, the lightbulb went off over the heads of the members of the senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee that the Clean Heat Standard bill (H.715) that they are curren... Read more

Bill McKibben Backtracks on Nuclear

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · April 04, 2022 · 2 reactions

Bill M... Read more

Clean Heat Standard Moves to Senate

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · March 30, 2022 · 1 reaction

Deba... Read more

That Big Climate Rally – Opposing the Clean Heat Standard?

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · March 09, 2022 · 1 reaction

“Propane Protection Laws” Will Go Away When Propane Does

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · February 04, 2022 · 5 reactions

An article in VT Digger today trumpets, “Attorney general reminds Vermonters of propane protection laws as snow, cold continue.” In Vermont,Read more

Nuclear Energy & Carbon Taxes - But Not Renewable Energy

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · January 20, 2022 · 3 reactions

Even Without TCI, Cap-and-Invest Still Looms Large

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · January 14, 2022 · 1 reaction

Last week, Jared Duval a member of the Climate Council and the Energy Action Network, testified virtually to the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee.

Matt Cota on the Climate Action Plan

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · January 03, 2022 · 1 reaction

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 sweep... Read more

Climate Council Has No Idea How to Pay for their “Plan”

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · December 17, 2021 · 1 reaction

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 ofRead more

Clean Heat Standard – A Stealth Tax On Heating Fuel

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · December 09, 2021 · 1 reaction

A key component of the Climate Action Plan just put forward by the Vermont Climate Council is a Read more

Hottest July ever recorded! (?)

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · November 19, 2021 · 1 reaction

In Nature Conservancy magazine’s winter issue I read a boxed feature labelled “July 2021 was the Hottest Month Ever Recorded on Earth”. I dug online into the meani... Read more

Connecticut Governor Drops TCI

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · November 17, 2021 · 3 reactions

If you saw what happened in the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races, you know that left-of-center politicians nationwide,Read more

“Fundamentally Flawed” Climate Plan for VT Forests

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · November 12, 2021 · 1 reaction

Calling Out the “Lack of Realism” in Climate Plan

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · November 05, 2021 · 1 reaction

June Tierney of the Vermont Climate Council (also commissioner of the Department of Public Service) made a splash whenRead more

The Spectacular Decrease in Forest Fires

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · October 29, 2021 · 2 reactions

Last month, VT Digger reported that “the West Coast fires that have ravaged parts of California, Oregon and Washington this summer have been linked definitively to Read more

GWSA: Political Suicide Mission

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · October 05, 2021 · 3 reactions

For a while now, we have been reporting and commenting on how utterly unrealistic, economically irrational, logisticallyRead more

Shameless Climate Misreporting

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · September 22, 2021 · 1 reaction

Everything’s on the table to save the planet! (Except the one thing that might work.)

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · September 21, 2021 · 5 reactions

At the September 2 meeting of the Cross Sector Mitigation subcommi... Read more

Vermont flooding shows no signs of stopping... or increasing

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · September 15, 2021 · 1 reaction

A f... Read more

Vermont "Needs" 1,150% More Electric Vehicles by 2025

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · September 10, 2021 · 1 reaction

H... Read more

Another Major Leak in the TCI Boat

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · September 02, 2021 · 1 reaction

When the folks at the Georgetown Climate Center put forward their memorandum of understanding for thirteen New England andRead more

Climate Council is "akin to deer in the headlights"

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · August 26, 2021 · 2 reactions

The Salisbury Digester: Turning Waste into Energy

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · August 19, 2021 · 1 reaction

The Ones Who Gave Residential Solar a Price Hike

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · August 11, 2021 · 2 reactions

If you have solar panels connected to an electric grid in Vermont, you may have been caught off guard recently by a sizeable increase in a subtle change to the “Energy Efficiency ... Read more

The Terrors of Climate Change

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · August 05, 2021 · 3 reactions

A Thorny Question Indeed!

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · July 29, 2021 · 3 reactions

Endangered Species Act Foils E-Car Manufacturing

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · July 22, 2021 · 1 reaction

Every... Read more

Climate Council says the “C” word! Carbon Tax

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · July 14, 2021 · 2 reactions

During the July 8^th meeting of the Vermont Climate Council’s Cross-Sector Mitigation Committee, the group started to delve into some ofRead more

The Vermont Climate Council and Critical Race Theory

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · July 05, 2021 · 2 reactions

The debate over Critical Race Theory in Vermont has largely focused on education, policing, and with Covid, healthcare. But, in case you missedRead more

Far Left CT Legislature Punts TCI

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · June 14, 2021 · 1 reaction

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30 Vermont farms in Sierra Club Crosshairs

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · April 29, 2021 · 2 reactions

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Thermal Energy Efficiency Tax Vanishes, for Now

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · March 17, 2021 · 3 reactions

Last week I devoted three radio broadcasts to Sen. Bray’s proposed Thermal Energy Efficiency Tax, disguised as a charge on your electric bill to raise millions of dollars to subsi... Read more

Legislators Debate Doubling and Expanding the Bottle Deposit

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · February 23, 2021 · 3 reactions

There is a proposal making its way through the Vermont House of Representatives toRead more

Burlington Heating Tax & Opportunity Vermont

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · February 22, 2021 · 3 reactions

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Robbing the Transportation Fund to Pay for “Green” Priorities

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · February 15, 2021 · 4 reactions

There is a bill currently before the House Transportation Committee, “An act relating to transportation initiatives to reduceRead more

A ‘Climate Emergency’ Power-Grab: One Scenario

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · February 12, 2021 · 2 reactions

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Green Police Will “Break Your Will!"

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · February 05, 2021 · 5 reactions

Read more

Why We Signed the TCI Opposition Letter

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · January 20, 2021 · 1 reaction

Three... Read more

VT Rep.: Make Covid lockdown permanent to fight climate change!

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · January 05, 2021 · 3 reactions

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Sierra Club Natural Gas Appliance Ban

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · December 22, 2020 · 1 reaction

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Vermont & Mass. compete to leave taxpayers with largest climate bill

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · December 16, 2020 · 2 reactions

12 years before Vermont passed the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) in 2020, Massachusetts passed their own GWSA in 2008. The two policies mirror each other closely. Perhaps ir... Read more

Pro-TCI Group Accuses TCI Ally of "Anti-Regulatory" Activities

Posted on EAI Blog by David Flemming · December 03, 2020 · 2 reactions

One pro-TCI group has accused another pro-TCI group of anti-regulatory activities. They both miss the mark.Read more

Cota on Burlington Gas Furnace Tax

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · October 27, 2020 · 1 reaction

Here’s an interesting news item from last Friday. The Bur... Read more

Scott’s Improbable New Idea for Affordable Electricity

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · October 21, 2020 · 1 reaction

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Burlington “Heat Fine” Shows Where GWSA Is Heading

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · October 09, 2020 · 7 reactions

As the Vermont legislature shepherded the Global Warming Solutions Act into law, we at the Ethan Read more

Speaker of the House: GWSA means LESS accountability to meet climate goals.

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · October 07, 2020

For the past two years, how many times have we had to hear from Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) advocates that Vermont’s 2005 goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “lack te... Read more

Jon Margolis on GWSA

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · October 05, 2020 · 2 reactions

Vermont Digger’s liberal political columnist Jon Margolis recently weighed in on the recently enacted – over the Governor’s veto – Global Warming Solutions Act. Here’s the intere... Read more

Global Warming Meadow Muffins

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · September 28, 2020

Two weeks ago, when Gov. Scott was about to veto the Global Warming Solutions Act, the media was quick to interview activists strongly opposed to the veto – but of course at least... Read more

The Superabundance of Climate Lobbyists

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · September 22, 2020 · 1 reaction

I took some time last week to work through the photo book of registered lobbyists at the Vermont State House, with a particular eye for the number of them announced as working for... Read more

You Don’t Give Blood When You’re Bleeding

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · September 10, 2020 · 4 reactions

Yesterday the Vermont House of Representatives voted in favor of the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), sending the controversial legislation to the Governor’s desk for either h... Read more

California Heat Wave/Black Outs Highlight Flawed “Green” Policies

Posted on EAI Blog by Rob Roper · August 18, 2020

California is suffering a major heatwave with temperatures coming in at significantly over 100 degrees. Compounding the danger is the unfortunate reality that California’s electri... Read more

Massachusetts TCI Bill

Posted on EAI Blog by John McClaughry · August 07, 2020

That’s the eleven-state agreement to drive up gasoline and diesel fuel taxes to get people to stop driving internal combustion cars... Read more

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