Matt Cota of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association recently sent out its weekly bulletin to its hundred-plus members, the people who bring fuel oil and propane to keep you from freezing in Vermont winters. A major topic was the Clean Heat Standard bill (S.715) that has passed the House and is now in the Senate.
Says Matt: “The Clean Heat Standard would raise the cost of fossil fuels used for heat. We have no idea how much it will cost. The legislature does not set the rate. The three appointed members of the Vermont Public Utility Commission set the rate.”
That last point I have hammered on before. The hidden tax on your heating fuel will be set not by your legislators, who you can hold accountable at election time, but by three unaccountable strangers who sit on the Public Utility Commission.
How much can they force your fuel dealers to pay in the never ending but futile war against the Menace of Climate Change? As much as they need to, to get you to stop buying fuel that when burned produces that awful carbon dioxide.
What can you do about the higher cost of heating fuel, that the Clean Heat Standard will pass on to you through the fuel dealers, who are the designated fall guys for this program?” Nothing. You don’t vote for the Public Utility Commission members. They can do whatever they want.
Categories: Commentary
“McClaughry: Un-elected officials would set heating fuel ‘tax’ rate” That is what happens when you put gutless, sniveling politicians in charge of crafting laws that they fear could cost them their position. They in all their lofty, calculated reasoning hope that when it hits the fan they can point a finger at a board, or other appointed body, and say “they did it’ and the minions will buy their obfuscation thus shifting the blame. The sad part is, that all too often, it does work…..
It worked for Obama……EVERY time – His healthcare plan screw-ups, the IRS scandal, etc. “SHE did it” was his most popular go-to.
While Vermont law makers pass laws relating to climate change they don’t understand and can’t explain, a new CBS poll indicates that climate change is way down the list of Americans’ concerns.
The new CBS poll found that “climate change” was last on the list of most important priorities for Americans. Respondents ranked the economy (76 percent), inflation (73 percent), crime (59 percent), Ukraine (58 percent), immigration (48 percent), and then “climate change” (39 percent) in respective order of importance.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/04/22/earth-day-poll-climate-change-last-priority-americans/
Looks like the Vermont legislature has things backwards on the clean heat standard…….The American people are most concerned with economy and inflation while the Senators Bray, McDonald and their colleagues are pushing legislation that would escalate inflation and harm the economy.
Time to elect Vermont legislators who are in touch with the people.
See Don Keelan’s recent commentary where he calls out the Vermont legislature for being out of touch with the people of Vermont…….Looks like the CBS poll (cited above) showing that the American’s people put climate change way down the list of concerns confirms Keelan’s view that the Vermont Legislature is out of touch…….A reality that John McClaughry and the rest of the folks at EAI have been pointing out for all to see and hear for months……….See and hear for all, except, it appears our elected representatives in Montpelier.
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/2022/04/21/keelan-legislature-seems-out-of-touch/
See Don Keelan’s recent commentary where he calls out the Vermont legislature for being out of touch with the people of Vermont…….Looks like the CBS poll (cited above) showing that the American’s people put climate change way down the list of concerns confirms Keelan’s view that the Vermont Legislature is out of touch…….A reality that John McClaughry and the rest of the folks at EAI have been pointing out for all to see and hear for months……….See and hear for all, except, it appears our elected representatives in Montpelier.
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/2022/04/21/keelan-legislature-seems-out-of-touc
Trees and plants use carbon dioxide, and give off oxygen
People and animals use oxygen and give off Carbon Dioxide
5th grade science. 90% country and 10% city
UM? Do we have more people and animals, or more trees and plants
Or a scientific blend, sucessfully supporting life between the two.
We need to build a roof over the state of Vermont. do they not get it? as long as China and India continue to burn coal and since we do not have a snug roof over the state of Vermont the wind will blow and it will go blow all around the globe..No Co2 from Vermont…! what difference would it make ? And the vermonters would freeze because they could not afford to heat their old houses in the bitter cold winter. they should concentrate on stopping the wind from blowing around the globe…. then tackle the carbon emissions coming from Vermont….ha ha ha…
Un-elected perhaps. Again, this is the way Vermont politics works. These people were ‘appointed’ by elected officials.
“Margaret Cheney was appointed to the Vermont Public Utility Commission in 2013 by Governor Peter Shumlin and was reappointed by Governor Phil Scott in 2020.”
Remember, Ms. Cheney also happens to be Peter Welch’s wife.
What is there here about cronyism that no one understands? The ‘Deep State’ can only be thwarted when it finally bankrupts itself, … and all the rest of us too along with them.
Consider Sen. Leahy and his wife, Marcelle, the niece of the late real estate tycoon, Tony Pomerleau., who was the owner of much of the Newport real estate that was intertwined in this EB-5 deal. Both Senator Leahy and his wife actively promoted the project. Curiously, when the project first began to unravel, Tony Pomerleau cut his ties with the project – before anyone else did. Unfortunately, we’ll never know what Pomerleau knew and when he knew it. And good luck getting anything out of Patrick Leahy, or State Auditor Hoffer (who promised to get to the bottom of the EB-5 fraud). Not to mention AG Donovan, who’s running for the hills these days too.
Does anyone remember Bill Mathis on the VT State Board of Ed.?… lobbyist extraordinaire for the teacher’s union.
But hey. We let this happen. We have only ourselves to blame. And only we can eliminate the corruption by electing reasonable people who follow the VT Constitution – Article 9. [Citizens’ rights and duties in the state; bearing arms; taxation]
“That every member of society hath a right to be protected in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and therefore is bound to contribute the member’s proportion towards the expence of that protection, and yield personal service, when necessary, or an equivalent thereto, but no part of any person’s property can be justly taken, or applied to public uses, without the person’s own consent, or that of the Representative Body, nor can any person who is conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, be justly compelled thereto, if such person will pay such equivalent; nor are the people bound by any law but such as they have in like manner assented to, for their common good: and previous to any law being made to raise a tax, the purpose for which it is to be raised ought to appear evident to the Legislature to be of more service to community than the money would be if not collected.”