Implementation of the Affordable Heat Act (“AHA” or S.5) requires significant upfront investment across the households of 60% of all Vermonters, those who currently depend on heating fuel to warm their homes. This upfront cost will likely be over $5 billion dollars- more than twice the $2 billion dollars estimated by Secretary Julie Moore at the Agency of Natural Resources and the Vermont Climate Council, even after $380 million in state and federal funding is included.

Below is the written testimony given by Ethan Allen President Myers Mermel on the topic of the Affordable Heat Act before the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee on February 16th.

Click here to view.

It turns out the real long-term cost of The Affordable Heat Act, S.5, proposed by the Natural Resources and Energy Committee is $5 billion dollars over a 5-year period as demonstrated in a detailed financial analysis by the Ethan Allen Institute.  Most of that cost will be on the backs of low- and moderate-income Vermonters who will pay for it through increased fuel costs in the range of $5 per gallon.  Worse, hoped-for long-term energy savings will not occur.

As some of you may recall, I have for several years offered my prime candidate for a nonpartisan nonpolitical charitable contribution: Spirit of America.

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:

The frightening prospect of having to tuition pupils to parent-chosen sectarian schools has motivated the “Education Equity Alliance”, formerly known as the Public Education Blob, to demand passage of S.66, to exterminate tuitioning altogether.

Last Thursday, the Vermont Senate Natural Resources Committee continued its efforts to structure the Affordable Heating Act (“AHA”) so that it would meet legal requirements and be enforceable. Despite Ethan Allen Institute estimates of a surcharge on heating fuel of as much as $4.00 per gallon which will unravel implementation of the AHA, the Committee continues to seek advice on how to prevent the program from being opposed on legal grounds.