For several years, Vermont has made millions selling Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s) to other states. But the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act will soon cut off this cash flow which would raise rates. There is also the chance that the GWSA may set in motion a chain of events culminating in electric blackouts.

Vermont ranked 41^st out of 50 states, when it comes to taxpayers' return on investment (ROI). What Vermont taxpayers pay to Montpelier doesn’t get a great return relative to what taxpayers from most other states get.

It has been quite a long time since we heard “15 days to slow the spread.” Which is why this tweet made me chuckle. I’d probably select “D,” “15 days to slow the spread” is closest to “a poetic framework.”

On February 16, Rep. Hal Colston, (D-Winooski) gave the daily devotional on the virtual floor of the Vermont House. Afterward, Rep. Scott Beck (R-St. Johnsbury) took the unusual action of requesting that it be put in the House journal. The devotional is a diatribe of all things Colston considers racist.

If we don’t transfer more power from the governor to the Legislature during emergencies, a ‘climate emergency’ declared by a future governor could be catastrophic for Vermont democracy.

If we’ve learned anything from the past year, it’s that governors across the country have more power  during “states of emergency” than absolute monarchs did 500 years ago. A week ago, I wrote about how Vermont has the worst legislative oversight of the governor’s emergency powers in the country.

Vermont scored the worst of all 50 states in providing a legislative check on the governor’s emergency powers, in Scoring Emergency Executive Power In All 50 States, a new study from the Maine Policy Institute.

If you had to predict which state’s businesses were most likely to rebound post-Covid, you would be hard pressed to bet on Vermont. Vermont business owners (especially a certain 6,067 of them) are burdened with a state government that has been exceedingly more cautious than other states in allowing businesses to operate.

2020 was an unprecedented year. From Covid-19 outbreaks, to entire swaths of the economy shut down, to peaceful/violent protests, we saw a little bit of everything. And while their may seem to be more bad news than good this year, the tail end of 2020 has brought hope with a Covid-19 vaccine. As we yearn to turn the calendar to January, it may help us to reflect on the most meaningful cultural and political events of 2020, to make us wiser for the future decisions we will make in 2021. 

Here are the top 10 posts of 2020 from the EAI Blog. We look forward to connecting with you on the Blog in 2021!

12 years before Vermont passed the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) in 2020, Massachusetts passed their own GWSA in 2008. The two policies mirror each other closely. Perhaps irrelevant, if you discounted VT and MA politicians' need to one-up each other.