My view is it might be better. But you're randomly adding a small amount of power to the grid in an originally unplanned location and doing so at a time when wholesale power is likely very cheap but pulling power back out when wholesale is very expensive and there is a good chance that gas turbines are being brought online to meet the peak load demands. This is likely shifting costs to lower socioeconomic class people. It's not meant as a bash against you, but against the system.

I do fine for myself. I make $400k to $500k per year, I work three days a week, and I have two heat pumps (no solar), etc. But I think the system of marked up electric prices, rebates, subsidies, etc is largely an inefficient wealth transfer program that disproportionately hurts the poorest in VT. I really think it stinks. Residential solar is pretty dumb in this geographic location (total costs per kwh, deaths per kwh, etc.). Nuclear, hydro, wind, and biomass are better contenders.

Like tearing down a super clean power plant with an extremely low carbon output and a very low mortality rate per kWH in order to replace it with residential solar?

It's refreshing to see a rare voice of logic in the VT power discussion. It's usually, solar good, everything else bad!

Good thing your power output picks up when one needs to be running their heat pumps... Oh, wait. My bad.

You're calling her a cow or she's a vet for cows?

I moved her because of a girl (my daughter). If didn't move, then I wouldn't see her again.

I grew up here and that was very accurate. The joke was that Howard Dean was our best Republican governor (because he was centrist and worked well with both parties). Now it's all about idealism, virtue signaling, and screwing the degenerate deporables outside of Burlington/Montpelier/Norwich so that finally they can live in a civilized manner.

It's really bad.

The area hospitals have the physical capacity to take care of patients (beds, equipment) but inadequate staffing and are unable to hire sufficient full-time staff (physicians, nurses, etc.). The common problem is lack of housing that is affordable with respect to the relevant salaries.

Many hospitals are rationing who they accept in transfer (and likely skirting EMTLA requirements) and patients are frequently boarding in hospitals where they are at or exceeding the level of care at that hospital can provide. Prior to Covid, these patients would generally be transferred in a timely manner. At this stage, many patients are receiving somewhat sub optimal care at they aren't be transferred to larger hospitals to have the appropriate specialists to take care of their condition.

To give an example, let's say you have a full-time RN position paying $80,000 per year, this will allow that individual to purchase a house at 3X-4X gross income -> $240,000-$320,000. Understandably, it is exceedingly difficult to find a house within a reasonable commute and in a decent community from the UVM medical center. As such, there are over 490 open nursing positions at UVM medical center. People go where they are wanted, and these nurses are largely taking jobs in other communities where they can have a more viable lifestyle.

Additionally, the green mountain care board provides another regulatory layer with increased overhead expenses and the UVM Medical Center has a near monopoly of care for much of Vermont. As such, Vermont has the fifth highest health costs per capita in the country (despite being relatively healthy otherwise) and difficulty in accessing health care. For instance, obtaining an MRI brain in the Burlington area via UVM Medical Center will cost 4X – 5X the cost of an MRI brain and an imaging center in the neighboring state.

>development

Other parts of America use recent immigrants for construction labor. As Trump famously described, from one of those "Mexican countries". There's legal immigration and there there is the having to cross 2+ countries (illegally) overland, then pay a coyote, then make it over the border, perhaps be forced into packing a load of dope at the same time, then 50+ miles hiking across the Tohono O'odham Nation, then evading further immigration checks... which kind of leads to an amazing selection process for a work ethic.

But Vermont's future doesn't seem to have lots of recent migrants from anywhere.

I'll just leave this here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKcUOUYzDXAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKcUOUYzDXA

PS I'm loving all the downvotes! It reminds me a bit of someone I knew of who while at Woodstock high school had the bumper sticker "Nuke the gay baby whales". It drove the teachers crazy and they tried to block him from having this sticker (apparently the teachers didn't really know that much about the 1st amendment...).

Neither were they scholars of the Greeks (“If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation").

He prevailed in antagonizing them...

PS My BLM yard sign is probably bigger than your BLM yard sign.

- Stay woke.

Guys, we have to put a stop on development.

I just moved here from NJ following an early retirement from my hedge fund to so that I can live intentionally and raise my three kids (Birch, Beck, and Forest). We have a small 4000 sq ft homestead on ten acres of failed dairy farm in Charlotte. I drive a Volvo EX90 electric, have solar, a tesla power wall, two labs (coco and namaste), 2 llamas, 3 sheep, and just love being green and holistic. My life partner runs a naturopathic clinic treating the underserved.

Shameless plug for my partner, but they/them/flatlander also specialize in chronic Lyme disease, vitamin infusions, and they/them/flatlander are proud to accept your tax dollars (medicaid) at their evidence free naturopathic farm stand clinic. Be sure to stop by for raw milk milkshakes on Fridays!

Anyway, please join me in in our grassroots lawsuit against the proposed wind turbine development, we will also be meeting this Friday at town hall to discuss diversity, defunding the police, gender norms, and a petition to block the local volunteer fire department from installing a Verizon tower that will colocate a repeater for fire and EMS dispatch.

Keep Vermont Green!

Sounds like that flatlander should go home...;)

Your symptoms are typical for COVID.

The murder per capita >2x national average is the really the selling point for me with Burlington!

Make an offer! Make a really good offer and they're probably sell it.

> Abénaki and Mahican

And who was here before they were?

"The problem I have with this is that these people contribute absolutely nothing to the community"

They pay taxes and consume very few resources. Their property taxes help fund all the municipal services while not using the schools, placing little wear on the roads, and most likely not being a social burden requiring EMS and law enforcement involvement.

"and do not even communicate with the people who actually live here."

Why do they need to communicate with you? Given your attitude towards them, perhaps they communicate with others...

The horror, someone who owns 10 acres wants to put up a tiny house and rent it out to people who will come to the community and spend money locally, the nerve people have hoping to use things they own to better themselves!

Humph, I'd move to Canada!

For sure, and at those temperatures, probably not much different than the heat pumps!

Yes. The poors aren't welcome here. Go where you're wanted.

That sounds harsh but it's true. The policies of this state make lower income living near Burlington/Stowe/Upper Valley nearly impossible while finding a decent job outside those areas is not easy. Unless you like Rutland:(

​

For some reason I can't reply to the comment below (thank you reddit!), but I can edit my comment, so I'll use that as a reply.

People can leave - bus tickets are cheap, the USA is a gigantic country and there are lots of places that are more hospitable to lower income levels (e.g. you can earn a decent living, find solid blue collar to lower end white collar work, buy a house, and have a decent community. I have lived and worked a number of them.

The "can't" mentality is self fulfilling, but at least several of your ancestors didn't have that mindset and they had to overcome massive obstacles, some of which included the Bering Land Bridge, an ice age, and giant short faced bears... or one could get a Greyhound ticket...

Exactly. The solution is staring the politicians in the face and they keep reaching for something else.

Why AirBnB? What else does Vermont have to offer? It's like a Yankee theme park of failing farms and few jobs.

Affordable housing is being able to purchase a house using a conventional loan on the open market. Income x 3-4 will be your max price. Reducing regulations and allowing for higher density housing (which allows for municipal water, sewer, and gas as well as cheaper electricity connections) will all shift the cost curve down. Even a sales tax reduction will save (e.g. Williston VT has a total sales tax of 7% vs NH where those same materials would be ~7% cheaper).

How about power consumption? Heat pumps typically have a significant drop in efficiency the greater the temperature difference and eventually converges on resistance heating.