New Plan to Conserve Energy; Burn Money

 
 

"I go in with low expections," Senator Shumlin says of the meeting he will be having with the governor this week.  Well then, Senator, welcome to the club.  That pretty much sums up the way many Vermont voters (and, incidentally, taxpayers) feel, and not just about this negotiation over H 520, the energy bill that Governor Douglas has vetoed and that Senator Shumlin views as essential to the survival of the species.

    "I can't tell you how strongly I feel about this," Shumlin says in this morning's Freeps front page story, and that comes as a relief.  All of us have heard enough from him about global warming and the moral imperative for Vermont to step up and lead the world on a better path.
    This is, mercifully, the last battle of this political campaign. Soon, it will be time to shoot the wounded and retire to the hills to dance in the moonlight and plan for next year's battles.  General Shumlin's forces, with an advantage in numbers and the backing of the press, have not done so well.  They retreated on the property tax front and this is their last chance to salvage an important victory.
    So ... the rhetoric grows hotter with empty promises like these from Representative Michael Fisher: 

this bill would help Vermont families and businesses save millions on their fuel bills and in so doing slow global warming. This bill would make Vermont a model state by reducing our carbon footprint, challenging national inaction on climate change, and saving Vermonters money

    One expects Mr. Fisher to say, in the next sentence, that the bill would provide every child in Vermont with a free pony and a trip to Disney World.
    Then, there are editorials like this one in the Reformer that reduce things to an old time fight between the corporations and the workers.  

Douglas has a choice. He can stand with Entergy, IBM and the rest of the major businesses in this state ... or he can stand with the people.

    But then, in Reformer Land, it is always 1933.

    Hunters and anglers have been warned. The Douglas veto is bad for Vermont's fish and game. 

Climate change — or global warming (take your pick) — is the single greatest threat to Vermont's wildlife — all species — in history. Human responses to this threat will be the measure of us as "intelligent" animals for eternity.

    Of course, one reliable way to stir up political passion in this state is to bring deer hunting into the discussion.  Perhaps some policy wonk could devise a scheme that would link doe tags to carbon credits ...
    Stripped, finally, of this sort of lagniappe, the debate comes down to whether it is fair and/or prudent to tax Vermont Yankee to pay for a new state program that promises to do great things for Vermonters in the area of energy conservation.  Things that they would not, otherwise, do for themselves; even though these things are self-evidently good for the planet and would save them lots of money.
    To which, one asks: Why not?
    The answer is, Vermonters don't care enough.  They need to be bribed to do what is in their self-interest and a new bureaucracy is necessary to deliver the cash. 

Blair Hamilton, director of Efficiency Vermont, which contracts with the state to provide electric efficiencies, said it takes more than the offer of a loan to persuade homeowners to pay for efficiencies, even if the efficiencies will save them money in the end. "Putting cash on the table is very important to get people's attention," he said. 

    This may be  the most revealing statement, however inadvertent, of the entire debate.  Montpelier wants more money to do more things.  Global warming is merely the fig leaf.
    Leave it, then, to John McClaughry to sum it up.

the Legislature should uphold the governor's veto of the Shumlin tax, scrap the governor's $2.5 million in subsidized loans, and go home. That would be a good day's work on behalf of taxpayers and common sense.

    Here's hoping that Shumlin's expectations are met.  And then exceeded.

 
 
 

 

Comments

[Gordon Smith]

One of the politician's favorite things to trumpet from H520 is the creation of 180 'good-paying' jobs - what I don't hear is are they private sector or public sector jobs? Are we taxing Entergy to create more public bureaucracy? Are the jobs all with Efficiency Vermont, a quasi-government body, which doesn't provide actual energy efficiency, but acts as a 'consultant'? Am I getting this right? The ONLY thing I agree on with Senator Shumlin, and this is a partial agreement, is that Governor Douglas' plan for interest free loans means you still have to go to a bank and apply. However, that is a good test of how committed Vermonters are to saving money and 'the planet'. I would happily have BED do an energy efficiency study on my home, and if it makes sense, get an interest-free loan to make the necessary changes to become more energy efficient. Not so much to save the planet, but to crassly put money back into my own pocket for a better use.