No Carbon Tax Plan Yet, But Lots of Noise From Many Directions
Communities in Vermont have started voicing their opinion to the 2019 Vermont legislators, for and against, carbon taxes. The carbon tax is designed to address lowering Vermont’s rising greenhouse gas emissions. Some reasons for not implementing the carbon tax is that the burden of the tax would fall on middle class Vermonters and will not produce a measurable impact on climate change. The Vermont Youth Lobby, a proponent of the Carbon Tax, argues that the tax would be common sense climate change action and demands legislators to look seriously at putting a price on carbon and start enacting it. Speaker of the house Mitzi Johnson has not mentioned carbon pricing as a priority for this session.
Vermont’s Largest Solar Parking Lot has Started Generating Electricity
Vermont’s Echo Science Museum is home to currently the largest solar canopy in the state over a parking lot. The team of Encore renewable energy, Echo Leahy Center for lake Champlain, and the city of Burlington partnered to build a solar canopy for the science museum. The 156kW solar carport uses an innovative two-sided panel that capture reflected lights (from black top pavement, cars, and the lake) as well as the direct rays of the sun, thus increasing output”. This structure is above a state-of-the-art stormwater pollution control system parking lot to help improve the water quality in Burlington’s inner harbor. This project advances many of the city’s key goals such as protecting lake Champlain through better storm water facilities, and new solar capacity that helps move towards the goal of becoming a Net Zero Energy city.
US Government Affairs Updates
(partial listing as reported by ASHRAE.org,)
- Puerto Rico Experienced Increased Air Pollution from Generators That Used Fuel with High Sulfur Content
- Government Outreach Day held in New
Refer to the following link for additional information on the above topics:
https://www.magnetmail.net/Actions/email_web_version.cfm?publish=newsletter&user_id=ASHRAE&message_id=16258693#Congressional
Mallory Fischer
GAC Committee Member