Commentary: Pay Attention to Corporate Climate Profiteering
Up to now criticism of the Clean Heat Standard bill (S.5) has focused on its intended result of driving up prices of heating oil, propane, kerosene and natural gas somewhere from seventy cents to four dollars a gallon, in order to finance $2 billion worth of subsidies to people to quit using those fuels and install “cold climate heat pumps”, “advanced wood heat”, and home weatherization.
Commentary: Diminishing the Culture of Violence
Every time a disturbed or hate-filled individual embarks on a murderous shooting spree, as at the Covenant School in Nashville last month, politicians rush to the media to urgently announce “we’ve got to do something” to stop “gun violence.”
Another Blow to the Administrative State
Earlier this month the US Supreme Court dealt the administrative state another blow, holding that individuals and businesses harpooned by an independent agency don’t have to suffer a torturous government adjudication to challenge its constitutionality in federal court. Unlike many controversial decisions, this one was a unanimous 9 to zero.
Legislative Pay Grab
My friend Tom Koch, who served ably for many years in the Vermont house, noted last week that “the Vermont Senate has voted 19-10 to pass S.39, “An act relating to compensation and benefits for members of the Vermont General Assembly.”
Renewable Energy Standard H 320
Renewable Energy Vermont, the solar energy industry lobby group, is out with a press release urging the legislature to pass a bill, H.320, to require the utilities to buy more of their product.
Chinese Coal
One of the sources I read most every day is Inside Climate News . I’m not quite sure who funds this news service, but it is all in on the terrible climate crisis just looming ahead of us, and the enormous sacrifices we must be required to make to fend it off.
Ethan Allen Institute’s 30th Jefferson Day Event Was A Success
Each year since its founding the Ethan Allen Institute has presented a program to honor Thomas Jefferson’s legacy of liberty whose principles are reflected in the Institute’s mission.
Housing and Regulation
Everyone in the Statehouse is rightly concerned about the shortage of affordable housing in the state. The preferred solution is a combination of subsidies for housing to make it affordable, plus a relaxation of strict development regulations. The enviros are willing to back off a little bit on Act 250 requirements, but only if the development project is to be located in state-designated compact settlement zones, that from the enviro standpoint are already areas ruined by heedless people and businesses.
Commentary: Deregulating Vermont into “Compact Settlements”
The latest in half a century of land use control measures promises some needed deregulation of new housing - at the price of limiting it to “compact settlements” (March 2023)
Commentary: Stumbling into Battle Against Climate Change
The Vermont Climate Council and the legislative majorities are determined to drive up the price of heating fuel in a futile exercise to defeat “climate change”. How many more thousands of emails and phone calls will it take to change their minds? (March 2023)