Earlier this year, the Vermont Legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to pass an expansion of the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, or RES, putting us on track to delivering 100% renewable energy statewide by 2035. The Renewable Energy Standard is a framework through which Vermont’s electrical utilities are required to acquire energy from renewable sources and …
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Pollinators play a vital role in our ecosystem and are responsible for one in three bites of food we eat every day. Unfortunately, pollinator populations in Vermont and around the country are being threatened by a class of widely used pesticides called neonicotinoids. Fortunately, earlier this year the Vermont Legislature passed the Pollinator Protection Act …
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The Climate Superfund Act was passed into law by the Vermont Legislature earlier this year and marks a new era in the effort to hold the world’s largest polluters responsible for the mess they have made. For the first time, Big Oil will be held financially accountable for knowingly damaging our climate and doing nothing …
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A year ago today, Vermont weathered some of the worst flooding in the history of the state, causing over $1 billion in damages and displacing thousands. One year on, on the tail of a hurricane barreling through the Caribbean & southern US and threatening our region with flash flooding again, hundreds of Vermonters are still displaced, …
As flood waters recede and Vermonters begin to rebuild, two things are becoming clear. Disasters like these are extraordinarily expensive. The costs to repair damage to homes and infrastructure will be astronomical, not to mention the destruction of priceless memories, heirlooms, and lives. And second, this was not a fluke. Not too long ago, storms …
The Climate Crisis is Here – And Big Oil Must Pay for it. Read More »
We are officially halfway through the 2023 legislative session, with both legislative and money crossover dates in the rear-view mirror. Our VPIRG team has been hard at work over the past few months pushing for common sense policies, from Bottle Bill modernization to ranked choice voting, and we’ve made great progress, thanks in large part …
The 2023 legislative session is well underway with an unprecedented slate of new legislators in the State House, and a clear commitment from legislators and legislative leadership in both the House and Senate that climate action is a top priority. After a frustrating failure to override a veto by a single vote in the House …
The Vermont state Senate gave its final approval today to legislation that would update and substantially expand the scope of the state’s beverage redemption program, commonly known as the Bottle Bill. The vote in favor of H.175 was 17-13 and the bill now must return to the House for possible concurrence before it can go …
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S.148, the environmental justice bill, is headed to the governor’s desk! After initially passing out of the State Senate in late March, the Senate has now concurred with the version of the bill passed resoundingly by the House just days ago. This legislative victory puts Vermont on track to enact its first environmental justice law, …
Recently, VPIRG’s own Ben Edgerly Walsh moderated the latest entry in the Climate Action Works webinar series, What You Need to Know About the Climate Action Plan. Ben was joined by officially appointed Vermont Climate Council members, who shared the latest updates about the work being done in each of the subcommittees to develop the …
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