By Paul Bean
A March 12 rally at the State House hosted by opponents of carbon mandates urged repeal of the Clean Heat Standard (Act 18).
“The worst act for governance you can engage in is passing these mandates do nothing of substance on the scale to meet those goals mandates while leaving Vermont taxpayers on the hook to be sued at significant expense because of your failure to come up with a realistic plan,” said energy policy analyst, Rob Roper, one of the organizers of the rally. “Repeal Act 18 repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act!”
“There’s gonna be people here today who dismiss our words and our actions. They will claim that opposition to the Clean Heat Standard comes from ‘Big Oil,'” said Judy Taranovich owner of Proctor Gas. Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark is currently suing “Big Oil,” companies like ExxonMobil and Shell. The case seeks to hold these companies accountable for “misleading Vermonters about the impact of fossil fuels on climate change, aiming to recover damages caused by their deceptive practices.”
“Vermont, I’m here to tell you nothing could be farther from the truth. My name is Judy Taranovich, I run a small propane company in Proctor, Vermont with 11 employees. I’m one of the 11. I’m the ‘Big Oil’ they’re talking about,” she joked, making the point that her company was not exactly “big.”
“I am one of 100 small energy providers in Vermont who stand against this law,” continued Taranovich. “I understand what the Clean Heat Standard would do and the devastating impact it would have on small energy companies their employees their customers and their communities. Yet the largest fossil fuel company in Vermont supported Act 18 and actively lobbied for it to become law… Green Mountain Power is the largest fossil fuel company [in Vermont], they own the gas system natural gas system, they own all the electric, which a lot of it comes from fossil fuels, and they’re owned by Gas Metro out of Canada.”
A Republican effort to repeal Act 18 is now in the Senate Natural Resources Committee and may eventually be debated on the floor of the Senate.