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.

Like many business owners I have increasingly relied upon social media to communicate with my customers. I provide my customers and contacts with an informative newsletter and was able to use Facebook to communicate important, timely messages that supplemented the newsletter.

Middlebury College climate activist Bill McKibben gave some advice to President Biden last week, after West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin put an end to Biden’s  $2 trillion dollar Christmas Tree spending bill.

The House Transportation Committee is about to take up H.552 - An act relating to transportation initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, which would, among other things, impose new taxes (or fines, depending upon how you look at it) on vehicles that get less than 24 miles per gallon of gasoline or diesel.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has made a career out of claiming that rich people aren’t paying their fair share of income taxes. But I don’t ever recall Bernie actually citing Federal income tax data to back up his charges.

A dozen years ago, a Vermont pension reform committee recommended that the state look into switching the way it structures its pension plans for new hires in the future.

Vermont is at a “high risk” of having its redistricting process fall prey to partisanship, below only “extreme risk.” RepresentUs, a activist group with a decidedly progressively flavored website, notes “High-threat states are ripe for rigged maps, but may see minor protections in their current political landscape, basic transparency requirements, or simple legal standards for mapmakers. With few exceptions, current politicians control the redistricting."

Members of the Vermont legislature returned to the statehouse just long enough to pass a resolution ensuring that they won’t have to come back again for at least two weeks, instead choosing to work remotely. Must be nice. These are the same people who say they want the schools open, hospitals staffed, tourism industry serving visitors to our state in hotels, restaurants, spas and ski slopes.

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 sweeping recommendations. Here’s some of what he reported last week: