Daily Archives: November 28, 2024

Phil Scott’s Shelter Policy Has Started Literally Killing People

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Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! The Vermont State Police found two people dead inside a tent in Wolcott on Thanksgiving Eve. They were Lucas Menard of Montpelier and Tammy Menard of Berlin. Few details are available, although police do not suspect foul play.

Unless, of course, you consider this fall’s mass unsheltering “foul play.”

And yes, the Menards were among the close to 1,500 vulnerable Vermonters recently unsheltered following cuts in the GA emergency housing program. Brenda Siegel of End Homelessness Vermont says they were clients of her organization who had “complex medical needs” but were denied shelter by the state. Siegel on Facebook:

Wonderful vibrant people. And Tammy herself helped so many others. Tell me again how what we did was fine and people will manage. Is this what you mean by “manage”?

I can’t add much to that, except to remind everyone that this was the inevitable and long-predicted result of denying shelter to so many of our most vulnerable. And the cold weather is just beginning. Siegel gets the last word:

I wanted nothing more than to be wrong about the catastrophic outcomes this policy would cause. But I knew that I was not.

Are You Ready For the Climate Culture Wars?

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Welp, Gov. Phil Scott has revealed himself to be all hat and no cattle when it comes to climate action. As Seven Days’ Kevin McCallum reports, our alleged climate fightin’ leader is calling for a full retreat on, you know, doing anything about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With the exception of furrowed brows and earnest expressions of concern. Per McCallum, here is Phil Scott’s climate agenda:

  • Kill the clean heat standard
  • Kill the Global Warming Solutions Act
  • Ignore our 2025 emissions reduction targets
  • Ignore our 2030 emissions reduction targets
  • Effectively put all our eggs in the 2050 basket

That’s one hell of a platform for a guy who claims to believe that climate change is a clear and present threat to humanity’s future.

His argument here, as on every other issue, is affordability. Vermont simply can’t afford to cut emissions or transition to a clean energy future.

A couple things about that. “Affordable” compared to what, exactly? His projections about the unaffordability of energy transition appear to rely on the assumption that fossil fuel prices won’t rise. Anyone who’s played Russian Roulette with the cost of propane or heating oil could testify otherwise.

Putting all his chips on affordability also ignores the impacts of climate change. As we have seen, Vermont is far from safe in this regard. In fact, we have one of the highest totals in the nation of federally-declared disasters since 2011. We don’t have beachfronts or flatlands, but we do have a rugged topography of mountains, hills, and deep valleys. The latter is where (a) most of our people live, and (b) the runoff easily overwhelms our rivers and streams when greenhouse gas-fueled downpours occur. We have yet to experience catastrophic wildfires around here, although the risk has been worryingly high for a good chunk of this year. Just a matter of time.

But Scott’s latest statements should come as no surprise. All he’s done is pull the sheep’s clothing off his inner wolf. In truth, he has been a resulote obstructor of serious climate action since he became governor. (Back in 2021, I called him the biggest obstacle to climate action in Vermont.) Kind of fitting for a guy who’s spent his entire adult life working with fossil fuel-powered machinery.

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