Editor’s note: This commentary is by John L. McCormick, an associate with the Arlington, Virginia-based Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy and founder of the Bristol-based Louise Diamond Committee to Protect Next Generations. He lives in Bristol.
2018 was the fourth warmest year and 10 of the warmest occurred this century. Global warming is a threat to children’s future. Giving them more time to design options to react to and survive a warmer world is our responsibility and Gov. Phil Scott is considering a way to help them.
Legislators and the governor can work together to take the most beneficial step – putting a cap and invest on liquid fuels. They can coordinate with the 10 other Northeast governors participating in the Georgetown University-sponsored Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). Its members represent the global fifth largest economy. Adding California and Canada can become the North American agreement to cap and invest (efficiency and carbon reduction) on liquid fuels.
In this moment of national political dissolution, Vermont can influence TCI’s effort. Our decision-makers are in place to contribute to the structure of a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) for gasoline. This 11-governor coalition is drawing the roadmap to lead us to a cap and invest on fuels. Statements of Scott, Sen. Tim Ashe and Speaker Mitzi Johnson are complimentary of that effort.
Scott’s budget address was replete with surprises and optimism. House and Senate Democrats heard his collaborative tone and contrasted it with the recent budget battle and record number of vetoes. Johnson agreed. “We are encouraged that there’s a really different tone than what we’ve seen in the past.”
The speaker’s encouragement sets the course to discuss how to reduce demand for carbon fuels. The governor focused on the economics of internal combustion vehicles. “Transitioning to electric vehicles can save millions of dollars. In 2015, approximately $830 million was spent on gasoline sales in Vermont. If this travel had all been powered by electricity, the cost would’ve been significantly less, saving drivers more than $500 million.” He recognized EVs are “essential to meeting our climate and energy goals.” Then he said: “We need 10 percent — about 50,000 — of the cars and trucks on our roads to be electric by 2025, and 25 percent by 2030.” He proposed “$1.5 million in rebates to help more people purchase or lease new or used EVs.” This is our governor committed to shifting to EVs and discussing, within the TCI, how to achieve that.
Gasoline savings aside, from a CO2 reduction standpoint, he pulled out of the breakdown lane and has the Legislature in his rear view mirror. This can be a legacy moment for Scott and Massachusetts and Maryland Republican governors to coordinate, at the state government level, ways to accelerate the TCI discussion and get it right. Ashe, Johnson, Rep. Patricia McCoy and Sen. Joe Benning should consider supporting his EV proposals. One could say his focus on the gasoline cost-savings and not CO2 was a shrewd way to avoid talking about a carbon tax while winning over the Climate Caucus.
Transportation fuels emit 43 percent of Vermont’s CO2 emissions. A gallon of gas releases 22 pounds of CO2. Your 25 mpg car traveling 15,000 miles releases 6.6 tons. The 311 million gallons consumed, in 2016, released 3.4 million tons. Driving an EV releases zero CO2. Vermonters buy about 44,000 new cars each year. A very attractive rebate will change the market gradually as we regionally come together. Governors and legislators will find a “global solution,” at the local level, and govern its implementation including how proceeds will be appropriated, EV infrastructure, transit expansion, telecommuting and other options to decrease fuel demand.
That is the basis for Ashe’s opinion, in a Jan. 22 VTDigger interview: “Right now, I think the most promising thing, in terms of meaningful reductions in harmful emissions, is the regional transportation compact being negotiated by our administration and eight other states and I believe Washington, D.C. It is being negotiated through next year and is a necessarily complicated negotiation that our agencies are working on but to me that is the single most impactful thing we can do.” This is a mile-marker.
Northeast governors share that view and working on how to “cap and invest” transportation fuels similar to the RGGI that is reducing power plant CO2 emissions and benefits Vermont about $1 million applied to energy efficiency investments. Vermont is capping CO2 and investing in efficiency.
What can a bipartisan group of Vermont decision-makers do to promote TCI? Invite TCI participants and experts to the Climate Caucus to explore how to collaborate with those governors and legislators and open communication with them. A seat at the table gives Vermont the stage to propose data and policies to influence the TCI outcome.
Vermont Law School and University of Vermont students working with the governor can contribute to the TCI discussions. Scott and legislators have the coordinates and compass.
