Government Affairs Committee
Last Friday the 24th I visited the state house in Montpelier where I attended a “Meet & Greet Your Legislators” event. This was put on by the Vermont Farm Bureau. While I did not get a chance to get up in front of the group to speak, I did get a first hand look at how the House and Senate committees get together and work through some of the complicated bills that both sides are presented with. This group’s primary focus is anything that has to do with farms or farmers but as Vermonters there were a lot of the same issues brought forward that the rest of the population is forced to wrestle with as a resident and business owner in this state.
Pattie McCoy: Vermonters cannot afford a carbon tax
This is a commentary by Rep. Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, Vermont House Minority Leader. She serves on the Vermont House Committee on Transportation. She makes the argument that at carbon tax could jeopardize Vermont’s already fragile economy even at a time of record stock market gains and strong GDP growth.
She goes on to list the following proposed solutions to protect the economically vulnerable population from a cost of living increase while still protecting the environment with tax incentives for the purchase energy efficient vehicles:
- Enact a sales tax holiday on the purchase of hybrid vehicles and EVs;
- Modify the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive (VEGI) program to support businesses that are mission based or focused on clean water technology;
- Enact the Vermont Housing Incentive Program (VHIP);
- Create the Weatherization Trades Workforce Training Pilot Project;
- Set long-term steps to transition a greater percentage of the state’s vehicle fleet to EV and hybrid vehicles;
- Commission a study to examine long-term solutions to the perpetual Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) in several Vermont municipalities;
- Adopt the Public Utility Commission’s recommendation to encourage the application of RECs towards Vermont’s renewable energy goals;
- Identify a long-term solution to the Sheffield-Highgate Export Interface (SHEI) problem; and
- Reform the Act 250 process so that permit appeals that are not based on legitimate environmental concerns do not backlog the Environmental Court.
Please follow the link below to see the rest of the article and be sure to read the conversation that this list sparked in the comments at the bottom of the page.
https://vtdigger.org/2020/01/06/pattie-mccoy-vermonters-cannot-afford-a-carbon-tax/
US Government Affairs Updates
(as reported by ASHRAE.org, 1-23-20, partial topics listing)
- Government Outreach
- Global Government Affairs
- S. Congressional Activities
- Federal Government Affairs
- State and Local Government Affairs
- Other Events and News
For detailed information on the above topics, visit the ASHRAE Government Affairs Update website page at:
https://www.magnetmail.net/Actions/email_web_version.cfm?publish=newsletter&user_id=ASHRAE&message_id=18047349
Rob Ward
GAC Committee