Commentary

Finnie: Legislators, I don’t buy what you’re selling

by Pat Fannie 

To those under the “Golden Dome” – Regarding S5, the “Affordable Heat Bill, I just don’t buy what you are trying to sell. 

I was paying $2.42 a gallon for bio-fuel from Bournes on 12/3/20. This year, on 12/23/22, I paid $5.095 a gallon for the same fuel. What happened? It is not because of greedy “big oil”. I believe that 90% of the difference is because during his 2020 campaign, the current occupant of the White House threatened to make fossil fuels unnecessary in ten years. 

Tell me truthfully, if your business had been threatened with the assurance that it was going to be phased out, would you continue to sink money into that short term probability? You might as well flush it down the toilet! 

Also as another point of reference, I will tell you that on 1/20/21, the day Biden was sworn in, the price of gasoline at the Exxon/Mobile station in Hardwick was $2.30 a gallon. Now it’s $3.44 a gallon down from an intentionally imposed $5.00 a gallon, and I hope I don’t need to remind anybody that diesel is even more expensive, and that “if you got it, a truck brought it”! 

In the meantime people of limited resources are collateral damage. As I told Senator McCormack, let this changeover to all electric happen, because it will. It already is happening, and the oil companies that the left demonize can see it as well, and are putting money into that conversion. Have any of you in our legislature reached out to Shell, Exxon/Mobil, or Chevron to solicit their help?, and I mean asked them, not threatened them with consequences like some kind of dungeon master. 

I’ll bet you haven’t. Again, don’t push this. All you will do is marginalize more people that are barely making it by now. As far as infrastructural updates that need to be made – is it your position that we are 100% ready to go out of the blocks right now?  Really? To convert from fossil fuels to electric HVAC will take a lot more electricity than what our power grid now has to handle. Are you telling me that the current electric power grid can handle it? 

How about if we add in the new power that will be needed to charge all the new EVs that you folks are forcing on us? Will Gov. Scott be warning us of future “brown outs” as Newsome has had do in California? Where is all the new power needed to convert from fossil fuel going to come from? Out of state fossil fuel fired plants? Hydro Quebec? Rooftop solar? Those butt ugly wind turbines on “our” ridge lines? 

How about the money that will be necessary to convert? Where will that come from – he money trees on the State House lawn? Those “money trees” are in fact taxpayers that you folks are already bleeding dry! 

Oh, you propose to levy fees against importers, and other large scale distributors. You don’t suppose that these fees will be passed on to consumers, do you? Of course you know that they will be! But you folks just don’t seem to care. 

Where will the wood required to fire the woodstoves, and pellet burning stoves come from? The 50% in 50 years forests? Admit it, you don’t  have a clue do you? 

I remember in the early 60s when a lot of people were still burning coal. We evolved away from that at a pace that did not bankrupt anybody. All you folks see is your green new world that will be created by sacrificing Vermonters on the altar of the “Green Gods” for the sake of the Chinese and the Indians! 

Don’t force it! Let it happen!  

The author is a retired State Building Complex security worker and Calais resident. 

Categories: Commentary

8 replies »

    • The same folks who back in the early ’70’s told the world we would run out of crude oil in 10 years or less.

  1. I also find it very curious that any state would want to rely on one source of power such as electricity. We all know that old saying, “Don’t Put all Your Eggs in One Basket”. This applies to most things in life and should also apply to energy.
    It is a fools errand to never have back up, and multiple sources of necessities etc.
    Security always demands backups, multiple sources etc. But it appears that those unelected folks in charge of Vermont’s energy situation want to reduce the security by only investing in the dogmatic adherence to what is purported to be “green” energy.
    We all know that solar and wind are in fact highly polluting and energy intensive energy sources. The energy inputs needed for their deployment are greater than what they produce and at great cost. They only exist because of subsidies, largely from the federal government and those who cannot afford the expensive outlay of the virtual signaling green energy solar panels. If one is paying attention, the Federal Government is sitting on a very fragile financial system that is fraught with problems and is in a terminal predicament that history has shown us, collapse and fail. The state should be exploring multiple options for energy, should be weaning itself from the Federal financial spigot of hand outs and planning for a future that might be very difficult indeed.

  2. Amen well said. And also there is no such thing as climate change? Yes it has warmed a couple degrees but it has before and then cooled. God will take care of the earth. AOC says we’re all gonna die in 12ntears😂😂😂that’s the same thing they said 59 years ago. If you look at the data, storms are less severe than they ever have been. I mean do you think Obama would build a Mansion in the Vineyard if it was gonna flood.
    Reminds me of watching Bernie Sanders on Bill Maher show this weekend. He couldn’t even explain what equality is or the difference between that and equity. Once Bill explained it to him he agreed Equality was better. Just remember God is watching and there isn’t enough prayer you can say to get you into Heaven. And I sure won’t be saying any for ya…..

  3. Vermont Republicans should be proud and rejoicing the bills their legislators are advancing, which they indirectly voted for by running candidates that stood for something.

    Instead of being resentful, they should happily accept the new taxes, the new gun laws, and the further deterioration of our schools.

    At least we stood for something and now we stand on the steps of the Capitol peering in through the windows.

    There’s a cabal, reminiscent of Warren Jeffs, masquerading as “True Republicans” that is blurring the line between Right Wing Republican Zealots and Bigots.

    Do you believe Cabal candidates stand a chance?

    Primaries and Elections have consequences.

  4. The Vermont legislature used to have several sacred cows that they counted on for votes. One group was farmers, and woe was to any legislator who pushed for a farm-unfriendly bill. Now the demoprogs have abandoned traditional farmers by imposing burdensome regulations. The other sacred constituent group were working people of limited means. The demoprogs in the legislature have shown that they are not averse to economically harming the lower middle class. They always get elected anyhow, so who do they feel they need to please? Everyone is fair game as long as a majority of Vermonters habitually commit sociocide in the voting booth by voting for these leftist authoritarians.

  5. Conspiracy is well covered under 18 USC Chapter 19. I contend the yokes are weighing heavy on many a neck in Vermont. The panic and desperation under the Golden Dome is making them do unthinkable things, but it pales in comparison to what they have all ready done. Those who stepped down are highly suspect under the circumstances. Those remaining are trapped and attempting to cover up criminal fraud, sedition and treason. The walls are closing in, the Truth is pouring out, and they cannot escape the justice coming upon them. Boomerang incoming

  6. “Collateral Damage”

    By Ellin Anderson

    When the coltsfoot was in bloom
    On sunny banks, and on the hill
    Where Nature wove on April’s loom,
    They sat in peace, as white and still
    And stiff as any Dresden doll —
    A little family in their car —
    They will not answer when you call,
    However close you are.

    They rested there, through every storm —
    The bleak black night, the silver day —
    Had they been trying to get warm,
    Or just to get away?
    In unrelenting northern cold,
    With dead blue lips, a mother’s kiss
    Is pressed on Baby’s hair of gold —
    But nothing good, not even bliss
    As good as gold can stay.

    Or stay the hand of cruel intent
    And power open to misuse.
    Would pity’s warming heart relent,
    Or would the cold claw of abuse
    Unfold there on the sunny bank
    Where the unsullied violet curled:
    A little house, a propane tank
    Crumpled, to save the world.

    They tap upon the window — near
    The marble eye, the porcelain ear
    To ask forgiveness — now, they come,
    But find the father deaf and dumb,
    The child who only asked a crumb —
    The mother and her crystal tear —
    “Forgive us” — mocking or sincere,
    A prayer that only God will hear.