News & Updates

H. 688, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which was vetoed just last week by Governor Phil Scott, will officially become law after the Governor’s veto was overridden in both the House and the Senate. These votes reaffirmed the legislature’s, and the Vermont peoples’, commitment to climate action, despite efforts to derail action on the part ...

For a few months now, we at VPIRG have been expanding some of our research, advocacy, and organizing to include issues related to criminal justice reform and public safety. And we’ve been following the shocking reporting of mismanagement coming out of the Mississippi prison that houses more than 200 incarcerated Vermonters.   The prison is owned by CoreCivic, a private prison corporation. 84% of the Vermonters incarcerated there tested ...

PFAS chemicals pose a danger to human health unlike any other. For the past several years, our state has been focused on how Vermonters might be exposed to PFAS pollution through drinking water – and rightfully so. This concern stemmed from the now well-known 2016 discovery of high levels of PFAS in hundreds of drinking water wells in Bennington County. As of August 2020, nine public water systems in Vermont have tested above the ...

Back in August, we joined the ACLU of Vermont, Justice for All, and over a dozen other organizations in proposing a 10-point platform for reimagining policing in Vermont. Now, Vermont has an opportunity to take an incremental but concrete step towards improving public safety with legislation governing police use of force statewide.  This use of force bill, S.119, would promote peaceful, de-escalatory resolution while also providing clarity and uniformity around how and when police are authorized to use physical force in our ...

Just two days after Governor Scott vetoed the Global Warming Solutions Act, the House of Representatives has voted to override that veto, surpassing the 100 votes needed to do so in a 103-47 vote. As the House was preparing for its ultimately successful override vote on Thursday, however, the chair and vice chair of House ...

We applaud federal Judge Geoffrey Crawford for dismissing a lawsuit intended to derail Vermont’s plan for universal mail-in voting this year. It has been sad to see Republicans standing in the way of safe voting in Vermont at every turn this year. They voted against it in the legislature. The governor refused to sign off on ...

Update: You can find our take on Gov Scott’s veto below. As the House was preparing for its ultimately successful override vote on Thursday, however, the chair and vice chair of House Energy, Reps Tim Briglin (D-Norwich) and Laura Sibilia (I-Dover) spoke eloquently and in detail as to why, in their view, the Governor was ...

VPIRG Joins Broad Coalition of Groups Calling on Legislature to Override Governor’s Veto of the Global Warming Solutions Act Governor Scott has vetoed the Global Warming Solutions Act, which was overwhelmingly passed by both the Vermont House and Senate. The historic climate bill requires Vermont to reduce its climate-damaging emissions while simultaneously creating jobs, improving community ...