Madame Speaker,
On average it takes nine hundred gallons of propane to heat a home, in our
great state of Vermont. This legislation will add at least $630 dollars to the
heating bills of Vermonters every year. Rebranding this bill as the
Affordable Heat Act is disingenuous. Our constituents, ALL Vermonters
deserve better, they deserve transparency. So, let’s call a spade a spade,
S.5 is a carbon tax. A tax that is both harmful and regressive, adding
according to Secretary Moore, 70 cents per gallon at a minimum to the cost
of home heating fuels and will likely be more in the future. We know that
the provisions of S.5 will have detrimental effects on our low-income and
rural Vermonters. For a majority of the State, these fuels are not only the
most affordable option but the ONLY viable option to heat homes in our
frigid winters.
Vermonters are already facing volatile markets, effecting unsustainable
increases in the prices of food, housing affordability and our most basic
human needs. I have heard from what feels like each and every one of my
constituents who feel hopeless as Montpelier throws more obstacles in
their path. They have pleaded with me to oppose this bill. Today, I will be
voting no on S.5 and I urge the body to listen to their constituents who we
all know you have heard from. Vote no and join me in refusing to penalize
desperate Vermonters crying for relief.
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