by John McClaughry
A friend sent me the video of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy committee meeting of April 15, discussing the Clean Heat Standard bill (H.715). Twenty nine minutes in, it yielded these gems:
Sen. Mark MacDonald (Democrat, Orange Co.): “I don’t understand it, I can’t explain it so I don’t understand it.”
“They (the Public Utility Commission) in theory understand what we are not able to explain. We are asking them to design the thing that will work. But we can’t explain what we are asking them to design.”
A minute or two later Chairman Sen. Chris Bray (Democrat, Addison Co.) admits: “you could see the price of [heating] fuel rise.”
Sen. MacDonald: “When John McClaughry says we’ve got a fuel tax, a carbon tax, I think John’s correct – isn’t that what we’re doing?”
Sen. Bray: “Right. In essence you’re building into the price of fuel the cost of reducing the [carbon dioxide] emissions”
Let’s give the senators credit for candor. Yes, forcing your heating fuel distributor to buy Clean Heat Credits, that the Public Utility Commission can issue in unlimited quantities to heat pump installers, weatherizers and other favored businesses and homeowners that are doing something that reduces carbon dioxide emissions, will drive up the price of that fuel. And who will pay the higher price? You will, if you use heating oil, propane or natural gas.
The senators now admit what I’ve been saying since early February .It’s a stealth carbon tax.
After recognizing that important fact, the four Democrats on the Committee voted 4-1 to report to the bill to the Senate. The lone Republican voted no.
Categories: Energy
How do you know when progressive-Democrats like MacDonald and Bray are lying?
They’re moving their lips.
These elitist senators get no credit for their work to “solve” what is not yet proven to be a problem.
All of the alarmist pandering to the green crowd is just that, pandering.
There is no clear solution to heating Vermonts homes and businesses without hydrocarbons anywhere near the time frame mandated by the GWSA. Current technology and infrastructure limits clearly aren’t close to meeting the demands of Vermont’s climate nor it’s residents- and no amount of taxation will change this. Climate evangelism is nothing more than another game, played by liberals to secure more government control.
“Let’s give the senators credit for candor.”………There is no credit due for candor when the Senators have failed to do understand and define the consequences of what they are proposing to do.
Senator McDonald admits “….I don’t understand it” while Bray Sen. Bray states : “Right. In essence you’re building into the price of fuel the cost of reducing the [carbon dioxide] emissions.” without even knowing what the price will be.
These guys, following the extreme climate ideology, have no idea of where they are taking Vermont with the GWSA and the negative consequences of their actions……In any other profession, what we’re witnessing in the Vermont legislature would be deemed malpractice…..Plain and simple.
As reported:
“…A minute or two later Chairman Sen. Chris Bray (Democrat, Addison Co.) admits: “…you could see the price of [heating] fuel rise.”
Sen. MacDonald: “When John McClaughry says we’ve got a fuel tax, a carbon tax, I think John’s correct – isn’t that what we’re doing?”
To Bray, and MacDonald, and all the other progressive liberal fools in the Vermont legislature, and those appointed to the PUC, who are pushing H.715, it’s not that “…you could see the price rise..,” it already has!
Today, 18 April, 2022, I received my first bill for non pre-buy home heating oil, delivered to my house in Rutland last week. My pre-buy cost locked in last summer was $2.89 a gallon. Today’s bill for the latest delivery of heating oil, was for $5.19 a gallon!
This extravagant price increase in not because of Putin’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, and not because of oil company price gouging or Trump’s former economic policies. The price increase is the direct result of the actions of Biden, (and those who are pulling this puppet president’s strings), from his first day in office, to destroy America’s energy independence. And this is being done to pursue a bogus political agenda to combat a crisis that doesn’t exist. And many of the Vermont legislators have bought into this nonsense for various nefarious reasons, many that most likely include person gain.
The cause of the increase will be heatedly and thoroughly argued, blaming everyone except those actually responsible, but the fact remains that heating my home in Vermont is going to cost me a hell of a lot more in months to come! Damn them all!…
Thank you John! We are just witnessing the slow descent into Vermont Legislative hell. The Senators are voting for something they cannot even verbalize, let alone comprehend. The Senators are caught but can redeem themselves one more time. At a time when Vermonters are trying to recover from a devastating pandemic and worry about the consequences of a potential WW3, the Senators want Vermonters to pay more for their energy needs . Senators you are being scrutinized by a healthy non main stream media, you can make your case about your mistake on the Senate floor. You are kicking the can down the road, and believe you can wash your hands from it, but the can will be there in 2025 to bite you back unless of course you re not reelected .
These Democrat “holier than thou” State senators are doing exactly what so many Trump-trained, Republican civil servants at all levels are also being criticized for doing. Simply put, they are allowing politics to override both common sense and their promised duty to intelligently serve their constituents. In other words, obtaining Party-sourced election funding is far more important to them than doing what is in the best, long-term interests of those who depend upon them for supposedly honest representation in the Legislature.
Wakeup folks! By continuing to re-elect those who put their own desires ahead of those of yours whom they claim nominally to represent, is like you drinking a bottle of cyanide assuming that it will make you feel better. They win; you suffer.
http://www.truenorthreports.com/mcclaughry-check-back-amendment-the-path-to-accountability-on-clean-heat-standard….or the devious way to the” kicking the can down the road’ approach by climate change fanatical senators ! Thank you John again. More than ever as we approach the epic conclusion of two years of surreal climate change discourse , the necessity for an alternative media in Vermont is brutally evident . Where would we be without the relentless work of VDC and TNR ?In a state of blissful ignorance .
So these feeble minded legislators can’t understand or explain it, but they vote for it anyway to push the ideology? The peoples house and the senate need a fall house cleaning. If you aren’t disgusted yet, hang on there will be more coming from the bizarre circus of the progressive twilight zone in Montpeculier!
Mark, in the comment above said it best and it bears repeating. The law of unintended consequences would apply but in this case the idiocy of this bill is obvious to many. Unless it does not pass, or is repealed soon in the future, it could rapidly destroy the state of Vermont from resembling the values any native resident held dear.
“This extravagant price increase in not because of Putin’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, and not because of oil company price gouging or Trump’s former economic policies. The price increase is the direct result of the actions of Biden, (and those who are pulling this puppet president’s strings), from his first day in office, to destroy America’s energy independence. And this is being done to pursue a bogus political agenda to combat a crisis that doesn’t exist. And many of the Vermont legislators have bought into this nonsense for various nefarious reasons, many that most likely include person gain.”
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Yes, Mark MacDonald, my Orange County Senator, it’s a carbon tax, which you have supported all these years. You have even told me specifically that you want to put truckers out of business by driving diesel fuel out of sight. I seem to recall you saying that we will need to put all the truckers on welfare. Wake up Orange County!!!!Mark MacDonald doesn’t care about whether you can afford heating fuel or not. You are such a liar and you need to go. The dems don’t want to give up their power so we have to take it back. All the democrats need to go. Mary
If you want to understand the Clean Heat Standard, I deconstructed the very complicated legislation and testified to the Senate Natural Resources Committee, video here https://youtu.be/57XyrUwMQYc, go to 26 minutes in. I was the only person on the agenda for the 11 to 11:30 time slot, but was told to stop because they had another witness, who turned out to be Ben Walsh of VPIRG — a little insight into how this game is played. Couldn’t let me have the last word at the end of a Friday committee meeting.
Then, more fun a week later as the committee had on the agenda to vote on the bill. The PUC came in to say that because of the change from an Order to a Rule, they need more time, and had issues with the deadlines in the bill. Their concerns were abruptly cut off by the need to vote before going on the Senate floor. The vote was 4 -1, then they adjourned. But the camera kept running. Go to 47 minutes in https://youtu.be/2-Sf9Gwedao to see the Chair working with Jared Duval of Energy Action Network, asking him for help over the weekend on the talking points to bring to the Senate Floor. The committee passed out a bill that the PUC says they can’t do in the time frame.
Two days before, the committee received a letter signed onto by numerous groups expressing serious concerns with the Clean Heat Standard. None of those were addressed or resolved in any satisfactory way. https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2022/WorkGroups/Senate%20Natural%20Resources/Bills/H.715/Public%20Comments/H.715~Jennifer%20Byrne~Letter%20of%20Concern~4-13-2022.pdf