Senate Energy Chair Chris Bray says he’s “not interested” in any plan that adds even $1.70/gallon to cost of heating oil
by Guy Page
The Legislature asked the experts to estimate the cost potential of implementing the Clean Heat Standard, the legislatively-required transformation from heating with fossil fuels.
Friday morning, Rob Roper’s Behind the Lines substack column and the Vermont Daily Chronicle broke this story. We then expanded on the news yesterday on Friday at Four podcast (above).
The nub of the story is this: implementing the Clean Heat Standard would add between about $1.88 to $4 per gallon to the price of home heating oil. And that fact alone is, or at least should be, a non-starter, former Vermont Fuel Dealers president and current Vermont Climate Council member Matt Cota said on Friday at Four.
Apparently Senate Environment and Energy Chair Chris Bray agrees – at least in principle. “I, for one, am not interested in building a program that adds $1.70 to a gallon of heating fuel,” Bray said in a VTDigger news story published at 4 PM, hours after VDC and Roper. “That would be a real problem for many Vermonters.” Bray told Digger he’ll be working all fall to build a more palatable Clean Heat Standard.
Following Cota as our interview guest on Friday at Four, Roper urged Vermonters to support candidates who will oppose added heating fuel costs.
Editor’s note: Paul and I do Friday at Four for shows like this one. Friday at Four lets our audience hear firsthand, while you’re making dinner or driving or whatever, from experts like Matt Cota about the real costs of the Legislature’s hyper-bureaucratic War on Carbon.
One thing has been made very clear: the people supporting the Clean Heat Standard don’t want to see any headlines about its potential cost, at least not before November 5. But that won’t stop us, because we believe that sacred cows make good hamburger.
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