Commentaries are opinion pieces contributed by readers and newsmakers. VTDigger strives to publish a variety of views from a broad range of Vermonters. Commentaries give voice to community members and do not represent VTDigger’s views. To submit a commentary, email commentary@vtdigger.org.
This commentary is by Mary Sullivan, a former longtime state legislator from Burlington. She co-chaired the legislative Climate Solutions Caucus.
As climate scientists have been warning us for quite a while — and with greater urgency every day — we don’t have much time left to greatly reduce our carbon emissions if we want our children to inherit a planet that they and their children can inhabit with some level of comfort and enjoyment.
A warning like this should be a wakeup call to everyone.
In a state with broad and deep public support, it absolutely baffles me that Gov. Phil Scott has not heeded this warning as he continues to stall on needed and urgent action.
One of the last votes I took as a legislator in 2020, as I was winding down my legislative career, was to override Gov. Scott’s veto of the Global Warming Solutions Act, a very important piece of legislation that creates a broad framework for equitable climate action and establishes legally binding emissions reductions, requiring Vermont to reduce climate pollution by 26 percent in 2025 below the 2005 levels. By 2050, the requirement is an 80 percent reduction.
After a successful override of Gov. Scott’s veto of the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Vermont Climate Council commenced important work to develop the first legally required Climate Action Plan. It’s a guiding framework for long-overdue action, with recommendations that track the conclusions of two preceding Vermont Climate Action Plans (including one the governor commissioned himself). Unfortunately, these plans — and most of the significant strategies they signaled — have been ignored year after year.
Thankfully, the Legislature is taking the necessary and hard step of moving from long-held ideas and lofty rhetoric to action.
To address the thermal sector — where a third of Vermont’s pollution comes from heating our homes and buildings — the Legislature is examining the Affordable Heat Act (S.5), which will help people and businesses transition from fossil-fuel based heat to cleaner, less costly renewable heat. This is a strong bill — and it’s a must-pass for strategic, equitable climate progress.
Putting the onus on fossil fuel heating companies, the bill will require investments in weatherization, the most cost-effective way to reduce our energy costs and our emissions. It will also incent cold-climate heat pumps, advanced wood heat and other cleaner, less costly, more local solutions.
When this happens, Vermonters will no longer be at the whim of ever-rising fossil fuel prices, so it will be a big economic boom for the state. We import 100 percent of the fossil fuel we use from out of state and mostly from out of country. Unlike electricity, we have absolutely no control over its price. This can leave Vermonters in a very vulnerable position, as it has many times in the past.
The governor vetoed a similar bill last year, which unfortunately was not overridden. It failed by a single vote. Per usual, Gov. Scott does not seem to be expressing much support for any other significant policy or approach to end our reliance on high-cost, price-volatile fossil fuel-based heat this time around either. And this inaction is happening while the world’s largest fossil fuel companies reaped almost $70 billion in profit last year and Vermonters struggled to pay higher energy bills.
It’s a vicious cycle — and a cycle that can and must stop with the passage of the Affordable Heat Act.
Several people who seem opposed to this necessary transitioning bring up the silly argument that, even if Vermont cut out all its greenhouse gas emissions, it would have no impact on the climate. It is important for every sector of the economy, every state, every country and every person to do its part to reduce.
The emissions come from everyone and everywhere. There is no one entity that can do it all. It will take a united effort by all of us with everyone doing their part. If we start meeting our reduction targets, not only will Vermont start being thought of as an environmentally sound state the way we once were, when many businesses chose to be in Vermont and grew in Vermont, but it would also strengthen our economy in other ways, bringing more clean energy jobs and keeping more of the dollars we collectively pay for fossil fuels recirculating in our economy.
When we don’t have all these dollars being sent out of state to pay for fossil fuel (something that depletes our economy), we can reinvest those dollars right here at home. The more we reduce our emissions here at home, the cleaner our air becomes, reducing bronchial illnesses and asthma. When this occurs, we spend less on health care with better outcomes. There are fewer lost workdays and workers are more productive.
There are so many benefits to reducing our carbon emissions. All elected officials should get on board, and if they don’t, they should be voted out of office. It is that important.
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