| We’ve passed the unofficial halfway mark of the 2025 Vermont legislative session. Last Friday marked the crossover deadline – the date by which bills must be advanced out of their initial policy committee if they are going to have a chance of being passed this year. We knew coming into this session that we’d need to guard against rollbacks to the substantial progress we’ve made in recent years to better protect Vermont’s people and environment, while also pressing forward on meaningful, commonsense solutions to the many challenges we face. Thus far, VPIRG and our members have been tested on both fronts and have risen to meet those tests. |
| CLIMATE & CLEAN ENERGY In the last five years, Vermont has enacted several landmark policies that put us on track to reduce climate pollution, help Vermonters transition to cleaner, more affordable energy, and hold large climate polluters accountable for the damage they’ve caused in our state—most notably through the Global Warming Solutions Act, last year’s overhaul of Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard, and the Climate Superfund Act. But we knew that the fossil fuel industry and their allies in the legislature would try to undo much of this progress this year. Thus far, Vermonters have stepped up to rebuff these attempts – writing to their legislators in large numbers to urge them to hold firm on climate action and flooding the State House phone lines both to turn back a legislative maneuver by Senate Republicans to bypass the committee process and bring anti-climate legislation to the Senate floor, and to speak out against a climate rollback bill (H.289) being pushed by Gov. Phil Scott. We expect more attempts to undermine our climate progress in the second half of the session and will continue to keep you updated on what you can do to make sure that doesn’t happen. Meanwhile, we’ve been successful in advocating for climate solutions that’ll save Vermonters money and help us hit our climate requirements. Notably, a bill (S.65) advanced out of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy committee last week that would refocus the work of Vermont’s efficiency utilities (most notably Efficiency Vermont) to prioritize reducing climate pollution and energy burdens – especially for low- and moderate-income Vermonters. Beyond that, we’re pushing hard to ensure that there are sufficient resources in the budget for implementation of the Climate Superfund Act. We’ve also been advocating for better funding (our currently woefully underfunded) public transit in the state, and for new funding for Vermont’s low- and moderate-income EV incentives, which ran dry late last year after a surge in interest. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & ZERO WASTE One major environmental health priority met the crossover deadline as last week, as the House voted overwhelmingly to outlaw the use of toxic PFAS “forever” chemicals in dental floss, cleaning products, and fluorine-treated containers. The VPIRG-supported bill (H.238) builds on earlier legislation adopted in Vermont that addressed PFAS in personal care products, menstrual products, textiles, cookware, rugs and carpets, artificial turf, ski wax, and more. We also saw legislation introduced on important zero waste priorities of ours, notably, legislation to modernize Vermont’s popular Bottle Bill program and legislation to tackle the problem of plastic pollution—the overwhelming amount of it and the increasingly toxic nature of it. Neither of these bills met the crossover deadline, but we still to plan to make progress on them this session. DEMOCRACY The number one priority in our Democracy Program continues to be our effort to give Vermonters more voice and more choice with Ranked Choice Voting – specifically implementing RCV for presidential primaries in 2028. While bills containing this important pro-voter reform did not make the crossover deadline, we do see opportunities for ways to possibly make progress on this, this year. We’ll be in touch with ways you can help make that happen going forward. A VPIRG-supported bill that deals with the problem of AI-Deep Fakes in political advertising by requiring the disclosure of such “synthetic” media was advanced out of the Senate Government Operations Committee before crossover. CONSUMER PROTECTION & PUBLIC HEALTH It is a good news/bad news situation on VPIRG’s top consumer protection priority this session: the effort to enact a comprehensive consumer data privacy law. The good news: a comprehensive consumer privacy bill (S.71) did advance out of the Senate Institutions Committee before the crossover deadline. The bad news: before advancing the bill, the committee replaced the strong data privacy language in S.71 with much less consumer-protective language. Nevertheless, we’re grateful the Senate has taken up this issue and understand that—with the urgency of the crossover deadline upon them—they are passing a version of the bill that will be met with less resistance by industry, with the knowledge that the House will continue to work on it. We’ll advocate for the House to bolster the protections in the bill and give Vermonters meaningful control over their personal information. The Senate Health & Welfare Committee has also advanced VPIRG-supported legislation that would use $1 million in one-time funds to eliminate $100 million worth of medical debt for Vermonters. The bill (S.27) would also prohibit medical debt from being included on Vermonters’ credit reports. The bill is based on a proposal put forward by Vermont Treasurer Mike Pieciak and has thus far been met with overwhelming support in the legislature. Finally – other VPIRG consumer priorities did not meet the crossover deadline, but we are hopeful they will get hearings in the second half of the session – most notably legislation tied to VPIRG’s new Safe & Healthy Food Campaign. Those bills would ban toxic additives, synthetic dyes, and begin to regulate the ultra-processed foods that are making us sick. Look for more about this burgeoning campaign in the weeks ahead. So, it’s fair to say we’ve been busy as ever this legislative session. There’s a lot more to come, and with your help we will continue to protect the progress we’ve made *and* move forward with public interest solutions that make our state an even better place to live. So, it’s fair to say we’ve been busy as ever this legislative session. There’s a lot more to come, and with your help we will continue to protect the progress we’ve made *and* move forward with public interest solutions that make our state an even better place to live. |