As Washington D.C. continues to roll back progress on climate action and environmental protection, there’s a growing urgency to protect our planet for generations to come.
This Earth Day, you can take three simple and timely actions to move Vermont forward on climate action and environmental protection:
- Support climate action in the state budget. Last month, the House passed their version of the state budget, and in it they featured a ‘climate package’ which includes funding for the independent economic analysis of carbon pricing and other ‘decarbonization’ mechanisms, a mandate to use Volkswagen fraud settlement funds for electrification projects, and modest funding to replace old wood stoves with newer, more efficient ones. Now the budget is being considered in the Senate, and the fossil fuel industry and their allies are putting in the work to strip the climate package from the budget. Click here to send your senator a message in support of retaining the full climate package in the final budget. Learn more about the climate package in the budget by checking out our webpost.
- Protect Vermont’s children and communities from toxic chemicals. We’ve worked on S.103 for over two years – a bill aimed at protecting children from toxic chemicals in their toys and other products, as well as ensuring the testing of new drinking water wells. After passing both the House and Senate, Governor Scott recently vetoed S.103 in a disappointing action that favored toxic polluters and industry lobbyists over Vermonters’ health and wellbeing. Thankfully, just the other day the Senate voted 22-8 to override the governor’s veto — and now the House will vote early next week to do the same. The House must secure a two-thirds majority (100 votes) in order to sustain the override and pass S.103 into law. Contact your House representatives today and encourage them to override the governor’s veto of S.103! Find your legislators’ contact information using the Vermont legislative website.
- Support the Bottle Bill and reclaim the nickels. Vermont’s popular bottle bill was passed in 1972 and is the state’s most successful recycling program — but it needs some modernizing. Vermont is now only one of three states with a bottle deposit program that still gives away all of the unclaimed deposits (that’s nearly $3 million a year!) back to the beverage industry. We think it’s time to end this giveaway to multi-million dollar companies like Coca Cola, and instead keep the unclaimed deposits in-state to fund state programs programs and give taxpayers some relief. The House Natural Resources committee is currently considering the Bottle Bill, so if your legislator sits on this committee (find out here), use this page to encourage them to modernize the Bottle Bill by reclaiming the unclaimed nickels.