On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court unleashed a flood of corporate money into our political system by ruling that, contrary to longstanding precedent, corporations have a first amendment right to spend unlimited amounts of money to promote or defeat candidates. The decision in this historic case – Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission – overturned a century of campaign finance law and stands to deal a devastating blow to our democracy unless we act.
Our advocates are following these bills and we’ll keep you posted on opportunities to take action. Find the bill language by clicking the title.
Our advocates are following these bills and we’ll keep you posted on opportunities to take action. Find the bill language by clicking the title.
Activists from around the state will be gathering in front of the State House steps in Montpelier to rally in support of Senator Ginny Lyon’s resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that says corporations are not people.
Vermont’s Bottle Bill is our state’s most successful recycling program. Thanks to the Bottle Bill, we recycle 85% of covered beverage containers, while states without Bottle Bills recycle, on average, only 24%.
Read how expanding the Bottle Bill can keep millions more containers out of landfills and off of roadsides.
We continue to work toward building a clean, renewable, reliable energy future for our state. VPIRG is working to pass a bill ensuring that a greater portion of your electricity comes from renewable sources. And, with 50% of Vermont’s electricity already coming from clean energy sources like solar, wind, and hydropower, our goal, of an additional 30% more by 2025, is well within our reach.
The passage of Act 48 in 2011 puts Vermont on the path to a new universal and publicly financed health care system called Green Mountain Care (GMC). The Vermont’s Health Care Road Map brochure provides an introduction to the law and the time line for decision-making.
By embracing an ambitious “zero waste” program, Vermont can, and should, break from current linear use of our resources, wherein which raw materials are extracted, processed into consumer goods, consumed, and then disposed primarily by being landfilled or incinerated.
Time is short and the workload is immense. The inaugural members of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board took their seat at the table this fall and have been hard at work ever since.
The Board was created by the Vermont legislature in 2011 to oversee the design and implementation of Green Mountain Care, the state’s vision for a health care system that will cover every Vermonter, with an affordable price tag.
A recent study found that expansion of Vermont’s bottle bill to include water bottles and other non-carbonated beverages could lead to an increase of jobs in the state, according to a new study by the Container Recycling Institute (CRI) called, “Returning to Work: Understanding the Domestic Jobs Impacts from Different Methods of Recycling Beverage Containers.”
