By Rob Roper
Why settle for new carbon taxes on just gasoline, diesel, and home heating fuels when you can apply a carbon tax to EVERYTYHING!
Implementing an “economy wide” “cap and invest” (which is the current euphemism for a carbon tax) program is the latest curlicue fluorescent lightbulb to go off over the heads of the twenty-three zealots charged with totally restructuring our economy around greenhouse gas reduction.
For the past several months the Climate Council has been discussing what its recommendations to the 2023 legislature should be, including bringing back the Clean Heat Standard carbon tax on home heating fuels, and some version of the Transportation Climate Initiative carbon tax on motor fuels. These programs, if implemented, would cost Vermonters multiple tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in heating and transportation costs every year by themselves.
But why stop there? During the August 18 meeting of the Cross Sector Mitigation Subcommittee, Brian Woods was running down a list of menu items that the Council would like to see professionally analyzed within the thermal sector to determine which policy or combination of policies would be needed to meet the mandates set out in the Global Warming Solutions Act. “It includes sector wide performance standards like the Clean Heat Standard or the Clean Fuel Standard like we were talking about. But also includes expansion of existing policies programs. It includes direct carbon pollution pricing like a price on carbon. Cap and Invest in the thermal sector. And then targeted performance standards for heating appliances, or direct regulation of fuel emissions for appliances as well. So, it’s not specific to clean heat. It’s going to be a very comprehensive analysis.”
At this point Council Member Christine Donovan chimed in, “Has consideration been given to including economy-wide cap and invest in this analysis? I understand how we got to think about this at a thermal sector level, but informed by the conversation we just had, is there a rationale for broadening it to looking at these various options at an economy wide level, not only the thermal sector.”
Earlier in the week, during the Transportation Task Group meeting, a frustrated Member Gina Campoli noted that the Council can’t even afford to do the studies necessary to evaluate these programs because the political will isn’t there to tax and spend to pay for them. That should serve as a clue that there is absolutely zero popular or political appetite for an economy-wide carbon tax.
And where might Vermont’s media be to inform Vermonters as to what is being discussed and proposed in these meetings?
The author is a Stowe resident and member of the Ethan Allen Institute board of directors.
Categories: Commentary
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Limousine Libbies completely out of touch with reality. Surprise!
It is just wonderful. When I am sure the Climate Council, no matter how little they know about energy or economics, could come up with anything to create more difficulty for Vermonter’s, they come up with an idea I hadn’t known was inside the reality envelope.
Vermont is a poor, high cost state. We already siphon off more and more funds through subsidies, regulation costs and loopholes for favored boondoggles to address global warming. Of course, if you ask “What has this costed?” and “What has been its effect?” they don’t have an answer for either question.
The first Director of the DOE E-ARPA described it accurately. “We need research to find economically competitive alternative. All the other subsidies are a boondoggle.”
It makes me sick.
Those self important fruitcakes need to get real jobs, and not bother productive members of society.
The Zoom pics of the members do not inspire me to believe that these people should be in charge of the Earth’s climate. It’s like a meeting of the Flat Earth Society and no one there knows what they’re talking about. What they do know is that there’s a government slush fund full off inflationary dollars waiting to be wasted on trying to heal the planet from a geographical dot on the earth’s surface, Vermont. If this is our best and brightest, I can see why we are all Doomed. This is the Twilight Zoom episode of when all the people were out to lunch and this disaster happened. We elected a legislature, that appointed a board to do its dirty work on the climate religion thing so they could say it wasn’t their fault that you are broke. Now that trickery is pretty clever, and you will elect them again because they’re your representative and can do no wrong. Now, that’s progressive!
I used to be fairly self sufficient, but of late, with inflation, and higher taxes, I need money. Maybe I could get a Tax established on everything so I could fund my favorite charity (me) ?
We all need money; we live in Vermont where everything that moves or stands still is taxed. Vermont is a place where every restriction comes with a fee and every job a required license. A place where individual freedom goes to die. The Vermont moto of “Freedom and Unity” means nothing and Vermont Strong is a government manufacture license plate to collect more money for the DMV. All the indicators point to Vermont’s unsustainability, but the voters are not paying attention.
The big lie of climate change! So many lies told and believed it’s difficult to sort through them all. These people operate on a level of subconscious programming. They seriously believe the lies and the programming. Why? They believe they are right. They profit (not as much as their Masters of course) from inflicting pain and suffering onto others and don’t see that pain and suffering at all. The scales are over their eyes. The Devil is a lie and they are propping up the lie. We are at the point of last chance at redemption. If they don’t repent, they will be destroyed. The lion is coming.