VPIRG Executive Director Paul Burns here. Like so many others, I am working from home, making sure friends and relatives are secure, figuring out how to homeschool our 3rd grader, and trying to adjust. I know I’m lucky. So many Vermonters now find themselves on the front lines: medical professionals,…
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Vermonters support the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) – a bipartisan, regional effort to modernize transportation systems and reduce pollution – and want Gov. Phil Scott to join the compact. Of the 353 comments submitted by Vermonters through the Scott administration’s TCI portal between April 2019 and February 2020, more than four out of five comments (83%) support the initiative. In addition to…
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We’re nearly halfway through the 2020 legislative session, and thanks to strong support from our members and allies across the state, we’ve made important progress on a number of pieces of essential legislation. We’re heartened by our accomplishments thus far, but we know we aren’t the only ones taking…
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The Vermont House and Senate need more climate champions. Could you be one? As the only state in New England to experience a rise in greenhouse gas pollution since 1990 and the state with the highest per capita emissions, it’s clear that Vermont is moving in the wrong direction. In…
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While the worst spills – Exxon Valdez, BP Deepwater Horizon, the list goes on – rightly get the most attention, the fact is fossil fuel spills happen every day in Vermont and hardly get a mention. There have been more than 18,000 oil spills since Vermont started monitoring them in…
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Today at the Vermont State House, 30 Vermont organizations representing business, youth, poverty alleviation, public health, environment and other diverse interests presented a policy plan for climate action in 2020. You can find the plan at www.actonclimatevt.org/s/2020-Climate-Platform.pdf. The plan proposes a concise and essential platform for Vermont to do its…
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The 2020 Vermont legislative session kicked off today and we’re excited. The challenges we face as a state are greater than ever: An unprecedented climate crisis that demands immediate action. Corporations that put their bottom-line ahead of consumers’ safety and well-being. Toxins in food packaging and a plastic pollution problem…
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The 2020 legislative session begins this coming Tuesday, and as you can imagine, things are pretty busy in the VPIRG offices. We have big plans for climate action this year, and we want to make sure you’re up to date on our priorities – that’s why we’re hoping you’ll tune in…
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While the worst spills – Exxon Valdez, BP Deepwater Horizon, the list goes on – rightly get the most attention, the fact is fossil fuel spills happen every day in Vermont and hardly get a mention. There have been more than 18,000 oil spills since Vermont started monitoring them in…
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On Tuesday, December 17th, Vermont joined other New England and mid-Atlantic states, along with Washington, DC, in issuing a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI). Modeled on the successful Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that Vermont joined under the Douglas Administration, the draft MOU outlines…
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