I live in Vermont and am closely associated with all these Independence nuts.  While not actively involved in the Vermont Secession movement, I am peripherally and increasingly sympathetic.  What folks from the outside might not understand is that this "movement" has been building for some time, and it's present form is mainly theatre, designed to make some very strong statements, and begin a serious discussion about the ultimate act of localization, withdrawal from an increasingly dysfunctional US.  Also what people might not gather is that these types of movements are happening all over the world, as people become more and more aware that small political groups are preferrable to larger, especially in a post peak era. If a serious effort for independence can be made in Quebec, only 30 miles from Montpelier as the crow flies, a similar effort in Vermont might not be as nutty as it initially seems. Vermont is I believe the only state that reserved the right to secede when it joined the Union in the 1790's. It was an indepedent Republic for a couple of decades before that, and a lot of Vermonters never wanted to join the US in the first place. We're a pretty independent lot.  My impressions are that Kuntsler was hired to talk about Peak Oil, and holds no particular affinity for Vt. Secession, and that Vermonters don't really give much of a damn what other parts of the country might think of them.  Many important social movements recieved more virulent negative labels than "nutty" in their infancy, and went on to become the accepted mainstream.  
     For more info check out  http://vtcommons.org/