[W]hile activists have already started clamoring for and against a carbon tax designed to curb Vermont’s rising greenhouse gas emissions, legislators seem in no hurry to enact one.
The Statehouse cafeteria was crowded Wednesday morning with a mostly male group sporting yellow vests over their sweaters, flannels and work pants as part of an anti-carbon tax rally organized by No Carbon Tax Vermont. Event speakers said that a carbon tax would have far-reaching negative consequences — such as increasing the cost of food — without producing a measurable impact on climate change.
Skyler Bailey, a medical administrator from Burlington, said that although he feels there is “solid evidence” that humans have contributed to global warming, he does not believe a carbon tax will help lower greenhouse gas emissions based on an examination of European countries that have enacted similar policies.
One of the organizers, Angelo Napolitano — co-leader of an unsuccessful write-in campaign for Sen. John Rodgers, D-Essex/Orleans, to be the Democratic candidate for governor last summer — said Vermont’s working class who cannot afford to see heating or gas bills rise any more under a carbon tax.
“I don’t how these overburdened Vermonters — these people who are in here — can get more taxes on them,” he said.
Last session, a carbon fee made it before legislators in the form of the ESSEX Plan. The proposal consists of a staggered fee that would start at $5 per ton of carbon dioxide pollution — roughly four cents on a gallon of gasoline and five cents on a gallon of home heating oil — and go up to $40 per ton. The revenue generated would then be returned in the form of credits on electric bills, with lower income Vermonters receiving additional bill credits and rebates for the higher cost of gas.
Napolitano said he believes the proposal works for Vermonters at the top and bottom, but not for members of the middle class.
In sharp contrast to morning’s rally, high school students affiliated with the Vermont Youth Lobby held an afternoon press conference in a Statehouse meeting room where they called on lawmakers to take “serious and immediate” action to address climate change.
“It’s time for Vermont to look seriously at putting a price on carbon and start enacting it,” said Libby Brusa, a senior at Harwood Union High School.
Schoolmate Carson Shea, a junior, said his fellow students “have the news at our fingertips and what see really scares us,” pointing to a declining middle class, an opioid epidemic and climate change.
“When we are scared we choose to fight, like the Parkland (Florida high school) students who fought for common sense gun reforms or like my friends who came to the Statehouse last year to fight for the same thing,” said Shea. “We come here this year to ask for common sense climate change action.”
But whether the Legislature will take up the Youth Lobby’s call remains to be seen. Neither House Speaker Mitzi Johnson nor Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe has mentioned carbon pricing as a priority for this session.
During a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, Ashe cautioned that any policies to curb emissions can’t be “designed just for those who can afford solar and other climate change-fighting consumer goods, but also make economic sense for the people living in this other Vermont.”
Johnson said in an interview last month that she sees addressing climate change as crucial, but does not see a “straight-up carbon tax” as an effective tool without better public transportation in rural areas.
“Right now, no matter what you do to the pricing, there still are not a lot of ways to get from the Islands to Montpelier,” she said, referring to Grand Isle County.
Earlier this month, the Scott administration announced that Vermont has joined a nine-state coalition that is working on a regional plan to lower carbon dioxide emissions from transportation. The plan will come out next year, at which point each state and the District of Columbia can decide whether to adopt it or opt out.
Lauren Hierl, executive director of Vermont Conservation Voters, referred to Gov. Phil Scott’s decision as a “welcome change,” but said that Vermont shouldn’t wait for that plan to come before enacting climate related legislation.
“We still have a lot of opportunity to continue making progress right here within the state,” she said, “so I hope it’s not used as an excuse to delay action from the administration on other important initiatives that we could be making progress on for climate right now.”
After Election Day, a group of environmental and low-income advocates released a climate action policy platform that includes doubling funding for low-income home weatherization and banning the expansion of large-scale fossil fuel infrastructure. The coalition is also asking legislators to take a serious look at a study on carbon pricing that comes out next week from the Joint Fiscal Office.
Sen. Chris Pearson, P/D-Chittenden and sponsor of the Senate version of the ESSEX Plan last year, said he will be waiting for the release of the JFO report before deciding whether to introduce a carbon-pricing bill this session.
