“We would love to be the first in New England to take advantage of electric trucks,” he said. While he’s not sure what the total net impact on his food distribution operation would be, he said he would welcome any shift in the market that would help him to be more socially responsible, without placing him at a competitive disadvantage. With enormous refrigeration units and a fleet of 50 trucks that drive more than 1.5 million miles each year, Black River is an energy hog, Curran said. One of the co-authors of the plan is Mark Curran, who also co-founded Springfield-based Black River Produce. The plan targets a $40 per ton cap, because that is the societal cost estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is also the amount being contemplated in parallel legislative efforts in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Those amounts were calculated based on each fuel’s environmental impact - in year one, the fees total $5 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions, and in year eight, they amount to the maximum rate of $40 per ton. Though the average electric bill reduction would be 30 percent, more credits would be directed to the bills of low-income, and rural households, because poor and rural residents would be most affected by an increase in fossil fuel costs. As it’s collected, that $240 million stick is transformed into a carrot - it would be used to subsidize an estimated 30 percent reduction in electricity rates, which advocates hope will incentivize people and businesses to incorporate more electricity use into their heating and transportation decisions. The fee would be assessed to wholesalers, who could choose to pass that cost directly on to the consumer.Įarly estimates show that at the end of the eight-year ramp-up, $240 million would be raised from the tax on fossil fuels and act as a stick that would nudge Vermont residents and businesses to use greener alternatives to gas-guzzling vehicles and inefficient heating fuel systems. The fee would be 3 cents on a gallon of propane, and 5 cents for diesel or home heating fuel to start, escalating to 24 cents, and 40 cents, respectively over the eight-year ramp-up. The proposal envisions adding 4 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas every year for eight years, eventually totaling 32 cents a gallon. Phil Scott’s office panned the idea as the wrong approach on Friday, with his communications director, Rebecca Kelley, saying it would “add cost burdens for many Vermont families who spend more on transportation and heating than they do on electricity.” “We are kidding ourselves if we think that anything that we’re doing right now is moving us in that direction,” said Copeland Hanzas, who visited the Valley News on Thursday with an official from the Vermont Natural Resources Council to talk about the plan.īut the “Economy Strengthening Strategic Energy Exchange” - or Essex - plan is already drawing divisions between politicians and within the business community. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, who intends to introduce the plan during the upcoming legislative session. White River Junction - Progressives and some Democratic lawmakers are beginning to beat the drum for a carbon tax proposal designed to reduce Vermonters’ electric bills by adding to what they pay for fossil fuels at the gas pump.Ī carbon tax is the best idea on the table to keep Vermont moving toward a goal of getting 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, according to state Rep.
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