Vermont’s first-in-the-nation "Clean Heat Standard" will increase net carbon emissions
Vermont's first-in-the-nation legislation to regulate all fossil-based home heating fuels, called the "Clean Heat Standard" (CHS), is poised to become law this month. 
Commentary: Clean Heat Standard Greatens Carbon Emissions and Class Divide
The Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) requires Vermont to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by specific amounts by 2025, 2030, and 2050. Failure to meet these mandatory targets would allow any person to sue the state, at taxpayers' expense, for non-compliance. The GWSA appointed a 23-member Vermont Climate Council to create an action plan.
The Attack on Tuition Choice
A bill making its way through the Vermont legislature is the latest attempt by the education establishment to limit or block parental choice in education - at a time when parents are looking for affordable alternatives to what’s being taught to their kids in public schools. It’s the public school lobby’s response to court cases that have opened the door to children to escape from unsatisfactory public schools to more satisfying independent schools, including faith-based schools.
Commentary: Questioning Blind EV Advocacy
Governor Gavin Newsom recently ordered the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to ban the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. Since the 1990s, 16 states have adopted CARB’s more stringent emission standards in place of federal regulations enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency. Newsom’s mandatory transition to zero emission vehicles will thus have a domino effect in the CARB states (including small, rural Vermont), which will be legally bound to outlaw the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles.
WCAX features EAI research
Policy analyst David Flemming was interviewed by WCAX this week, in a segment featured on Wednesday’s 6 o’clock news. EAI had recently released research suggesting that 10 Middlebury absentee ballots from the 2020 election were submitted by individuals from out of state, either by those individuals who when they no longer residents of Vermont, or who by other individuals living at those addresses.
To watch the segment, click here.
Commentary: Legislature Pushing Through Major Changes
The Vermont legislature is moving swiftly into its final six weeks. A major issue, as always, is parceling out revenues to cover the $8.1 billion Fiscal Year 2023 general plus transportation fund budgets. That process is eased this year by the tsunami of Federal dollars rolling into the state, allowing the solons to fund programs and causes that in ordinary times, with normal state revenues, would not make the cut.