And they double down GWSA’s “right to sue” provision.
Thirteen of seventeen Senate Democrats joined every Republican in repealing Act 18, the Clean Heat Standard, in a significant moral victory for the GOP. (For those wondering the four colossally out of touch “no” votes came from Andrew Perchlik (D/P- Washington), Ann Cummings (D-Washington), Becca White (D-Windsor), and Tanya Vyhovsky (D/P -Chittenden C.) But it didn’t come without a two hour long parliamentary ping pong match of amendments, amendments to amendments, divisions and roll calls that are edge of the seat exciting to, well, only to weirdos like me. But here’s the gist of the story….
Senator Terry Williams (R-Rutland) put forward an amendment to H.740, the fuel dealer registry bill that is designed to capture the data necessary to implement some form of carbon tax on fossil fuels, to repeal Act 18. Senator Anne Watson (D/P-Washington) countered with a supposed compromise repealing the Clean Heat Standard but going forward with the fuel dealer registry – step one for bringing about Clean Heat Standard 2.0 (or more likely Cap & Invest). The move was designed to force Republicans into a corner: vote yes to kill the policy you promised your constituents you’d kill, Act 18, but you’re stuck voting yes and giving us cover on the policy we Democrats really want to move forward with, the registry. Check.
Obviously, that’s a bad bargain for the Republicans and happily they didn’t take it. Instead, Scott Beck (R-Caledonia) moved that the vote on the bill be split, forcing up or down votes on each policy separately. As such, Republicans were able to put their colleagues across the aisle cleanly on the record, in the first case betraying their climate warrior base, and in the second throwing their fossil fuel consuming constituents (that’s pretty much all of them) under the electric bus. Check and mate.
It was a delicious political battle won, but not the war, because the Democrats – during this debate – were plotting their next Carbon Tax move. Senator Perchlik was straight forward about it: “[Repealing the Clean Heat Standard] has no meaning other than symbolicness [not a word, Andy, but we get your point]…. It doesn’t change the legislature’s ability to do this in the future.” Yup. That’s true! It’s exactly what they plan to do, and thank you for reminding us all that the only real way to ensure a new Clean Heat Standard bill, or a Cap & Invest bill, or a straight up excise tax on gas, diesel, and home heating fuels doesn’t happen is to un-elect politicians who want to do these things, and elect politicians who don’t. And, in case anyone is unclear here, the 17 Democrats who voted for the fuel dealer registry – all of them — DO, and the thirteen Republicans – all of them — who voted against it DON’T.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth (D/P-Chittenden ) admitted, “The Democratic majority, post-election, is saying to you ‘here is the repeal you sought, the only thing we ask in return is that you allow us to gather some data so that we can make in the future some sensible moves on renewable energy [emphasis added].’” Um… no. Republicans weren’t elected to just act symbolicnessly (I’m rolling with it) regarding carbon taxes, they were elected to stop Democrats from imposing them at all, ever, period. Today proves they get that! And thank you!
Further evidence the Democrats most assuredly do not “get it” came next when Senator Williams put forward another amendment, this time to strip out the unimaginably stupid “anybody can sue the state if we fail to meet our unattainable greenhouse gas reduction goals” language from the Global Warming Solutions Act. This utterly idiotic provision leaves Vermont taxpayers on the hook for potentially millions of dollars in legal bills when – not if, when – we fail to lower our emissions to meet the impossible mandates.
This should go without say that any politician who votes to put you, their constituent, in legal and financial jeopardy is not a representative working on your behalf and with your best interests at heart. Note: every Democrat but one (Tom Chittenden, D-Chittenden SE) voted to double down and screw you on this point – again — and with the ignored benefit of hindsight.
As Chittenden explained, “It never seemed right to me yielding or abdicating our responsibilities to the judicial system…. This was passed before I joined the legislature and I said to people that I didn’t think it was good policy…. I don’t think this is the right thing for Vermont, and I do think it’s a bit of a distraction when we have to fend off or be afraid of lawsuits when we fail to meet objectives….”
That is the commonsense position held by just 1/17th of the Democrat majority in the state senate. Just so you know.
The fossil fuel registry did pass on party lines 17-13. We hope and expect Governor Scott will veto this if it gets to his desk. More importantly, the majority party showed us during this debate just how dangerous they will be if re-elected this November.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 25 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.