I just read that a bunch of high schoolers skipped school to lecture the Legislature about the Affordable Heat Act. This happened during a week when southeastern Vermont was walloped by a massive winter storm that led to tens of thousands of households without power for days, roads unplowed due to low-hanging power lines, and lost work and productivity, all due to lack of electricity.
Senior citizens and families in my town (at least those that could get off their roads) had to sleep in the church and the firehouse because those institutions had backup power generators and/or good old woodstoves. The people’s homes and apartments that relied on electricity for heat went four or five days with no power, which means four or five days with no heat or water.
More electricity is not the answer as long as the electrical grid is inadequately maintained and essentially unreliable. Between Dec. 15, 2022, and March 18, 2023, my home was without power for a total of 195 hours.
Vermont legislators would do well to listen to adults and pay attention to what is actually happening rather than the unfounded fears of children who have been fed an unrealistic vision of an electric utopia and stop trying to increase our dependence on electricity.
Erica Walch
Newfane