From the Times Argus
WILLISTON — Vermont visionary David Blittersdorf has bad news and good news
The bad news, he says, is that the nation and world will run out of oil and face catastrophic collapse at local, national and global levels. The good news is that a combination of conservation and renewable energy sources can avert a crisis, but it will require a concerted effort — and commitment — to do so.
Blittersdorf’s latest pitch on the renewal energy front is to bring back passenger rail service in central Vermont with 1950s-era self-propelled diesel rail cars. It’s his latest salvo that has included pioneering progress in wind and solar energy programs in the state. For Blittersdorf, the writing is on the wall, but he hopes to help rewrite the dismal history of the future.
More than once, he described his plan as “Back to the Future” that will transform the way Vermonters travel while helping to cut the state’s dependence on fossil fuels and combat climate change in an effort to become 90 percent net-zero carbon free by 2050…..
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He said “Peak Oil” — when demand exceeded supply — occurred in 2007, only delayed by the fracking of oil and gas for another 10-15 years, with an exponential increase in carbon emissions and untold environmental damage.
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“IntheAmericanempireand where we think we are, we’re going down the other side… we don’t have the resources in the future that we think we have,” Blittersdorf said. “Everyone thinks we can grow into infinity forever. Sowe’resettingourselves upfor something really bad.
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“We have to start somewhere, and the efficiency gain over getting people out of cars is we can be 50 to 100 times more efficient, so we’ll cut emissions immediately, and we can do it as a reasonable price. That’s key,” Blittersdorf said.
stephen.mills@timesargus.com
Here is a rebuttal..
From the Ethan Allen Institute.
It is a canon of Green theology that irresponsible, selfish Americans must be taxed or subsidized out of their personal vehicles and into a group carriage like a rail car, all to save the planet from the menace of global warming.
Guess who is behind the new push for commuter rail? Mr. Green enterprise himself, VPIRG donor David “Wind Farm” Blittersdorf. He laid out $6 million for some reconditioned rail cars from Dallas in the hope of marrying them with the state owned rail lines and stations, to whisk commuters to Burlington from Rutland and maybe Montpelier.
And here’s the inevitable kicker: Blittersdorf “readily acknowledged that he won’t get this project rolling without public or private subsidies, or both. He imagines that some of Vermont’s large employers such as UVM, Global Foundries and state government will subsidize the trains in exchange for free transit for their employees.”
Oh, really? Are Vermonters dumb enough to fall for this costly foolishness all over again?
Let me state one thing from the beginning…I love trains/railroads. As a kid I would hear a train whistle in the distance. I would get on my bike and race down to the bridge that went over the tracks. When I would first see the head light from the locomotive then hear it’s roar I would get tense from excitement. I would wave to the engineer and he would wave back. I would listen to the click-ity clack of the wheels and try to count the freight cars. I would then wave at the guys in the caboose (yes..it was a long time ago).
Commuter trains certainly have there place…in large populated urban centers. of which Vermont is not one…yet. Perhaps if we only allow another 200,000 refugees from the middle east and central America to come to Vermont for a better life, commuter trains will be a much positive asset.
When Mr. Blittersdorf and the state of Vermont work out the details I and I’m sure many others will have to check it out and take a ride just for the joy of riding the rails. And I’m sure more then a few will utilize it for regular commuting.
But I certainly doubt that it’d going to break even cost wise. And Vermont taxpayers will be forced to watch public money used to subsidize a religion, the church of climate change.
But this is what “Progressives” consider progress.
