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.

Last Thursday Chairman Bray declared “Vermonters are facing a heating emergency.” And Chairman Bray has the remedy for this emergency. It’s a bill (S.5) to raise up to $2 billion dollars over five years, by driving up the price of your heating fuel. This is what passes for rational thinking in that committee.

Senator Bray continued: “The public narrative around this bill is simply wrong and misleading… if there’s one thing in this entire scenario that makes me angry and a bit disappointed, it’s that various interested parties have whipped up the public, creating fear and misunderstanding.” Vermonters are receiving a “barrage” of unsubstantiated messages about the Clean Heat Standard that have caused anxiety about the costs of the future program, Sen. Bray said.

Oh? “Misleading”?  “Fear and misunderstanding”? “Unsubstantiated”? How about some examples, Senator? Never mind. The climate warriors have the bad habit of shouting “fear and misunderstanding” whenever anyone questions their gospel of climate emergency. That’s the gospel that sees driving up your heating fuel bill as the solution to an emergency declared by themselves.

Well, I don’t buy their gospel and I deplore their uncorroborated attacks on anyone who doesn’t like their $2 billion dollar solution.