Bill provided needed, reasonable limits to curb monied interests

September 23, 2007
By Paul Burns
Director, Vermont Public Interest Research Group

Bob Roper's partisan rant notwithstanding, Vermont legislators deserve credit for doing their homework, listening to their constituents and passing a bill to re-establish reasonable limits on campaign donations from individuals, corporations, PACs and political parties this year. It's unfortunate that Mr. Roper resorted to personal attack and political distortion in his defense of Gov. Douglas' veto of the bill. To be fair, it would be difficult for anyone to defend the governor's position on the merits. To understand why, it's useful to know what the legislation would have done.

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Judge favors state over automakers

September 13, 2007

U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions delivered a stunning blow to auto manufacturing companies Wednesday, establishing the right of states to set their own standards for how much green house gas emissions cars could produce - and pushing Vermont again to the forefront in a national fight over who regulates such pollutants.

"Under the Bush administration on a range of environmental issues leadership has had to come from the states. Vermont and a number of other states have been willing to step up and exercise our authority" said Attorney General William Sorrell, whose office defended the state emissions standards.

James Moore, an advocate for the environmental group Vermont Public Interest Research Group, agreed.

"As our federal government has turned a blind eye to the climate crisis states like Vermont are forced to take the lead and today Judge Sessions has protected our right to do so," Moore said in a statement.

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Sanders bill pushes for health care innovation

September 11, 2007

MONTPELIER - U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced a bill that would give five states money to try out programs providing for universal health care coverage - an experiment he hopes will show that so-called single-payer government insurance is "the cost-effective and moral thing to do." If his bill wins passage and becomes law - a feat Sanders acknowledges will be an uphill fight - he hopes Vermont will be one of the five states to apply for money and flexibility from the federal government to enact a pilot program, the senator said by telephone.

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, which has lobbied for health care reform in the state, praised Sanders' proposal.

"This bill could pave the way for states like Vermont to fundamentally change the way we think about health care," said Stefanie Sidortsova, health care advocate for the organization, said in a statement.

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State to pay $1.4 million to resolve campaign finance lawsuit

September 6, 2007

The state of Vermont has agreed to pay nearly $1.4 million in legal fees to the victors' attorneys to close the book on an eight-year case that led the U.S. Supreme Court to declare key parts of the state's campaign finance law unconstitutional.

"It is a bitter pill to swallow," Attorney General William Sorrell said in confirming details of the agreement. "Every once in a while we're going to lose one, but on the other hand if you never rock the boat on policy reforms, I don't think Vermont is well served."

The defendants in the case included Sorrell, Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz, Vermont's 14 state's attorneys and intervening groups like the Vermont Public Interest Research Group and the state League of Women Voters chapter.

"We felt good about what we tried to accomplish," Sorrell said. "Obviously, we were disappointed we could not pick up another vote or two. If Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had still been on the court...

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Solving our health care problem

September 4, 2007

By Stefanie Sidortsova, healthcare advocate for Vermont Public Interest Research Group

August 2007 may well be remembered as the month that President Bush declared war on children, the uninsured and Vermont. But while the battle has been joined over the future of health care in Vermont, citizens and patients should know that programs like Dr. Dinosaur and Catamount Health are not in immediate danger, inflammatory rhetoric and headlines to the contrary.

To re-cap our story to date: President Bush vowed on Aug. 8 to veto legislation that would expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

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Woman proposes label change

September 3, 2007

Suppose you're in a supermarket's pasta aisle and you want to buy spaghetti. You zero in on two brands -- 16-ounce boxes, same price. You look at each package. The labels list not only "Nutrition Facts" -- total fat, dietary fiber and so on -- but a percentage that shows what share of cost is attributable to packaging. One box says 10 percent. The other says 15 percent. Which do you pick?

The above scenario is hypothetical -- product labels don't reveal packaging costs. Densmore wants them to, though, and she has filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration calling for a packaging percentage to be added to food labels.

VPIRG has a link on its Web site to the FDA's site for comments, although VPIRG does not officially endorse the petition, said Charity Carbine, environmental health specialist for the organization.

"We support the overall objective to reduce packaging going into landfills," Carbine said.

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Youth activists in Vermont take on climate change

September 2, 2007

Earlier this year, Ivan Jacobs was washing dishes at Burlington's Blue Star Café and enjoying the regular buzz of free coffee. And then one day he noticed the yellow signs posted on telephone poles around the neighborhood.

"They said, 'Jobs for the environment,'" Jacobs recalled. "And I said to myself, 'Well, I like the environment.'"

And so the 20-year-old took one of those jobs. He began work as a youth canvasser in May for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a Montpelier-based advocacy organization, and spent his spring and summer going door-to-door in towns around the state to talk with residents about the hot political issue of 2007: Global warming.

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