This is a very good philosophical stance to have but the reality of the situation is much messier than that. There has been a very effective status quo in this state for a century where public funding of independent schools played a huge role. The Supreme Court has upended the status quo and there are only bad options left. The students of the NEK receive a better education than rural students in almost any other situation, far better than most public education, and without public funding there is going to be a very real drop in educational outcomes for students in these areas. Are you in favor of that?

Have you unironically called someone a flatlander? That seems like a pretty good litmus test to me.

Vermont: the number one import is people, the number one export is people

The existing renewable options don’t actually fill the same energy niche as coal and natural gas. We still need baseload power to serve as a stable base for consumption. This company has been trying to “solve” grid storage as baseload power since 2012 and they’re still saying “two more years” (spoiler lossless energy storage is very expensive and probably thirty years away). Our existing renewables are great for variable needs but the existing options are coal, natural gas, and nuclear. For the baseload niche, that is our choice today, I choose nuclear.

We currently consume three times more energy than we produce and 70% of homes are heated by fossil fuels or wood. The status quo is completely unsustainable and nuclear is a crucial part of a balanced energy strategy. I know the old guard green peace types think nuclear is scary but in 10 years when the boomers are gone the rest of us are going to be rueing our failure to build three reactors as the basis of our energy future.

Edit: source

I hope we get a replacement gen 4 in the works soon. If anywhere in the world needs nuclear to supplement wind and solar it’s the place with 6 hours of sunlight for 5 months a year.