Dairy Pricing Blind Spot

     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?

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Costs of heat pumps- one Vermont experience

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

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Senator Bray Laments “fear and misunderstanding”

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.

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Commentary: Will Bernie Secretly Bail Out SVB?

This past week saw the dramatic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank also known as SVB. Until Thursday, SVB had been the nation’s 16th 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.

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School Choice Advances (elsewhere)

Here’s a newsworthy item from the Wall Street Journal:

“In Little Rock, [Arkansas] new Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is following through on her reform promise after bringing on a member of Florida’s successful education team as her education secretary. On Thursday the state Senate passed a bill for education savings accounts on a 25-7 vote”.

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Commentary: A Victory for the Opponents of the Affordable Heat Act: Potentially a Poisoned Chalice

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.

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Commentary: “Affordable Heat” Questions Answered

Here are twelve salient questions and straightforward answers about the workings of the Affordable Heat Act (S.5) now moving toward the Senate floor.

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