As the libertarian political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity ramps up its activity in Vermont, the state’s Democratic Party has filed an official complaint over the group’s ongoing advertising campaign against legislation that seeks to reduce the use of fossil fuels in heating buildings across the state.
Americans for Prosperity has been ramping up its activity in Vermont over the past year, and the group’s multi-thousand dollar ad campaign against the Legislature’s clean heat standard is just one of its efforts in the state. The group — founded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch — has deep ties to the oil and gas industry and is an active presence in all 50 states.
In late May, shortly after Vermont’s Legislature adjourned its 2024 session, the group announced “a major five part mail and digital campaign,” in a May 29 press release, urging lawmakers to oppose Act 18, or the Affordable Heat Act.
As passed in 2023, Act 18 directed Vermont’s Public Utility Commission and two advisory groups to establish a regulatory standard aimed at reducing fossil fuel emissions that come from heating homes and businesses with oil, propane, kerosene, coal and natural gas. Come 2025, lawmakers will reconvene and decide whether to fully implement the plan, change it or quash it altogether.
With their advertising campaign this summer, Americans for Prosperity is encouraging Vermonters to contact their legislators and urge them to take the third track and abandon the plan.
“Vermont was the land of the free; but now it’s freedom with a price tag,” reads one mailer obtained by VTDigger in July. “Stop top-down mandates and higher costs by telling your lawmakers to oppose Act 18!”
The bottom of the postcard is emblazoned with the group’s trademark torch emblem, next to the label “AFP Vermont.” The mailer also includes the disclaimer, “This advertisement has been paid for by Americans for Prosperity-Vermont.”
It’s that moniker at the center of the Vermont Democratic Party’s complaint, filed with the Vermont Attorney General’s Office last week. According to the party’s complaint, there is no organization by the name of “Americans for Prosperity Vermont” registered with the Secretary of State’s Office as doing business in the state.
Instead, it’s the Virginia-based Americans for Prosperity headquarters which has paid nearly $68,000 in “advertising” costs since April 15, according to lobbying records with the Secretary of State’s Office.
The Vermont Democratic Party’s complaint alleged that by labeling the mailer as paid for by Americans for Prosperity-Vermont, the group is misleading recipients to believe it came from a Vermont-based group.
“Vermont law governing all corporations generally and nonprofit corporations specifically prohibit such misleading business practices by outside astroturf influence groups like AFP seeking to masquerade as homegrown organizations,” Jim Dandeneau, the executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party, wrote in the party’s Sept. 6 complaint.
According to Bryan Mills, who serves as chief of staff to Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, the mailers seem to be valid lobbying communication.
“This is (a) registered lobbyist in Vermont and it appears to be a valid lobbying communication that urges voters to contact their legislators and does not directly support a vote,” Mills wrote in an email to VTDigger on Tuesday. “It is for the attorney general to decide to pursue the matter or not and the courts to decide if the communications are legal or not.”
Dandeneau also alleged in his complaint that the postcards are “inaccurate and intentionally misleading.” House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said the same in a statement in July, in which she decried “the spread of this misinformation and the influence of dark money that aims to promote confusion and fear.” Krowinski pointed specifically to one of the claims written on the mailers, which falsely alleged that Act 18 “mandates heat pump installations in homes.”
The clean heat standard’s implementation process continued to play out last week, when NV5, a consulting group hired by the state’s Public Service Department, presented its final pre-implementation study of the clean heat standard’s projected impacts. The Vermont Democratic Party filed its complaint against Americans for Prosperity one day later.
In the study, NV5 estimated that implementing the clean heat standard would cost approximately $9.6 billion. But TJ Poor, the director of the Public Service Department’s Regulated Utility Planning division, said the latest study did not attempt to provide a per-gallon cost estimate to Vermont consumers.
Thanks to a “check-back” baked into Act 18’s initial passage, lawmakers must once again greenlight a clean heat standard this coming legislative session before it can be fully implemented.
Americans for Prosperity is stepping up its advocacy in Vermont beyond its $68,000 ad campaign. In May of 2023, the organization announced it would be expanding its “grassroots efforts” in Vermont, as part of a nationwide campaign with Ross Connolly of New Hampshire taking the helm as the Northeast region director.
“AFP’s expansion in Vermont, as well as New England and the Mid-Atlantic creates an opportunity to take what’s already working in New Hampshire and replicate our success up and down the Eastern Seaboard,” Connolly said in a statement at the time. “I know the culture and spirit of the Green Mountain State is rooted in freedom and opportunity for all.”
In March of this year, tensions over Vermont’s education financing peaked in the Statehouse, and the House Ways and Means Committee drew up $100 million in newly proposed wealth and corporate taxes. Americans for Prosperity responded with a press release saying Vermont’s Democratic supermajority was driving the state toward disaster.
“Vermonters have had enough. It’s time to shift gears and get our state back on a path toward prosperity,” Connolly said at the time.
And just this weekend, Connolly was scheduled to speak at a candidate mixer in Barre hosted by the Vermont Young Republicans, according to an online invitation. Sponsorships for the event ranged from $50 to $700.
A spokesperson for Americans for Prosperity did not make Connolly available for a phone call on Tuesday. But in a written statement attributed to him, Connolly said Americans for Prosperity “remains committed to holding lawmakers accountable for their votes on policies that have a direct impact on Vermonters’ lives.”
“We will continue to educate Vermont taxpayers on these critical issues and urge legislators to prioritize transparency and truth in governing,” Connolly concluded.
