“Foundational” first step toward Cap & Invest Carbon Tax passes on a near party line vote after Republican fight.

by Rob Roper

Welp…. Looks like the Democratic Socialists in Vermont learned nothing from the 2024 election that saw massive public opposition to their Clean Heat Carbon Tax, which played a starring role in the shellacking they took the hands of the voters. Today the House Democrats voted near party line (by my count only four broke ranks) to advance H.740, the fuel dealer registry that is the “foundational” next step toward implementing a Cap & Invest Carbon Tax on home heating and transportation fuels, or, as Rep. V.L. Coffin (R-Cavendish) aptly put it, the “Clean Heat Standard 2.0.”

Indeed, there is zero reason to pass this data gathering exercise except to use the data gathered to affix a tax of one sort or another on fossil fuels for home heating and/or transportation. The evidence for this is clear in the letter of support for the bill from Treasurer Mike Pieciak’s (D-VT) office titled “Support for H.740 and Establishing a Comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program,’ which clearly states:

On February 18h, 2025 The Office of the Treasurer released a report to the general assembly with recommendations for viable approaches to a Cap-and-Invest Program with technical assistance from ANR. Though that report concluded that at the time there were no viable Cap-and-invest programs available to Vermont, it notes that there may be a path to a viable approach in the near future. The report poses recommendations for steps to support the careful design of any Cap-and-Invest program in the future. (Emphasis added.)

H.740 is that step to support a Cap & Invest program in the future. Rep. Chris Keyser (R-Rutland City) asked the reporter of the bill, Rep. Kathleen James (D-Manchester) if her committee discussed a Cap & Invest program in regard to H.740 and she lied, saying that they did not. Though not for very long (James DID very actively try to shut down and cover up discussion of Cap & Invest), the Republicans on the committee did, in fact, bring it up, and they did, in fact, discuss it. More importantly, James’ committee did take the Treasurer’s letter support for H.740 into the record, and she cited it on the floor as a reason to advance the bill, which, as demonstrated here, is predicated on its use as a step toward implementing Cap & Invest.

Asked if not for a Cap & Invest program what other initiatives the data collected under H.740 could be used to support, James, after an uncomfortable pause, didn’t have an answer. “After we get the data, we’ll see what might be a next best step.” Uh huh. Sure. But, taking her at her word (LOL!) for the moment, that would mean H.740 is just a $500,000 a year fishing expedition. That should be reason enough to kill the bill in tight economic times like these. For the Democratic Socialists it tellingly wasn’t.

Though hopelessly outnumbered, Republicans did put up a good floor fight.

Rep. Joe Luneau (R-St. Albans) pointed out that the “future path” for Vermont implementing a Cap & Invest Carbon Tax was joining New York’s program, and the problem with that today is New York has not moved forward with the policy for the same reasons Pieciak concluded Vermont could not move forward with it on our own: too expensive, cruelly regressive, and economically suicidal. He went on, “Vermonters said no to Clean Heat [Standard] and the supermajority ignored them. Now with the demise of the 2023 Unaffordable Heat Act, we see the majority try to revive it and expand it to transportation fuels. This is not what Vermonters can afford or need, and it’s a back door to the implementation of financial disaster.”

Rep. Mike Morgan (R-Milton) nailed it. “H.740 has but one purpose: to set the stage or a de facto carbon tax on home heating and transportation fuels. The Vermont Treasure’s office concluded that such a program would be expensive, regressive, and especially harmful to rural Vermonters. The PUC came to the same conclusion. New York is coming to the same conclusion. Vermont voters made it clear in 2024 that they do not want and cannot afford these types of policies. And with no viable path to implement a Clean Heat Standard or Cap & Invest even if Vermonters did support the concept, H.740 is just another example of us throwing good taxpayer money — money we do not have — after bad. I will be voting no and urge my colleagues to do the same.”

Well, all of his Republican colleagues did do the same. The Democrats and Progressives not so much! The vote to advance the bill was 82-56. (Click for the official roll call.)

The Democrats argued inexplicably — and more than a little desperately — that passing H.740 was an affordability measure. How, one with half a brain might ask, does adding a tax of anywhere from 58 cents per gallon (low ball) to several dollars (likely) to products that over three quarters of Vermonters rely on to survive winter, get from point A to point B, and/or run their businesses make life more affordable? That math doesn’t math – and will never math — as my kids would say.

The Democrats argued that the price of fossil fuels are volatile, citing the rapid rise in cost due to the wars in Iran and Ukraine. True. But again, how does adding another 58 cents per gallon to several dollars to products that, again, over three quarters of Vermonters rely on to survive winter, get from point A to point B, and/or run their businesses lessen those spikes and not make them worse? It doesn’t. As is obvious to anyone with an IQ above six.

So, when it comes to punitively taxing gasoline, diesel, heating oil, propane, kerosene, and natural gas, the Democratic Socialist majority’s modus operandi is and will forever be “rinse and repeat.” Let’s hope the voters opt for the same consistency in voting them out in large numbers with a repeat of 2024 in 2026. It’s the only real solution to our affordability crisis.

Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com