Significant Dollars in Diverse, Needed Programs Provide a Foundation Upon Which to Build The Vermont Legislature crafted and Governor Phil Scott recently signed the FY23 budget, H.740, committing to unprecedented investments in climate action and resilience and setting the stage to help Vermonters reduce their energy costs, their reliance on expensive and polluting fossil fuels, …
The Legislature crafted and yesterday Governor Phil Scott signed H.518, the Municipal Energy Resilience Initiatives Bill into law, setting the stage for $45 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to support municipalities with technical assistance, energy assessments and municipal weatherization, fuel switching and other potential cost- and carbon-cutting …
New Program Creates Cost- and Carbon-Cutting Opportunities for Vermont Municipalities Read More »
Will address environmental harms disproportionately affecting many communities A diverse coalition of environmental justice leaders celebrated the enactment of the state’s first-ever environmental justice law, which earned Vermont Governor Phil Scott’s signature on Tuesday. The bill, S.148, passed with strong tri-partisan supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature before arriving at his desk. This law …
Community Leaders Hail Enactment of VT’s First Environmental Justice Law Read More »
Falko Schilling, here. In addition to being the Advocacy Director at ACLU of Vermont I’m a current VPIREF trustee and former VPIRG staff member. Throughout its history, VPIRG has been a bold leader in consumer protection issues, advocating for Vermonters to have a right to know what’s in the products they consume and watchdogging potentially …
VPIRG at 50: Reflecting on our GMO Labeling Campaign Read More »
We’ve recently wrapped up a busy, successful – and, in some cases, challenging – legislative session. VPIRG members helped win some exciting victories on environmental justice, getting mercury out of lighting in Vermont, a record-setting $200 million for climate action in the budget, and more! But we also faced some disappointments–falling just short in our …
We recently heard that Governor Phil Scott is considering vetoing the environmental justice bill, S.148, which passed with overwhelming tri-partisan support in both the Senate (28-1) and House (109-31). In this last week of the legislative session, and with reports that they will not hold a session where they could override his veto, he can enact …
Don’t Let Gov. Scott Sink the Environmental Justice Bill Read More »
The Vermont state Senate gave its final approval today to legislation that would update and substantially expand the scope of the state’s beverage redemption program, commonly known as the Bottle Bill. The vote in favor of H.175 was 17-13 and the bill now must return to the House for possible concurrence before it can go …
Senate Backs Legislation to Modernize Bottle Bill Read More »
A Win For Big Oil And Keeping Vermonters Tethered To Polluting & Costly Heating Systems After the Vermont House narrowly failed to override the Governor’s veto of the Clean Heat Standard (H.715) on a 99-51 vote, Vermont has once again delayed essential climate progress. The Clean Heat Standard – a performance-based approach that would require …
Governor Scott And A Minority Of Lawmakers Stymie Climate Progress Read More »
Governor Scott’s veto of the Clean Heat Standard (H.715) disregards years of hard work to design an approach to strategically and equitably transform the fossil fuel heating sector.
S.148, the environmental justice bill, is headed to the governor’s desk! After initially passing out of the State Senate in late March, the Senate has now concurred with the version of the bill passed resoundingly by the House just days ago. This legislative victory puts Vermont on track to enact its first environmental justice law, …
