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28/01/2024

08/09/2023

ARE $6 PER GALLON GAS PRICES COMING TO VERMONT?
Washington State sees highest gas prices in country following carbon tax

It so happens I am in Seattle, Washington, this week helping my son settle into a new living/job situation, and one of the first things you notice when driving around this city is how absurdly expensive gasoline is. $5.30 per gallon as opposed to the national average of $3.80 – a $1.50 difference according to AAA. What I see with my own eyes is closer to $5.50. That’s $88 to fill a sixteen-gallon tank. It’s the highest cost for gas in the nation, vying with California for that dubious distinction. But, if our policy makers in Montpelier have their way, California and Washington will soon have another competitor in that race: Vermont.

The reason for Washington’s astronomical prices at the pump is the passage in 2021 of a “cap and trade” program (aka a Carbon Tax) forcing certain businesses that generate greenhouse gas emissions (according to the state website: “business types include (but are not limited to) fuel suppliers, natural gas and electric utilities…”) to purchase carbon allowances in order to sell their product to consumers. This is much like the one our legislature just passed for home heating fuel (S.5), and just like the one the Vermont Climate Council is urging on our little state for motor fuels such as gas and diesel.

Read the full story at….

Washington State sees highest gas prices in country following carbon tax

29/08/2023

BUSINESS GROUP WANTS 802,000 VERMONTERS BY 2035.
There’s their hat. Where’s their cattle?

The Vermont Futures Project (VFP), a spinoff of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, is conducting a statewide tour of what they call “community conversations, and … strategic stakeholder visits in all fourteen counties" to gather input for their 2024 Economic Plan for Vermont. (Sidenote: I absolutely loath the term “stakeholder.” It’s a nauseating euphemism for “special interest” used by special interests.) The prime objective of the VFP is to increase Vermont’s population from where it is now at 645,000 to 820,000 by 2035.

Are they serious?

I don’t say that to mock the objective, I am seriously asking if these people are serious about achieving such a goal. And, after looking through VFP’s recent presentations, videos, and press releases, sadly my conclusion is NO, they are not serious. They are not serious because they are unwilling to identify and call out the root problem causing Vermont’s decades-long economic and population stagnation, which is our radical leftist political establishment and the policies they are putting into practice.

Read the Full Story At…

There's their hat. Where's their cattle?

18/08/2023

"GOLD STANDARD" STUDY SHOWS CHARTER SCHOOLS OUTPERFORM PUBLIC SCHOOLS
While Vermont Democrats are trying to eliminate choices for Vermont kids

Ten years ago, I took part in a series of debates on school choice opposite Paul Cillo of the Public Assets Institute and Bill Mathis of the National Education Policy Center and the Vermont State Board of Education. I was for school choice; they were opposed. At the time, Mathis used the then latest and second installment of the Stanford CREDO (Center for Research on Education Outcomes) study on charter schools, which he called “the gold standard,” to argue school choice options led to statistically insignificant differences in student outcomes, and so we shouldn’t adopt them.

I countered that what CREDO II (2013) showed is that independent charter schools do at least as good a job as their public-school counterparts, but for significantly less money. If nothing else, better ROI for taxpayers! But even then, there was something else. Though the 2013 study did show negligible differences in outcomes overall, it also showed that certain subsets of students – Black, Hispanic, low income, and English Language Learners – performed better in charter schools than their peers in public schools.

Read the full story at….

While Vermont Democrats are trying to eliminate choices for Vermont kids

14/08/2023

ARE SOME ON THE LEFT REALIZING VT CLIMATE POLICY IS A USELESS WASTE?
Two radical environmentalist pundits so conclude (perhaps inadvertently).

A couple of left-wing columnists recently penned articles lamenting the fact that Montpelier keeps flooding every decade or so, yet local and state governments don’t do anything about it and aren’t prepared for it when it happens. A keen observation.

Kevin Ellis in his piece quoted a Montpelier restauranter as saying, “We pay a lot of taxes to the city and the state, and this keeps happening over and over. I cleaned out our basement with a bunch of high school kids. It was totally dangerous. Where was the help from the government?’’

Well, the “help” from the government came in the form of all those electric car charging stations, EV rebates, and subsidies for renewable electricity generation. The Vermont state policy for dealing with changing climate is to lower our carbon footprint so that these kinds of extreme weather events don’t ever happen. We spend around $250 million a year on these programs. You’re saying it’s not working out?

Read the full story at…

Two radical environmentalist pundits so conclude (perhaps unwittingly).

07/08/2023

LET HEALTH INSURANCE BE INSURANCE AGAIN
How government twisted the health insurance industry into a bloated, inefficient de facto government program.

In what has become an annual story with the predictability of the seasons, Vermonters are about to get whacked with a huge increase in their health insurance premiums. Blue Cross Blue Shield is asking the Green Mountain Care Board for an 18.1 percent increase for plans sold to individuals and families on the state-run marketplace and a 17.6 percent increase for plans for small groups, businesses, and municipalities. MVP is asking for increases of 13.8 and 14.3 percent respectively. All this would be on top of the 11.4 percent increase Blue Cross got last year, and the 19.3 percent MVP got.

Since 2014 and the passage of the so-called “Affordable Care Act,” (I know, LOL!) healthcare premiums have nearly doubled in cost. Don’t blame the insurance companies, blame the politicians.

Read the full story at….

How government twisted the health insurance industry into a bloated, inefficient de facto government program.

03/08/2023

WANT A BALANCED CHECKBOOK? YES, IT DOES HAVE TO BE REPUBLICANS.

At the end of June shortly after the Democrat supermajority overrode almost every veto Phil Scott issued, including that of the budget, in what seemed like less time than it takes get a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a reporter asked the governor, “What are you going to do to get more Republicans in office?”

Scott snapped back, “It doesn’t have to be Republicans. I just want more legislators with common sense. More centrists, moderates, that understand how to balance a checkbook.”

That response irked a lot of Republicans. Rightfully so. In the 105-42 House override vote, not a single Democrat supported Scott’s budget veto. (A handful of Progressives did, but not because they know how to balance a checkbook. They thought the budget didn’t spend enough.) But every Republican legislator backed the governor, and in the lead up to the vote, grassroots Republicans worked feverously to rally public support behind Scott’s veto. So, given this softball chance to simply acknowledge the effort and thank the people who stood with him, Scott chose to spit in their collective eye instead. Seriously?

Read the full story at….

At the end of June shortly after the Democrat supermajority overrode almost every veto Phil Scott issued, including that of the budget, in what seemed like less time than it takes get a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a reporter asked the governor, “What are you going to do to get more Republicans in ...

31/07/2023

NY UNLIKELY TO SAVE VT CLIMATE PLAN
Empire Staters just as clueless about how to meet GHG goals

Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) requires our state to meet some very stringent greenhouse gas reduction targets in 2025, 2030 and 2050. To be precise, 26% below 2005 levels by 2025, 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below by 2050. If you’re playing to the Green crowd, this is some pretty heady, balloons and confetti stuff. Great press conference material. First bullet point on all your campaign materials.

The details regarding how the state is actually supposed to achieve these targets? Cut to clip of Homer Simpson’s thought bubble with the sleeping donkey surrounded by buzzing flies. They have no clue.

Read the full story at….

Empire Staters just as clueless about how to meet GHG goals

27/07/2023

COPELAND-HANZAS’ CLIMATE POLICY SETS UP MORE DISASTERS

Vermonters just witnessed the worst flooding since Irene in 2011, which was the worst flooding since the summer of 1998, which was the worst flooding since 1976, which was the worst flooding since 1938, which was the worst flooding since the most famous of all floods, the one in 1927.

Whether you believe that this weather pattern is entirely due to anthropogenic global warming, entirely due to natural climate evolution, or something in between, we all should be able to agree that we can and should expect this kind of event every decade or couple/few decades if we’re lucky. So, how do we learn from these experiences and best prepare to limit the impact of the next event?

Read the full story at….

Focus on GHG reduction is high cost/zero impact

24/07/2023

CLIMATE CHANGE AND GRAVITY ARE KIND OF DIFFERENT.

In the wake of the recent floods in Vermont, it is no surprise that the climate change activists have gone into “See! See! See!” mode and are labeling anyone who disagrees with their conclusions as a “denier.” In two separate op-eds, two state senators, Dick McCormack (D-Windsor) and Tanya Vyhovsky (D/P-Chittenden Central) tried to equate the scientific absoluteness of their climate positions with the scientific certainties about gravity. (It’s probably been distributed as a talking point, so expect more echoes in that chamber.) But this is dangerously absurd.

The scientific method is a process which involves creating a hypothesis and then testing that hypothesis through repeated observation, measurement, and experiment to see if it’s accurate. If you can repeat the results of experiments, you’re onto something.

Read the full story at…

Scientifically speaking

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