Editor’s note: This commentary is by Bob Walker, of Thetford Center, who is a community organizer and energy consultant.
An Open Letter to Governor Phil Scott
[D]ear Gov. Scott,
It’s 3 a.m. and I should be sleeping, but all I can do is think about your comments that appeared in VTDigger from Thursday’s (Dec. 7) press conference, that you are “not sure that there’s a financial threat” to Vermont as a result of climate change.
Have you not seen the climate projections showing Vermont’s winter temperatures similar to those of Virginia or North Carolina and Vermont’s maple trees migrating north out of the state by the end of the century? You don’t think those will harm Vermont’s winter sports and maple syrup industries?
What about the $733 million in damage to Vermont from Hurricane Irene in 2011 and the tens of millions of dollars towns throughout the Upper Valley are currently spending to restore roads from flooding this July? How many more of these storms will it take before you see a financial threat to the state?
And you think Vermont might actually benefit from climate change by the hordes of destitute climate refugees driven here, fleeing wildfires, coastal flooding, hurricanes and severe drought. Wow! I appreciate your looking for a glimmer of hope in the face of this, but all I can think of is Brian Cohen and his fellow sufferers, in Monty Python’s “Life of Brian,” as they kick dance and break into singing, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” while being crucified.
Governor, please, climb down off of the cross and get serious about climate change. Stop promoting use of the VW settlement money for “clean diesel” – whatever that is – and direct it instead toward electric buses, trains and charging infrastructure. Support the expansion of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to transportation. Work with folks promoting the ESSEX Plan to come up with a carbon tax that will make fossil fuels more expensive, while lowering electric costs for everyone and protecting the poor and then work to expand the program throughout the New England states. Support Neale Lunderville’s Warm Home Bonds initiative to weatherize 10,000 low-income homes in the next three years and then expand that program to homes of middle-income Vermonters. Start supporting sensible wind development in Vermont.
If you’re looking for a financial advantage to the state from climate change, it will be in the thousands of green energy jobs created and billions of fossil fuel dollars no longer leaving the state each year from these changes.
