For the better part of a year, Gov. Phil Scott has been blasting the Clean Heat Standard by claiming it could cost Vermonters a billion dollars or more. It became a big part of the Republicans’ campaign to blast legislative Democrats for making Vermont unaffordable.

Well, about that. Last week, the Public Utility Commission — whose members were appointed by Scott and who have collectively been doing their best to block or slow the growth of renewable energy in Vermont — came out with a radically lower cost estimate. According to the PUC, the Clean Heat Standard would likely raise the cost of oil by less than a dime a gallon in 2026 and could – emphasis on could – increase oil costs by another 45 cents by 2035. A possibility, and that’s all it is, for an increase far lower than Scott’s beloved $4 a gallon.

Gee, that’s inconvenient. You mean the governor and his party have been blowing smoke about the Clean Heat Standard all along? Just for the sake of politics? Shocked, I am shocked.

Equallly shocked I am that the PUC manufactured, out of thin air and whole cloth, a substitute rationale for killing the CHS.

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