|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Michael Bielawski
Former State Senator John Rodgers – who is considering a run for the lieutenant governorship – was on the Morning Drive radio show on Friday morning and he noted the amount of special interests influencing state energy policy.
He was asked about H. 289, which seeks to tighten the state’s Renewable Energy Standard. VDC recently wrote that this bill “would more closely tie the Vermont power grid to instate renewable power and cost ratepayers an additional $350 million – $1 billion over 10 years.” House leaders are currently threatening to override the governor’s veto of the bill.
The bill increases the percentage of non-carbon energy that electricity creation, heating, and transportation must use by various checkpoints in the coming years. It’s also a carbon tax in the form of an “alternative compliance payment.”
Rodgers shared the assessment that this bill is going to cost Vermonters more.
“It’s gonna add $100 million a year to people’s electric costs, the majority of that money is going to go to utilities and developers,” he said. “… And so when net metering passed they allowed net metering systems to charge 21 cents a kilowatt hour while we could buy power from Hydro Quebec for 6 cents a kilowatt hour.”
Net metering is when a customer buys solar panels for their property and the public energy utilities must purchase that energy at a set rate usually significantly higher than average energy costs.
Rodgers asserts that $10s of millions of state funds are getting “cost-shifted” since the net metering program began. He says that the majority of that money has gone to energy developers.
He also said that ratepayers are paying more than the market price.
“And it’s time for the solar and wind power to be priced at the market price, there is absolutely no reason to be over-paying for it,” he said. “These panels, they are coming from China, they are getting cheaper and cheaper, and there are reports around the world that say that renewable energy is now cheaper to build than other sorts of energy.”
Too many lobbyists?
He asserted that these alternative energy developers have an overwhelming presence at the Statehouse.
“I don’t want to call it corruption but there are an awful lot of those developers who make giant contributions to political candidates,” Rodgers said. “… It’s a little disturbing to pull into the Statehouse and see a major solar developer’s cars all over the parking lot.
He continued, “And then we have one of the lobbyists in the building who says we have to do everything we can for climate change who just went skiing with a whole bunch of friends in the French Alps during the Town Meeting break.”
Rodgers also noted that the same lawmakers who sound the alarm that climate change is going to doom society continue to live in excess.
“So these guys are saying we need to do everything we can but they are not doing it, they are living in their big houses, many of them have multiple big houses, they are jet-setting around the world. The biggest contributor to carbon is the top 10%.”
The whole interview can be listened to on the Morning Drive webpage.
The sentiment that the Statehouse occupants have taken the push to eradicate carbon dioxide, a necessary compound for life on Earth, too far is not new. Vermonters for a Clean Environment Annette Smith has noted the trend as well.
“No longer the representatives of all Vermonters, the statehouse is populated by a climate claque whose only villain is carbon emissions. Nothing else matters to these true believers. They are driven by the fear that if the monster of fossil fuel emissions is not vanquished, the world will end,” she wrote to the Caledonia Record in February of last year.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: Energy, Environment, State Government
Other states, California and Hawaii, have cut their net metering rates. The same will happen in Vermont, which is always behind the Leftist curve, leaving homeowners holding the bag and installers going out of business.
Too many lobbyists? Ya think.
• [Peter] Welch Takes Campaign Cash From Telecom Regulated by His Wife [PUC Commissioner, Margaret Cheney]
Seven Days POSTED BY TAYLOR DOBBS ON THU, APR 19, 2018 AT 1:37 PM
• SunCommon Conflict? How VPIRG’s Solar Spinoff Company Went From Org to Inc.
Seven Days By PAUL HEINTZ Published March 14, 2012 at 11:02 a.m.
• iSun acquires SunCommon for $40 million
Vermont BIZ posted Wed, 09/08/2021 – 05:42
• Becca Balint’s $1 million crypto benefactor pleads guilty to campaign finance fraud
By Lola Duffort VT Digger February 28, 2023, 6:46 pm
“…former executive at the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange who bankrolled a $1 million advertising blitz in favor of U.S. Rep. Becca Balint’s primary election bid, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to several criminal charges, including campaign finance fraud.”
• Federal prosecutors allege Sam Bankman-Fried used stolen funds to pay for political donations
By Lola Duffort, VT Digger, December 13, 2022, 6:52 pm
“…both Balint and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., received campaign contributions directly from Bankman-Fried — the legally allowed maximum — in their respective bids for the U.S. House and Senate.”
• Auditor’s report details lack of state oversight in Vermont’s EB-5 fraud
By Babette Stolk, VT Digger, March 29, 2024, 3:00 pm
“At the highest level, our findings should not be entirely surprising,” State Auditor Doug Hoffer said in releasing the findings.”
Leahy, Welch, Sanders, and Shumlin were all involved.
• Vt. auditor finds ‘consequential mistakes’ in Burlington TIF accounting
By Katharine Huntley, WCAX, Published: Jan. 16, 2024 at 11:38 AM EST
VT Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts
“Hoffer maintains Burlington is at fault but he does not think the TIF process is the best way for municipalities to invest in infrastructure. “This is an immensely expensive and an immensely complicated way to do something that I think could be accomplished through other means. But aside from that, the audit reports we issue have nothing to do with a crusade or a campaign. They are audits supported by sufficient and appropriate evidence, and no one has ever shown me otherwise,” Hoffer said.”
• Auditor: Agency of Ed failed to seek competitive bids for federal money
By Tiffany Danitz Pache, VT Digger, December 21, 2015, 9:33 pm
“You can’t have somebody making a decision about a contract with an entity with whom they work,” said Hoffer. “That employee did some contracting work for X while working at the Agency so that individual should not have made a decision about that company … there needs to be a separation.”
“Rebecca Holcombe, the secretary of education, has made it clear that the agency is taking the audit seriously, according to Talbott. “We will do everything we can to follow the new bulletin. We will do a much better job vetting internally sole source requests before we send them to AOA.”
• 16 V.S.A. § 558. Eligibility for election to a school board; employment of school board members
(a) A legal voter in a school district shall be eligible for election to a school board; however, a member of a school board may not be regularly employed by the school district or by a school district within the same supervisory union, or by the same supervisory union during the board member’s term of office
(b) The Secretary may waive the provisions of this section for employment of a specific individual as a substitute teacher, coach, or supervisor of extracurricular activities for a period not to exceed one year, which may be renewed if the school district or supervisory union is unable to hire another qualified person through no fault of its own.
Retired teachers and school administrators, teachers and administrators in adjacent districts, and their family members, are not considered to have conflicts of interest.
____________
Bottom line: Vermont, one of the most corrupt State’s in the country?
• Most Corrupt U.S. States
Based on Best Life’s analysis, Vermont is the most corrupt U.S. state.
In case anyone was still wondering.
I almost forgot to mention, being the equal opportunity whiner that I am….
• Watchdog group claims pro-Sanders nonprofit violated campaign finance law
Jan 22, 2020, 1:50 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The watchdog group Common Cause filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, alleging that Our Revolution, a political nonprofit organization founded by Bernie Sanders, violated campaign finance law by accepting donations in excess of federal limits while boosting his White House ambitions.
• Special report: Sanders campaign millions go to mystery firm
By Jasper Craven, VT Digger, July 15, 2016, 11:53 pm
“Recently reached by phone, Jane Sanders said she had a call on the other line and declined to discuss what her role in the campaign has been, or if she has made any money from her husband’s campaign in any capacity.
Asked about the media firm run by her former colleagues, she said, “I have no idea what Old Towne Media is” before hanging up.”
• Report: Bernie campaign paid $200K to non-profit run by stepson
August 14, 2023, Alison Despathy, VDC
“Sen. Sanders’ campaign transferred $200,000 to the Sanders Institute, his wife (Jane Sanders) and step son’s (David Driscoll) non-profit organization.”
“Business Insider reported that Sanders almost doubled his income in 2022 with $170,000 in book royalties on top of his $174,000 Senator’s income. Apparently, he also made $170,000 from his book in 2020, bringing his book earnings to $340,000 thus far.”
_____
Some of the reports indicate that Bernie distributed more than $270,000 to Jane’s nonprofit in this last instance. But who’s counting? Don’t you just love democratic socialism? Where we’re all equal, but some of us are a bit more equal than others.
I was curious (but not surprised) about that statement, VT being the most corrupt, so I went to the Best Life site. One can quibble about the criteria they use, but this is what it says:
Public corruption convictions per 10,000 residents: 42
Adverse action reports filed from 1990 to 2020: 3,753
Medical malpractice reports filed from 1990 to 2020: 831
S.W.A.M.P. index score: 37 out of 100
State integrity score: 60 out of 100
Corruption Index Score: 100.00 <—–THIS
And for the place where you'll find some serious cannabis enthusiasts, This Is the Most Stoned State in America.
Personally, I agree with the assessment, but I think you have to keep in mind how the numbers stack up in terms of total population and percentages. Bear in mind this same publication rates Burlington and South Burlington among the best cities to live.
Thanks for the enlightening education, Jay. Sadly, I know it is true.
Keep up your whining H. Jay Eshelman…. It has a very sweet educational tone to it..
It’s amazing how many people are afraid of the truth.
I appreciate your efforts in researching and presenting the facts.
We need more people like you.
I admittedly do not know how to do it, but I have always thought that out of state money, and the lobbyists that make a living from it should be run out of this state . They should listen to their constitutents, and only their constitutients. Period !
“They” should listen to their constitutents, and only their constitutients. Period !
“They” = Politicians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLODGhEyLvk
Enjoy…..good watch…
Tell me where George say’s anything that’s not true.
Don’t call it corruption, whatever you do, DON”T do that!!!
They have words for that, nepotism, cronyism…..some others…
socialism, communism, corporatism, fascim….they all mean the same thing, just different shades of grey so to speak. It’s all about who you know….
Notice nothing has anything to do with our REPUBLIC, it’s no coincidence.
You mean 24/7 money laundering and enemy infiltration in the name of “climate change”:
May 24, 2024: “U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said the Environment and Public Works Committee, found the EPA gave a $50 million grant to the group with money from the Inflation Reduction Act. She said the group “engages in pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic activities.” The EPA said the grant had yet to be awarded. The group’s website features calls for the support of Palestine, which it links to climate change.
“The path to climate justice travels through a free Palestine,” according to the website. ”
May 23, 2024: “A mysterious shooting in North Carolina north of Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, not far from where some of America’s most elite U.S. Special Operations forces live and train is under investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Division as well as local police. The shooting in Carthage, North Carolina occurred May 3 at 8:15 p.m. following a phone call about a suspected trespasser near a Special Forces soldier’s property. Two Chechen men who spoke broken English were found near the soldier’s home. The family alleges the suspected intruder, 35-year-old Ramzan Daraev of Chicago was taking photos of their children. When confronted near a power line in a wooded part of the property, an altercation ensued and Daraev was shot several times at close range. A second man, Dzhankutov Adsalan, was in a vehicle some distance from the incident and was questioned by authorities and then released. The Moore County Sheriff’s office is leading the investigation.”
“The shooting incident two weeks ago in Carthage could have been a case of mistaken identity. The two Chechens had no personal identification. They did have two cell phones with Russian language contacts and camera equipment. They were not wearing any uniforms for the power company that reportedly employed them.”
What power company employed Ramzen Daraev and Dzhankutov Adsalan? A company called “Utilities One” What were they doing surveiling an Army Special Ops unit? Check out “utilitiesone.com” – interesting.
No wonder all the warnings about attacks on infrastructure and climate change operatives installed inside utilitiy and environmental departments. They have purpose and motives against the American people – and they don’t care what color or gender the said American is either. We are all targets now.