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by Alison Despathy
What are the people to do when a law creates a trap that plunders precious resources and hard earned money and brings harm to Vermonters, all for zero beneficial environmental impact?
Passed in 2020, despite the Governor’s veto, the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) sets unrealistic greenhouse gas reductions requirements for our cold, rural state.
Specifically, the GWSA mandates reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by:
- 26% by 2025
- 40% by 2030
- 80% by 2050
Vermont has the lowest energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the nation, including the greatest in state net energy generation from renewable sources. Our energy consumption is for basic living necessities: heat, transportation, lights, businesses, cooking.
Holding emissions as the top environmental priority wastes money and state resources and distracts from decades long work to increase energy efficiency and affordability through upgrades, weatherization and reduced consumption.
Vermont has recently spent hundreds of millions of dollars chasing greenhouse gas emissions. Think of the homes and businesses that could have been weatherized with efficient appliances and heating and home solar systems installed. Think of the number of communities in need of larger culverts and support to prevent and repair damage from storms. Or even the money Vermonters could have saved with lower taxes
Instead this exorbitant amount of money was spent on modeling programs, data collection, lawsuits, lawyers, studies, often ignored reports, and independent contractors hired to do this work. Money has stayed in the bureaucratic state, wasted on hypotheticals versus getting directly to people to make a real difference. The GWSA alone mandated this policy shift which actually impedes progress.
Shooting us in the foot, on top of leaving us out in the cold, the recent democratic supermajority forced this irresponsible law which also includes a provision that anyone can sue the state for not meeting impossible, hostile reduction requirements.
Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) wrote the lawsuit language and as a well funded ‘nonprofit’ with tens of millions of dollars in revenue and assets –CLF has been tax exempt since 1967- the suing rampage has just begun
Their recent lawsuit against Vermont alleged a lack of aggressive action and improper methods to calculate emissions. The data modeling wars are in full effect, “my data is right and yours is wrong”, an ongoing, industry-driven, divisive battle in the realm of climate science.
CLF lost their case but without a repeal of the GWSA, they will assuredly be back to waste more taxpayer dollars and resources. With impossible to meet emission reductions requirements, CLF will be successful in their next lawsuit thus mandating high risk, aggressive action.
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) and Department of Public Service (PSD) have been tracking emission reductions and efficiency measures for years, Vermont has steadily moved in the right direction all the while supporting Vermonters versus crushing us as the GWSA now mandates.
Accounting for overall impacts, ANR and DPS have balanced emission reductions, efficiency goals and economic realities for Vermonters versus zealotry and blind ideology alone governing their action. Meaning together they have mutually done their job in looking out for the environment, the people and local economy of Vermont.
Vermonters care deeply about each other, the environment and our local businesses. Supporting these values is a balancing act that must drive policy decisions. The GWSA is antithetical to these Vermont priorities, in that it harms these pillars of Vermont culture in its currently delusional and actually destructive mandate to electrify Vermont by increasing living expenses of Vermonters.
Vermonters spoke out strong against this electrification and the recent clean heat standard due to unsustainable costs and risks during times of power outages. Vermont’s grid is not equipped to take this load, houses need weatherization, many are not easily converted to electric heat, and diversification offers reliability, especially during our cold winters.
Electric rates also continue to increase and with the recently passed, supermajority Renewable Energy Standard written by the renewable energy industry, electric rates will rapidly escalate as Vermont electric utilities are forced to buy intermittent unreliable, expensive renewable energy. Alternatively they can purchase pricey renewable energy credits to pretend they don’t use other reliable, base load energy sources. All placing higher electric crates on Vermonters.
And the clock ticks towards the GWSA deadlines.
Unfortunately this is only half of the problem –
The GWSA also mandates any action taken to reduce emissions must be technologically feasible, cost effective and equitable. Proving an impossible task, every proposal significantly raises the costs of heating fuel or transportation fuel, thus bringing collateral damage of increased costs for all goods. This would break many families and businesses already struggling to make ends meet and it would not solve any environmental problems.
Report after report and study after study have concluded that the proposed measures to reduce emissions such as the clean heat standard, the cap and invest program, advanced clean car and truck, and ecosystem services are NOT the right fit for Vermont, and would have undue adverse effects on Vermonters, especially low income Vermonters. None of the programs have been technologically feasible, cost effective or equitable as required by the law. Further, all drive a carbon market, ripe for fraud as determined by the Vermont Public Utility commission and force an unrealistic and experimental agenda on Vermont.
Now you can see the trap- we cannot consciously take action with the known impacts of these policy proposals yet if we do not meet the required greenhouse gas reductions, we face expensive lawsuits which will mandate aggressive and harmful policy.
The GWSA is a hellish vicious cycle and unrelenting battle for Vermont. The only way through is a full repeal to get Vermont back on track supporting each other, our environment and our local businesses by continuing to do what we have been doing for decades- reducing energy consumption through efficiency measures and helping each other along the way.
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Categories: Commentary, Environment, Legislation, State Government
PHCR is a better direction for tax revenue investment much more than GWSA. Potholed Crumbling Roads. This way the workforce taxpayers can safely travel to work.
Excellent explanation of the trap the Democrats designed for Vermont (every Republican voted against it).
We, the people of the State of Vermont, keep voting the same people into political offices where their disrespect of us, and our accomplishments vis a vis becoming more environmentally “green”, and other accomplishments is conveniently overlooked, and even denied. Vermont, and Vermonters should not allow these charlatans keep us down, and should run them out of office. It should be made plain to see that you are either on the side of working class citizens, or the side of Marxist who claim that all they do is for your own good, we’re just to stupid to realize it. Vote them out !
Nailed it, once again, Alison – thank you!! I’d like to add that all the attention, money, and policies to “combat climate change” (in general) is another case of industry co-optation of a legitimate problem (and people’s minds) through hype and fear, while obscuring/ignoring even more urgent, human-caused, legitimate issues that involve poisoning the air, water, soil, and all living things on the planet in so many ways.
In the 2024 elections, Republicans in Vermont gained 17 seats in the House and six in the Senate, breaking the Democratic-Progressive coalition’s veto-proof majority in both legislative chambers. Despite these gains the Democrats and Progressives, voting as a block, still control which bills will be considered, making Republican efforts to repeal laws like the GWSA virtually impossible. Only by electing a majority in both houses can there be hope of improvement. A repeat of the gains made in the house in the last election, and only 3 more Senators, will usher in a new, fiscally responsible chapter in the governance of Vermont. Anything less guarantees the status quo will remain.
Excellent points from Alison Despathy. The profligate use of tax payer funds in this state for the GWSA and all the other arguable not that “clean energy solutions” are truly unconscionable contributing to the impoverishment of Vermonters while enriching the NGOs. Furthermore this has also resulted in policies which favor the selling off of once viable pasture and crop land decreasing food resiliency for the state. When these projects are abandoned, then who pays for their cleanup and restoration? Undoubtedly these costs will be born by the taxpayers, once again privatizing profits for NGOs, out of state investors and socializing any costs due to the degradation of the lands upon which these projects have been and will be built.
Many of these points have been in circulation previously. Question is, will Vermonters make Town Committees into places that will spawn action – including making sure neighbors know this. Do they read the paper? Not just any paper – VT Daily Chronicle. The other news sources promote the greener still at any cost mindset, which has left Vermont taxpayers scraping… It isn’t just this issue. It is any number of out of state agendas that are trying to make Vermont a show case, but all Vermonters are left with is empty pockets.
It is time to realize Vermonters MUST ENGAGE. Make Town Committees a place where people will team to make their towns aware, team to get common sense legislators in Montpelier, team to protect the children from sex education in PreK-grade 4 and remove sexually explicit books from the school libraries – Check out Take Back the Classroom – it makes it easy to get this job done.
Go to your Town Committee reorganizations and make a difference in your community.
Yeats’ “The Second Coming” so captures the progressive-Democrat state of Vermont:
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity….”
Alison and I agree about a lot. Vermont families can’t afford higher bills. Our winters are cold, our grid is under stress, and too often Montpelier spends money on consultants instead of helping real people. I share those concerns.
Where I disagree is on the solution. Repealing the Global Warming Solutions Act won’t lower anyone’s heating bill. It won’t fix a culvert, and it won’t weatherize a home. What it would do is wipe out the part of the law that says every plan must be cost-effective, feasible, and fair. Without that, there’s no check on bad policy.
I also think Vermonters deserve to understand the bigger picture. National fossil fuel interests are spending heavily in Vermont — through groups like Americans for Prosperity — to push a narrative that our only option is the status quo and market based solutions, even though profitable markets don’t really exist in rural Vermont. AFPs goal is simple: protect their free market / fossil fuel funders profits by convincing us that change is impossible and too expensive.
We need to be careful. I don’t support “electrify everything” mandates. I especially don’t support one-size-fits-all rules that punish rural Vermonters. I do support holding Montpelier accountable, making sure money goes to weatherization, affordable heating choices, and keeping communities safe from floods.
We need to fix what isn’t working, not throw away the guardrails that protect Vermonters.
You’re a propagandist, Laura. A liar. You’ll say anything to promote your nihilist, postmodern-socialist agenda. Hillary Clinton wrote her dissertation on Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals… dedicated to Lucifer. Your sick agenda consists of the 3Ds: Deception, Destruction, and Division. You have more in common with Alinsky and his dedication, than you do with the common good of the state of Vermont and its citizens.
The real Laura Sibilia stood up when she pushed for the Clean Heat Standard on the House floor:
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/thurston-rep-sibilia-admits-s-5-wont-dent-climate-change-talks-from-alinsky-playbook/#comments
Have you looked at the spending (and out of state money) of the green groups to promote the Clean Heat Standard, GWSA and unrealistic emissions reduction schemes? If AFP plus fuel dealers are spending tens of thousands of dollars, the green groups have spent and continue to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. You bet Vermonters need to be careful. The dark money flowing into Vermont for more than a decade has had real economic consequences, while benefiting a few.
Unless one owns stock in a power company why, on earth, would anyone want to electrify everything? Is there anyone on here that is old enough to remember what happened in the early 70’s when all the new houses being built were fitted with “electric” baseboard heat? No one could afford their electric bills! That is when wood stoves made a returned to homes.
The editorial does not go far enough.
The agenda of the people who pull the strings is to depopulate. Despite evidence in real life , the they wish you and I were never born. The they who will remain anonymous have decided without a vote that we shall give up our means of production. It is almost done… but wait… What’s that I hear? Vermont is strong after all? It can’t be!
Out grow big bro takes on a whole new meaning when you consider food production. We can, we must, and we will
Alison, thank you once again for your faithfulness and courage to speak the truth in ways which cut right through the blather and smokescreens of pernicious ideologies and policies which don’t help, but hurt, Vermont and Vermonters. Thank you for helping to inform and equip us with the insights you provide through your diligent work and research.
Rep Sibilia. Thank you for always being willing to engage the conservation. It is appreciated.
With all due respect, you are the check on bad policy, not the GWSA. The GWSA is bad policy that will increase basic living expenses for Vermonters and businesses and all products and services, except a small few who may be able or are positioned to electrify. Also electric rates are due to increase tremendously with the RES on top of all of it.
Even if the initial intention of the GWSA was to help low income Vermonters and reduce costs and not leave them behind so to speak, we know that it will not help them or reduce costs. And then we will be sued again for not meeting reductions which does take money from culverts and weatherization and action.
Biofuels are just as volatile as fossil fuels. And despite Cowart painting a picture of “good biofuels” let’s be honest most are coming from the global south from genetically modified crops dependent on pesticides and contaminating water and land and contributing to deforestation.
Right now it is not possible for us to get off fossil fuels in VT. There are so many barriers blocking this at this time. We are not in an energy transition, all energy use is ramping up because of AI and data centers etc. however VT has been focused on efficiency for quite some time. To make VT pay more for gas and Heat is cruel.
I do hope you were able to read PUC commissioner Cheney’s response on the Shaftsbury Solar case. This is devastating. Please fix the RES and please repeal the GWSA- Vermonters are being taken advantage of by these laws. You are the check and I know you care. Please help VT to get this right because the GWSA and the RES are wrong for VT, despite the best of intentions.
Also – as was mentioned the amount of “green money” coming in to support the renewable energy agenda in VT is over the top. Renewable energy is an industry and must be put in their place despite their messaging that they will save the world. We are not their test bed for an electrification disaster.
Respectfully