Stop Secret Elections Spending Last November’s federal election was the most expensive in our nation’s history. Why? One big reason is the rise of the Super PACs, made possible by recent misguided U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Citizens United. Even in Vermont, a Super PAC–funded almost entirely by a single individual–spent over $1 million to …
A Bigger Better Bottle Bill Every year, the Bottle Bill keeps roughly 250 million containers from littering our roadsides or cramming our landfills. So, while the state studies how best to renew its commitment to recycling and zero-waste, one thing’s for sure: we should expand our most successful recycling program, the Bottle Bill. The Bottle …
Protecting Your Right to Know GMOs You have the right to know whether (and where) there’s genetically modified organisms (GMOs) hiding in the food you’re eating or feeding your family. Just like citizens living in any of the 50+ countries around the world with GMO-labeling laws, VPIRG believes that Vermonters should have the right to …
Health Care for All, and Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize For years, Vermont has been a leader in making health care accessible and affordable. Our long term goal is a single payer model that will control costs while providing high quality care for every Vermonter. As a critical first step, this year Vermont will …
Clean Heat is a Win-Win In 2008, Vermont set a goal of weatherizing 80,000 homes by 2020. But having failed to make the investment necessary to reach that goal, our state today is on a path to fall woefully short on weatherization. To make matters worse, the rising price of fossil fuels means the typical …
Late last week, Vermont’s health benefits exchange plan was approved by the federal government. This means that Vermont with join nineteen other states who have been given the green light to proceed with implementing their insurance exchanges. The state will now move full steam ahead in creating the Vermont Health Connect web portal, where individuals …
In December VPIRG sent an update to its members letting them know about a proposed 15% rate increase by MVP Health Care on their individually insured consumers. Not only was MVP asking for a 15% increase, but they proposed to use approximately a third of patient’s premium dollars to pay for administrative expenses and profits. …
For Immediate Release: January 2, 2013 MONTPELIER, VT – Today President Obama will sign into law a bill that extends key tax credits for wind power and averts the ‘fiscal cliff.’ The main federal incentives for wind power – the renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the offshore wind Investment Tax Credit (ITC) – …
President Obama, Congress Save Wind Power in Fiscal Cliff Agreement Read More »
VPIRG is mourning the loss of a true environmental champion – Joan Mulhern. Many Vermonters became familiar with Joan during her years as an advocate for VPIRG during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, she was hired by VPIRG in 1985 to run our first summer canvass.
The Bottle Bill is Vermont’s most successful recycling program, achieving more than double the recycling rate of any other program in the state. Over the past 40 years, the number of containers that have been recycled through the Bottle Bill they would fill the Empire State Building more than 3 times over. VPIRG will be …
VPIRG Launches Bigger Better Bottle Bill Activist Toolkit Read More »
