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To the Editor: I saw that Gina Campoli wrote a letter on September 16 endorsing Katherine Sims for Orleans County Senate. What voters should know is that Campoli, who did not identify herself as such in her letter, is a member of the Vermont Climate Council Cross Sector Mitigation Committee, which is the driving force behind the push for the Clean Heat Standard program threatening to add somewhere between a $1.78 and $4.03 carbon “fee/tax” to every gallon of heating oil and kerosene and $0.95 and $2.12 to every gallon of propane Vermonters need to stay warm in winter. She is also in that capacity an advocate for a similar carbon tax on gasoline and diesel fuels for our cars and trucks.
If Campoli is endorsing Sims, it is because she knows Sims will be an advocate for these policies when they come up for votes in the Senate. Vermonters cannot afford this – or Sims. As such, I hope voters will throw their support behind Sam Douglass.
It is also worth noting that Sims received an early endorsement from VPIRG, the special interest group leading the charge for the Unaffordable Heat Act, and a prerequisite for that endorsement is support for their agenda.
Sims is a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus in the House, which is pushing the Unaffordable Heat Act, and Sims voted for versions of the Heat Tax law in 2022 and 2023, including two votes to override Governor Scott’s vetoes of this unaffordable tax on surviving Vermont winters.
Sims’ campaign manager is also the political director for Vermont Conservation Voters, a special interest that lobbies for the CHS before the legislature and was quoted in a video produced for the Vermont Natural Resources Council, another special interest group pushing the tax on heating fuels, urging folks to contact legislators who voted against the bill and “let them know you’re disappointed in their vote.” Do you really think they (their preferred pronoun) would work to elect someone with whom they expect to be disappointed in when the Heat Tax comes up for a vote again in January 2025? I don’t think so!
I can’t vote in the Orleans County senate race, but as someone who closely watches these policies and understands their potential impact on all Vermonters, I sincerely hope the voters in Orleans County support Sam Douglass in this campaign. Sam Douglass is a commonsense candidate who understands that Vermonters who are already struggling to get by in a tough economy cannot afford ideologically driven vanity taxes on life’s essentials such as home heating fuels and gasoline. Sam Douglass has pledged to vote NO on the Heat Tax when it comes up for a final vote in 2025. Please, for all of our sakes, vote Sam Douglass for Orleans County senate when you receive you ballot in the mail. –-Rob Roper Stowe, Vt.
Please Vote! Vote for Change! Vote for Affordability! Vote Nielsen for Brandon! As we near the Nov 5 vote for VT House and Senate members, it is extremely important that we all know the voting record of those that seek re-election. There have been many concerns with affordability in VT. The supermajority has pushed through many expensive pieces of legislation using fancy words to convince us they are working for us. But are they?
H.126 (Act 59) that was allowed to become law on 6/12/23 without the Governor’s signature” establishes State goals of conserving 30 percent of the land of the State by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050. It requires …(the state) to develop an inventory of the existing conserved lands in the State and a plan on how to reach the goals.” In Brandon, we have seen hundreds of acres turned over to conservation, the landowners taking small pots of money, and then some not wanting to pay taxes any longer, and the town selling off parcels for very very low cost.
What does that mean for the rest of us? It means we pay the community’s taxes among less people. If more is conserved and the goal is 50%, won’t we see that play out across the state and the taxes on parcels will become higher, while less land is usable and taxable? How will they get to these goals? Will they be voluntary or involuntary? Landowners beware. And if EEE is caused by mosquitos that spread the EEE virus that is carried by birds that live in freshwater swamps, is it best practice to keep conserving swampland?
H.89 (Act 14) was approved on 5/10/23 and defines “legally protected health care activity” …to include reproductive health care services and gender-affirming health care services and reaffirms that access to such services is a legal right in Vermont. The act declares interference with legally protected health care activity… against the public policy of Vermont and the act shields providers and patients from litigation seeking to interfere with these established health care services.” This act has no age requirement so children can consent to sexual mutilation and chemical infertility, without knowing the lifelong consequences. How does a civilized society allow this to be done on our most vulnerable population, children, and does not hold doctors responsible for their intentional act of harm that will affect a child’s whole life?
H.72 (Act 178) became law on 6/25/24 after the Governor’s veto was overridden. This act establishes … an overdose prevention center and provides limited criminal and civil immunity to those who use the services of a center and the individuals and entities who operate the center… An overdose prevention center provides a space… supervised by health care professionals or other trained staff where persons who use drugs can consume pre obtained drugs and medication for substance use disorder.” This act appropriates $1,100,000 for this purpose. The detailed law language about how much drugs can be consumed is even more concerning. When has it ever helped an addict to let them enjoy their addiction while you watch them? Most families of addicts could tell you the low success rate on that idea. Will they count the same person they saved over and over and tell you how many lives they saved? Why is there no age requirement on this bill?
In Brandon, Rep Stephanie Jerome voted for all of these laws. She wants to be re-elected. This is just a sample of the spending decisions she has made since 2019. Most Brandon folks are not better off since she has been in office. Please vote wisely. We don’t need more of this nonsense taking our money!
Vote for change in the next election! We need affordability and citizen focused decisions in Montpelier. Vote Nielsen for Brandon! —Sharon Stearns, Brandon
Global Swarming! Honey bees can communicate and cooperate amazingly as they gather sustenance. When a scout worker bee returns to the hive it dances! It wiggles, twirls and marches while other bees observe carefully. In so doing they learn the precise direction, distance and type of food they should retrieve. Then off they go in the risky exercise that allows the hive to survive.
Now imagine a dystopian version of a honey bee society. The scout has been tricked into leading all the others on a mission that will bring poison to the hive, kill the queen and end their existence.
I am concerned that the Western World is being led on a mission of self-destruction analogous to the doomed bee hive.
The false scouts are the globalist, marxist controligarchs within and without this country. We are the good little worker bees. They are attempting perhaps the greatest exercise in public disinformation in history. Our leaders, in many cases, are sincere but ignorant of the destructive path we are on.
The representatives we trust have been duped into a course of action that threatens our survival. Although carbon dioxide is the gas of life we are being told it is a pollutant. No plant can live without CO2 but CO2 only comprises 0.04% of our atmosphere! In spite of this, we are told there is too much CO2! This is a blatant lie. 0.04% is equivalent to 1 part out of 2,000 (500 PPM). No substance in such a small proportion can possibly control temperature of the whole. Attached to this message you will find a document with a grid of 2,000 dots. This picture saves a thousand words. The lonely little black dot in the middle represents CO2. I challenge anyone, anywhere to provide an explanation for the claims that are made for “too much carbon”. So we have Impossible physics leading to impossible economics.
Tellingly, the governments of India and China ignore carbon/climate extremism. We are breathing the same air they do. They continue to commission new coal fired electric generators every month!
The governments of America and other free market western nations are demonizing carbon and banning the use of petroleum and other carbon based fuels. But these fuels are the backbone of our industrial economies. The effort to eliminate these fuels will lead to incredible human suffering. Also attached to this message is an 18 point summary of this tragic situation.
Please dare to question the authorities on this issue! WE THE PEOPLE must speak up! —Ed & Anne Wheeler, Middlebury