|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
This article was originally published on FYIVT.com and republished here with permission
By Dave Soulia
Vermont likes to call itself a leader in combating climate change, but leadership implies setting an example others want to follow. Instead, Vermont is becoming a cautionary tale of what happens when ideology trumps practicality. The result? A state struggling under the weight of policies that deliver the opposite of what they promise.
The Latest Target: Your Firewood
Lobbyists and environmental groups are quietly pushing to sideline firewood as a heating option, arguing it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and local air quality issues (“Environmental groups raise concerns about wood, biofuels in clean heat standard”). Through proposals like the Clean Heat Standard (CHS), they’re urging regulators to exclude firewood from Vermont’s approved heating methods.
This effort comes despite wood heat being a lifeline for generations of Vermonters. It’s renewable, locally sourced, and dependable—especially during the state’s brutal winters and frequent power outages. Yet, in the name of reducing Vermont’s already infinitesimal global greenhouse gas contribution (0.015%), policymakers risk driving up costs, eliminating options, and leaving rural Vermonters out in the cold.
Regulatory Signals Against Wood Heat
Recent discussions at a Vermont Public Utilities Commission (PUC) Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting reveal growing skepticism about wood heat. Concerns focused on emissions from cordwood stoves and boilers, with some participants labeling them “high-emitting” and inconsistent with public health and climate goals.
Nora Travis of NESCAUM stated, “Cordwood boilers are, in fact, quite high-emitting—to the effect even of more concern than stoves.” Similarly, Brian Woods of the Agency of Natural Resources questioned wood’s carbon neutrality, asking, “It’s hard to understand how a negative carbon intensity for RNG or wood fuels wouldn’t distort the program.”The discussion also emphasized electrification, with Ken Jones cautioning, “Wood fuels shouldn’t skew the credit system away from electrification.”
While advanced wood heating systems may still have a place, the trend is clear: traditional wood-burning appliances like cordwood stoves are being pushed to the margins. The PUC’s cautious tone reflects a broader shift driven by emissions concerns, public health arguments, and doubts about wood’s carbon neutrality. Watch the TAG meeting discussion and read the transcript here.
A Pattern of Overreach
Killington Mountain isn’t the only slippery slope in the state. The Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) requires Vermont to adopt regulations like California’s Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) standards, mandating that all new passenger vehicles sold in the state be zero-emission by 2035. This effectively phases out the sale of combustion vehicles. Now, the same ideologically driven approach is targeting wood heat, another essential tool for surviving rural Vermont winters.
The financial fallout is undeniable. Replacing wood stoves with electric systems or retrofitting homes for “clean” heating methods is prohibitively expensive for working- and middle-class families. Wealthier residents might qualify for subsidies or absorb the costs, but for most, these policies represent a financial strain with little practical benefit. Compounding the issue, Vermont’s electric grid is unreliable, regularly failing during storms. Heat pumps and electric systems can’t keep homes warm without power, but wood stoves can.
The Irony of “Leadership”
Vermont’s aggressive push to be a “climate leader” is proving to be the opposite. Instead of offering a model for sustainability, the state is showcasing the economic harm and alienation that result from prioritizing symbolic policies over practical solutions. What’s green about policies that:
- Increase costs for heating and transportation?
- Undermine locally sourced, sustainable practices like wood heat?
- Push rural residents to rely on an unprepared electric grid?
This kind of “leadership” alienates the very people it claims to help, leaving them less resilient and more financially strained.
A Better Way Forward
If Vermont truly wants to combat climate change, it should focus on solutions that balance environmental goals with practicality. Here’s what real leadership could look like:
- Flood Management: Invest in infrastructure to address Vermont’s natural flooding risks, instead of pretending local carbon cuts will stop rivers from rising.
- Energy Resilience: Strengthen the electric grid and diversify energy sources before mandating widespread electrification. Vermont’s current infrastructure isn’t ready for such a transition.
- Support Local Solutions: Promote responsibly managed forests and high-efficiency wood stoves. Firewood is renewable, local, and well-suited to Vermont’s rural realities.
What’s Really At Stake
This isn’t just about firewood—it’s about freedom. Freedom to heat your home without interference from policymakers and lobbyists who seem disconnected from the realities of rural life. Vermonters deserve policies that reflect their values: independence, resilience, and practicality.
Recent policies already phase out combustion vehicles, and now firewood is in the crosshairs. What’s next? Vermont’s environmental policies, while well-intentioned, are proving to be an alarming example of what happens when going green becomes an ideological crusade rather than a balanced strategy.
If Montpelier doesn’t rethink its approach, it risks driving out the very people who make Vermont what it is. Let’s hope lawmakers understand what’s truly worth preserving before it’s too late.
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categories: News Analysis
There is nothing about climate in this agenda, that is its face excuse, its hidden and real agenda is to tether every person to the utilities, a utility that will have the power to cut off the recipients supply for any number of consequences, perhaps using too much this or that, or saying something negative about the legislature, we already saw censorship during covid, and pressure to take experiments that turned out to NOT WORK. Imagine the next generation when they are 20 being told, you have to take this experiment, tested or not, and if you don’t, we turn off your electricity. They will have that power.. The reason you can truly see through this as an agenda for control, not an agenda to clean up the environment is because they have not coordinated, funded and trained thousands of new regenerative farmers, to maximize Vermonts capacity to feed itself locally, sustainably and organically. Doing so would do more to stop ‘climate change’. Stopping the idiotic shipping of bad products hither and thither and rebuilding the soil to itself sequester the carbon. Carbon is not the issue, additionally, I went to all of them, from the governor to VEDA to the leg to all of them to share that we can move to building with a carbon securing material, the hemp lime building material and sequester carbon, make fire proof and pest proof buildings, and I did a proof of concept to show them that we could use it in a modular fashion for trailer parks or other modular houses. Have you seen the state fund hempcrete housing specifically for the health of the people and the environment. THIS IS A CORRUPT SCAM, you can see right through it. We have every right to unseat corruption and call it out where it exists.
Cuba and other socialist countries use this control to great effect, in today’s world not yesterday. Water is turned on for certain periods, just like electricity.
It’s always about control, cancel culture is very effective in getting compliance from a population.
Republicans should know this well in Vermont, how many dared put out a trump sign?
Even oil burners require electricity to operate but you can run them with a modest sized generator, and you have a tank of fuel in reserve that can last months. If your primary heating “fuel” is electricity, an oppressive and climate-obsessed government can have your electricity cut off with the click of a mouse.
Emily,
Like many of us, you are using common sense and reason to suggest REAL SOLUTIONS to existing problems.
The reason that won’t work: the Vermont Marxist/Globalist, Activist Politicians are getting elected and taking their Oaths pretending to be “Representatives who are serving The People of Vermont.”
They aren’t telling us the REAL GLOBALIST AGENDA they are seeking. Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030.
What will Vermont Taxpayers do? It seems some woke up and we had a good start on November 5th, but many more NEED TO GO!!
It’s always been about freedom, Marxism doesn’t play well with free people. That is why we have cancel culture in Vermont.
We can improve our environment, no conservative would suggest it’s a bad thing. But what you’ll find ultimately is the cleverly named projects are usually exactly the opposite of what they claim to be, but always about controlling everything in your life, because Marxism doesn’t play well with freedom. If they can’t control everything they can’t make money off of you. There always has to be money for team Marxism, your money not voluntarily but taken under force and threat.
This is the root problem in Vermont.
Yes Paul what Vermont Leadership will do is the BIG QUESTION. The foundational problem is those in Vermont Leadership who have a Global Focus and Plan rather than a focus on serving the people and the State of Vermont.
It seems there are some in Vermont Leadership who truly believe in the existence of Catastrophic Global Warming/Climate Change and they act from that belief. It seems others there are others who are global activists and they have joined in using the fear-mongering narrative of Catastrophic Global Warming/Climate Change to assist the globalist plan of Agenda 21 – Agenda 2030.
Your articles have been very informative, but as far as I can see you have left out a very foundational cause and existing fact that continues to drive and allow these extreme climate actions and plans to go on in Vermont.
Governor Scott joined, signed and committed the State of Vermont to the US Climate Alliance with its extreme beliefs and plans. While he has openly opposed, vetoed and disagreed with extreme climate policies such as Act 18, how does it add up that he has committed Vermont to these types of extreme policies in joining the US Climate Alliance?
I would like to understand how it is that a Vermont State Elected Governor can deter from serving the Citizens of Vermont and upholding the Vermont State Constitution? Is committing the entire State of Vermont and its Taxpayers and Citizens to a global plan Constitutional?
Progressive governance does not like do-it-yourselfers and self-sufficiency. All the more reason to own land, a chain saw and a splitting maul. So far, Vermont government has not gotten to the point of requiring you get a periodic home inspection, complete with a sticker on the window, but has come close with the recent regulations and inspections on petroleum fuel tanks and piping, supposedly in the interest of spill avoidance. Burn wood, buy it with cash or cut your own and tell the State of Vermont to go screw…
Them’s fightin’ words.
I sometimes think and fear that things are going to get very ugly in Montpelier if they don’t change course.
Imagine that, tree huggers (and these people are tree huggers!) don’t want us burning wood ??? Whoda thunk it ??? Those that thought that burning wood was a right carved in stone by cave dwellers, and guaranteed by a constitution have surely got their heads buried where the sun don’t shine !
They bandy about the magic word “renewable” but fail to understand that wood heat is local and renewable on a 30 year cycle. If you cut from your own property, there is a likelihood that some of those carbon atoms have traveled up your chimney more than once.
You will pry my wood stove from my cold dead hands. The chainsaw will be the new weapon for self defense. Let the party begin. Hope these idiots are the first to buy the new China battery ten thousand dollar car coming soon. BLACKMAIL AND BRIBERY ARE A DIRTY BUSINESS.
Clearly, some people believe human beings are destroying the planet earth, one way or in a multitude of other ways. Take your pick. So, why not cover all of the bases and exterminate all humans? Isn’t that the logical end-game? Let AI robots rule the world?
To those who harbor such dark thoughts, like the followers of the People’s Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, be my guest. I’ll be right behind you. Honest. After you.
These are the same people who, because of their over the top and obtuse liberal ideas, just lost local, state and above all national elections in a red wave of protests votes! Whether it is highly controversial issues like DEI, EV’s, the climate, transgenderism, border security, illegal immigration, and the list goes on, they still don’t understand that the majority of Americans “FIRED” them.
They love to call Trump a fascist, a dictator, a nut case, because he has seen through their flawed ideology and believes in adhering to constitutional law and overall decency. Yet when we look at what the “WOKE” has done to this country, it is frightening. The continued folly of holier than thou that they lord over us with is a sickness. We have seen crime rates spiral upwards under Soros backed soft on crime prosecutors. Laws like the VT climate bill, uncontrolled education spending, mandated by unions, which have resulted in failing student achievement measurements. The “LEFT” is driving people out of Vermont because it is no longer affordable and has become a state that does not accept ideas that do not align with theirs. Sounds like pure socialism to me!
Let’s hope we will soon see some moderation and acceptance of their monocratic and onerous demands for something we can all be proud of and again enjoy life! If they don’t like it here, they will be the ones moving elsewhere!
Dear country men and women, we (I, with team of partnership from across the nation) are developing a new approach for our economic empowerment, it is not quite ready to unveil, however it will change the game considerably, if not completely. It is based, to give you a hint., on our right to privately contract. Anyone who wants to learn more is welcome to contact me for information and potential inclusion at the ground floor. Hint number 2, We are never, ever, going to get to freedom through a political doorway. The entrepreneurial doorway, however, gives us the right of way. emilypeyton2012 @ gmail. com. if you are a public servant in government, please disregard this invitation, only private sector people are we interested in.
“The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.”
― Milton Friedman
The intelligent response to so called ‘climate change’ is to figure out how to get the most energy with the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions (or CO2).
The hydrocarbons we burn are composed of hydrogen and carbon. These two release energy as they combine with oxygen to form H2O and CO2.
Our oldest hydrocarbon – wood – has a ratio of combustible carbon atoms to hydrogen atoms of about 10 to 1.
Coal has a ratio of about 2 to 1.
Natural gas, composed mainly of methane (CH4) has a relatively low ratio of carbon to hydrogen atoms of about 1 to 4.
If the Boogyman (i.e. CO2) of so called ‘climate change’ is so existentially threatening, why in the world would you ever burn wood over natural gas? It makes no sense.
That is – per-unit-of-energy – burning wood instead of natural gas produces roughly 10-times more CO2 greenhouse gas emissions.
Burlington’s wood-burning McNeil Plant should be converted into a 100% Natural Gas-fired Power Plant, achieving a roughly 1,000% decrease in the CO2 Boogyman of greenhouse gas emissions.
They must be using either Common Core or ‘Woke’ math in their analyzing of this ‘problem’.
Unless – of course – ‘climate change’ is merely a fictional means to their totalitarian ends?:
Control energy and you essentially control the means and distribution of production.
Where have I heard that before?
FORWARD THIS TO FRIENDS & FAMILY!
CO2 isn’t a boogeyman.
“Without CO2 plants and people could not survive. Man’s activities account for only 3% of the earth’s CO2 or .0012% of the atmosphere. To think man has any material affect on climate change is naive and defies facts, evidence and science. Ask yourself how the ice ages began and more importantly how they disappeared. It was not man’s activities that caused a warmer climate and the disappearance of ice sheets that were up to two miles thick. “
Tom, your comparison fails to acknowledge that wood is RENEWABLE within the lifetime of a human being, but natural gas is a fossil fuel freeing up carbon that has been sequestered within the earth for thousands/millions of years…
Not gonna happen. Too many of us use wood, the power goes out too often to depend on it. I agree with the other comment stating that this could turn into another “power’ grab…no pun intended….to conveniently control political stances or speech online. But mostly I want the reliability of wood. Tell the control freaks to go after the millions of people in Asia polluting our ocean with drinking straws and other trash instead.
I wasn’t implying individuals should stop using wood but, demonstrating the hypocrisy of the Left, where they burn wood under the guise of its ‘renewability’ even though wood burns 10X more CO2 than natural gas. It makes no sense. But the Left makes no sense other than doing all they can to control all of society and mankind…
Didn’t they hear about the recent election? We told them we are done with that bs and their constant meddling in every aspect of our lives. At some point they should get smart enough to listen.
The libs in Burlington don’t even understand that their “renewable energy source” is burning wood at the McNeil plant. Burning 24/7 to produce almost all of Burlington’s electricity. We going to get rid of it too?
Twenty one train cars go by my house twice a week with chips for the Burlington McNeil plant. The whole operation is run by fossil fuel from start to finish.
But it’s “renewable” fossil fuel so the CO2 that it belches out at 10X that of natural gas is good and virtuous and the ‘climate’ will recognize this!
Warmal Globing is how money is siphoned off the public to go back and forth through taxes, fees, insurance policies, regulations, fines, etc, changing hands with agencies and states and localities, where they are re-presented back to them in grants, after having been stepped on more times than crappy street cocaine.
Besides all the other high crimes…
I mean, what product does the government make?
PS – Roads and bridges might be a good idea for them to get back into, esp if they want all-electric vehicles running around by 2035. Those EV’s weigh 3x more than their gasoline counterparts.
Screw the discussion… it’s time to start hanging
Notwithstanding the fact that most of this is hoaxworthy and non-existent in Vermont, would the temperature increasing a degree or two really be the worst thing in the world that could happen to us? Is it really worth the insane ideologies, legislative tyranny, and economic waste that result from the false hope of ostensibly solving the non-existent (or at least unproven) problem?
I’ll keep enough on hand to burn them at the stake…
Ha ha… love it.
Maybe I’m just not as radical as some, but I think after being tarred and feathered a couple of times, most of them would be smart enough to take the hint….
Will this happen ??, but be aware they don’t care about you or your family in any form or fashion……………. they have an agenda and will do whatever to achieve it !!
One would think that after the shellacking the left took on the chin, they would have learned …………. ” stupid is as stupid does ” sums this up.
Bruce wrote: “These are the same people who, because of their over the top and obtuse liberal ideas, just lost local, state and above all national elections in a red wave of protests votes! Whether it is highly controversial issues like DEI, EV’s, the climate, transgenderism, border security, illegal immigration, and the list goes on, they still don’t understand that the majority of Americans ‘FIRED’ them.”
Indeed. Can’t they read the writing on the wall? Don’t they see the signs of the times? Mainly they want to take the fun away.
SONG OF THE WOOD STOVE
By Ellin Anderson
A screen of glass, a fire within
Whose flicker makes a gentle din
As flames stretch fingers that consume
Cold forests, as we warm the room:
Let there be light, to calm and cheer
At this dark season of the year.
To warm the heart, it takes a tree,
A glass of wine, and poetry:
Contentment for the guests you keep
Through restful hours of firelit sleep.
The language and the drink of Jove,
Enjoyed beside the cozy stove:
Let there be light, to calm and cheer
At this dark season of the year.
On darkling days, when snowflakes fall
The unassuming hearth is all.
The simplest and the greatest good
Is warmth achieved with flint and wood,
Or warmth of quite another kind,
An open heart, or hand, or mind:
Let there be light, to calm and cheer
At this dark season of the year.
The humble iron wood-stove shames
TV, and all its icy games:
We see more beauty in the flames
Because we hear each other’s names,
And better voices in our ears
Than those that sell desires and fears:
Let there be light of red and gold
Against the dead, the bled, the cold.
But somebody keeps electing these folks. Who could that be?
I’d like to point out an inconvenient fact – In the long run, burning wood is carbon neutral. Leaving aside for a moment the fact that all new woodstoves sold must meet strict EPA emissions requirements, ALL woodstove emissions eventually fall back to earth and are re-integrated into the ecosystem.
WE ARE A CARBON-BASED LIFE FORM!!! In case you don’t understand what that means – no more carbon, no more life!
But as many have mentioned, it’s not about any great care for the environment, is it? It’s about money (yours going to them) and control. So how about we start with a real threat to our environment (and our climate), like chemtrails. Because, yeah, dimming the sun is a wonderful idea, as is ingesting toxic chemicals. But I digress.
On to “zero emissions vehicles”. Since everyone seems to agree that burning gasoline harms the environment, it would follow that everyone should also agree that the answer is burning less gasoline, correct? So, if the amount of gasoline we burn is in fact the problem, we’d improve things by cutting our gasoline consumption by some percentage, right? For the sake of my argument, let’s say 50%. One half. Wouldn’t requiring all vehicles to get 40, 50, or even 60 MPG accomplish that? And more? Of course it would. “Problem* solved.
What baffles me is why the Vermont car dealers aren’t raising holy hell about what’s going on. Do the *want* to be bankrupt in ten years? Maybe they’re just kicking the can down the road.
Welcome to the Holy Hell California!
From Vermont campground advertisements on the Internet I discovered the following:
For 108 days, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, open fire pits are promoted by the Vermont Department of State Parks.
The VERMONT STATE PARKS website advertises “each campsite comes with a fire ring and grill” and firewood is available for purchase. The main page of the Vermont State Parks website boasts 2 photos of cozy campfires (a.k.a. open wood burning). In ADDISON COUNTY alone there are approximately 195 State owned CAMPSITES distributed across 4 parks.
Add to that number of campfire sites in Addison county: approximately 600+ open fire pits are available for use at 9 privately owned Addison County campgrounds.
That was not amusing enough for me, I had to go to the US Energy Information Administration website in order to laugh until I cried. I specifically was intrigued by the data table for ENERGY RELATED CO2 EMISSION BY STATE and…well…
If the State of Vermont (directly and indirectly) promotes thousands of open burn pits across our state all summer, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM THAT WILL BE RESOLVED by outlawing our modern woodstoves??
Please forward your environmental and climate concerns to China which out pollutes, on a daily basis, what any Vermonter does trying to heat their home with wood.
The culturally elite has not one lick of common sense, but they will destroy our lives and make us cold and homeless.
If these lobbyists are so concerned about Vermonts air quality, why don’t they start worrying about the geoengineering happening over Vetmont that leaves a constant cloud cover or hazy blue look above! I traveled to N Carolina this summer. Guess what I noticed the most??!! Deep blue sky for 5 complete days! When have we seen that in Vermont??!! Not in several years! Maybe they should start worrying about the REAL problems with chemicals being sprayed in our sky’s and leave Vermonts natural heat resources alone!!
Dear Dave Soulia,
There is nothing “well intentioned” about Vermont’s environmental policies. They are all about power, vanity, and ignorance. Nothing more.
Thank you for an otherwise well written and informative piece.
Randy Fullam
Dear Dave Soulia,
There is nothing “well-intentioned” about Vermont’s environmental policy. It is only about power, virtue signaling, and selfishness. None of it helps anyone.
Thank you for an otherwise interesting and informative piece.
Randy Fullam