Vermont fall foliage hogback mountain by chensiyuan, licensed under CC
When Democrats overrode Governor Phill Scott’s veto and enacted the hilariously named “Affordable Heat Act” (S.5) aimed at slashing carbon emissions in the nation’s 2nd-smallest state, they accused Republicans of spreading “misinformation” for arguing the legislation would raise gas prices. Unfortunately for Democrats, the final government analysis has come in, and this so-called Affordable Heat Act might not, in fact, be affordable at all.
According to the newly crunched numbers from the Vermont Department of Public Service, S.5 will increase gas prices by a whopping $4.00, surprising no one. For the average Vermonter, this means that a gallon of home heating oil, once around $3.00, may soon be nearly $8.00.
The writing had been on the wall since S.5’s inception. The Ethen Allen institute, for example, predicted an increase of $4.00 a gallon years ago. Democrats, however, chose to ignore it, discrediting all dissent and hiding behind their study report, as if it wouldn’t come to the same conclusion.
S.5, unfortunately, isn’t a one-off issue when it comes to Vermont. It represents a reccurring failure in Democrats’ thought process on climate change. Again and again, lawmakers will force large corporations to pay climate taxes, lawsuits, and excessively regulate, knowing that the costs will ultimately pass down to the consumers.
“The concern that price volatility will continue is very, very real. However, the status quo… is so much worse than the design and functionality of potentially doing this program,” said Sen. Becca White, acknowledging that the act would raise gas prices, something Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski wasn’t able to do a year later.
“Currently, draft rules for the Affordable Heat Act are being developed, informed by equity and technical advisory groups and a comprehensive study… I am hopeful that Vermonters will see through the fossil-fuel-funded misinformation campaign that looks to drum up fear and uncertainty,” said the Speaker in an article for the Manchester Journal.
Unless the Vermont Dept. Of Public Service is one of those fossil-fuel funded campaigns, Speaker Krowinski, not Republicans, was purveying the misinformation.
Voters can stop the heating tax behind this $4.00 increase before it gets the chance to hit their wallets by demanding that their representatives vote against the carbon tax during its final approval process next year, or by electing enough Republicans to office this November. Every Republican voted against that legislation in both 2022 and 2023, including Governor Phil Scott, who vetoed both bills.
However, the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) is the real villain for Vermont taxpayers. The act supposes that it’s possible for Vermont to reduce carbon emissions by 80% and mandates that the state take measures to reach that target by 2050, setting intermediary targets along the way. As long as the GWSA is in effect, lawmakers will continue drafting absurd legislation to reach its unreasonable demands.
It’s possible that some Democratic lawmakers, like Krowinski, are unaware of basic economics, but logic dictates that real people will ultimately pay the price for any carbon tax. Companies’ margins are slim, and excess costs must go somewhere. Those costs are either shouldered by the consumer or workers, oftentimes both.
As Sen. White demonstrated in her statement, many Democrats know this but are still willing to raise gas prices for the sake of ideology.
While it’s true that Vermont has suffered from increased precipitation and flooding, most articles significantly exaggerate the problem. In reality, assuming the lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s climate prediction center can be trusted, “if you look across 10 or 20 years, you’re going to have a slightly higher percent chance of these events [floods] happening,”
Not exactly the catastrophic change many news sources tout it to be.
Moreover, Vermont’s effects on the environment are negligible at best. A state reducing its carbon emissions by 40%, when it’s already one of the lowest in America, isn’t going to significantly impact the trend of global temperatures.
Vermont emits around six million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year. The U.S. as a whole emits six billion. Even if the entire state were erased from the face of the earth, zeroing their carbon emissions – a tradeoff Democrats might seriously consider – It would have virtually no effect on the environment.
Rather than irreparably harm the working class by nearly doubling gas prices, Vermont lawmakers should consider how they can mitigate the effects of floods when they occur. Laying the blame at the feet of gas companies when they’re simply supplying consumers with the heat they need to survive is a virtue signal that only serves to distract voters from genuine solutions to their problems.