Vermont seeks ways to curb carbon emmisions
"Gas guzzler" legislative proposal dropped

Colin Vallance | photo editor
cvallance@smcvt.edu

Vermont is known for its green reputation and progressive thinking towards improving the environment within the state and global community. The recent “gas guzzler” legislative proposal was one attempt at minimizing the state's carbon emissions footprint.

The "gas guzzler" legislation was meant to place a $150 fine on cars and trucks that get poor gas mileage. (photo, Colin Vallance)

The proposal went to the House last week and, if passed, was supposed to impose a $150 fee for cars that get bad gas mileage; the proceeds would contribute to global warming awareness and raise money for public transit.

“The proposal was dropped last Thursday after lack of public support,” says John Zicconi, spokesman for the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

A short sighted solution

“We support the fact that the House pulled the legislation from the table and came to a decision that additional taxes would be a burden on Vermont’s working families,” Zicconi says.

According to an April 4 study conducted by the Tax Foundation, the U.S has hit an all-time high of 11 percent of income going towards state and local taxes. Vermont tops that list as the state with citizens who carry the heaviest burden.

"Vermont's taxpayers are bearing the heaviest load in 2007," wrote the Tax Foundation in a news release." With 14.1 percent of income going to pay all state and local taxes, Vermont ekes out Maine (14.0) and New York (13.8) to take the top spot."

Agreeing with Governor Jim Douglas’s stance, the Agency of Transportation does not see the ["Gas Guzzler"] proposal as a viable solution. Not only is the proposal counter-productive but it is unfair to families with a need for more room for family in their vehicle, Zicconi says.

Patricia LeBlanc, Essex mother of three, says that the only reason she drives her SUV is because it is convenient when going on play dates with other children.

"I don't drive this big truck for good looks, it's a necessity when I have to drive my kids and three of their friends to practice. It's also a safety issue in winter, I need it to be able to get up my driveway when it snows," LeBlanc says.

“A lot of larger families rely on mini vans for transporting their children. And this reality reflects Jim Douglas’s idea that Vermont's goal should be to provide a better place to raise a family,” says Zicconi.

But the Vermont Agency of transportation is not against decreasing the state's carbon emissions signature, Zicconi says.

“We support a tax break for those who purchase vehicles that get over miles to the gallon. The house is still considering this but that bill was over shadowed by the “gas guzzler” legislation," he says. "It makes more sense to provide incentives rather than to punish people that choose to drive over-sized vehicles.”

Aside from penalizing those who choose to drive uneconomical vehicles the legislative proposed to allocate $1 million in additional funding for public transit.

That is not to say that Vermont is not already revamping its public transportation means.

“Of the last six fiscal years, from '02 to '08, the states investment has increased an average of 3.6 percent a year for public transportation. That is much greater growth than the budget increases annually,” Zicconi says.

Improving the environment through biodiesel

Final construction is being completed in Swanton, Vermont of Biocardel’s biggest U.S biodiesel plant. The plant will import soybean oil from Quebec farms and convert the oil and canola oil to biodiesel fuel.

The process of converting organic oils to biodiesel fuel produces no emissions and the energy can be incorporated into the already existing infrastructure. Once operational the plant is expected to produce 4 million gallons of biodiesel annually.

"It makes more sense to provide incentives rather than to punish people that choose to drive over-sized vehicles,” Zicconi says.

Edward Delhagen, ex-Deputy director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs fund and founding member of the Vermont Biodiesel Project pioneered methodologies for incorporating biodiesel into the Vermont economy. “We found out two years ago that the state was being approached by entrepreneurs who wanted to do biodiesel business in Vermont,” Delhagen says.

“We got a call from the state because a lot of the technical jargon involved in biodiesel production is so specialized that they needed our help to figure it out.”

With progressive technology such as biodiesel, implementing the product into Vermont infrastructure required a separate entity to work out the kinks, he says.

“The Vermont Biodiesel Project was established to predict how the venture would shape up and we identified a concrete demand from potential buyers interested in buying Vermont biodiesel product.”

It wasn’t as simple as figuring out what kinds of diesel machinery the biodiesel could be adapted to, Delhagen says.

“We had to break the process down and figure out what systems would be beneficial to each particular business," he says. "Ski mountains were one of these emerging marketplaces interested in the new fuel source.”

The ski mountains needed some added attention, however, because the equipment that was to be converted had to be able to run in extreme winter conditions, he says.

“Smugglers Notch was interested in the product for running its compressors for snowmaking and Sugarbush showed interest in running their snow loaders, lifters and other heavy machinery,” Delhagen says.