Town Meeting Day Success!

Even in the frigid chill of deep winter citizen activists strive to bring positive change to Vermont. This last Tuesday was of course Town Meeting Day, that hallowed Vermont tradition of local democracy at its best. Thousands of people around the state congregated in town halls, schools, and other public places to let their voice be heard. One of the issues not on the docket at any town meeting was House Bill 225 which seeks to transform more than 35% percent of Vermont’s dirty, dangerous, and expensive energy production to clean, safe, and affordable renewable energy.

We at VPIRG love Town Meeting Day because it represents so much of what is good about Vermont’s style of homegrown democracy. So, to honor that fine tradition the field activists of VPIRG and our allies at the Toxics Action Center and Citizens Awareness Network spent the day on a petition drive. We collected signatures at more than 20 sites around the state, including Burlington, Montpelier, up and down Bennington County, and Rutland just to name a few. Why, dear reader, did we stand outside polling places and survive the -30 degree wind chill to collect these signatures? Because H.225 is important. This is a bill that will finally put us on a path towards energy independence.

I must tell you, the day was a success! We collected more than 1,000 signatures in support of H.225. But what good are signatures that don’t get used? These signatures will be traveling around the state to meetings with legislators in order show to them how important this bill is to the future of Vermont. Citizens from across the state came together on Town Meeting Day to voice their support for a clean renewable energy future. Now, we have to bring the legislature together to support this bill. In order to achieve this goal we have been helping interested citizens from across the state set up meetings with their State Senators. So far, we’ve had three meetings with six senators and hope to have at least 3 to 5 more meetings in the next two weeks.