The Vermont Climate Council wants us all to keep warm with electric heat pumps, to defeat the menace of climate change. Here’s another report from a heat pump user to keep in mind.

     Kevin McCallum’s [Seven Days] article on dairy pricing (“Milk Check”, Jan. 18) is well written save for one crucial thing. Kevin explains that government-forced over-order pricing for milk will likely make Vermont’s value added dairy products industry less competitive in national and world markets. But he has an enormous blind spot about the central question: who is going to get hit with the higher prices?

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 experience

Senator Chris Bray, Democrat of Addison, is chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. It’s the body – composed of five willing Democrats and no skeptical Republicans – that has generated the Affordable Heat Act, so I pay attention to what he says.

This past week saw the dramatic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank also known as SVB. Until Thursday, SVB had been the nation’s 16^th largest bank. A leading tech lender, it was based in Menlo Park, California, and employed over 6,500 people. Regulators led by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation shut the bank down on Friday, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was appointed the receiver. The collapse, the largest since the 2008 financial crisis, moved a decline in the S&P 500 by 3.3% over the last two trading days of the week.

Yesterday afternoon I sat through the Vermont Senate debate concerning the Affordable Heat Act (“AHA”). The bill with one amendment passed through the body by a count of 19-10. However, opponents won a victory by forcing its supporters to attach an amendment which delayed a vote enacting the legislation until January 15, 2025.