Editor’s note: This commentary is by Orielle Koliba, of Waterbury Center, who is a student at Harwood Union High School and an organizer for the Vermont Youth Lobby.
[A]s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “Climate delayers aren’t much better than climate deniers. With either one if they get their way, we’re toast.”
As a Vermont high school student who will live with the repercussions of politicians’ inaction on climate, I’m saddened that our Statehouse is filled with climate delayers, with Speaker Mitzi Johnson the “Climate Delayer-in-Chief.”
Now, let me be clear. The speaker has been awesome on other issues important to my generation. She steered Vermont’s first gun control measures … ever … past the NRA last year. And this year she’s helped pass the most progressive reproductive health bill in the nation. However, when it comes to climate change, she isn’t taking the issue as seriously.
For example, two exciting and transformative bills to address the climate crisis were introduced in the Vermont House of Representatives recently (H.463 and H.477). But the speaker says that they were submitted too late to be acted on this year.
“Basically we’re well past any time to give them a serious look,” is Johnson’s reason for not giving these bills consideration. This is climate delay for two reasons.
First, one of the bills – H.463 – is a reintroduction of the Economy-Strengthening Strategic Energy eXchange (ESSEX) Plan that was filed last year and was the focus of a major Joint Fiscal Office analysis. It’s a proposal that’s been on the table for more than a year and is the one climate plan JFO modeled that grows the economy and puts money into the pockets of the poorest 60 percent of Vermont households.
Second, Johnson sets the conversation and decides what debates we have and when, she sets the deadlines. If there is not enough time to debate bills filed on time, that is not the fault of the bill sponsors. It’s a problem of the speaker’s own making and not an acceptable excuse for inaction on a crisis facing Vermont’s economy and environment.
If the speaker is serious about climate, she can find a way to act on climate legislation.
Despite her considerable strengths and accomplishments, this isn’t the first time the speaker has fallen short on climate. She’s been dragging her feet for years.
— In January she told one of my classmates, “Vermont is a very small state in a very big world. We are not going to solve the problem. No one thinks Vermont is going to be the key in solving a very large problem.” (This attitude is so wrong. Vermont can absolutely play a key role in addressing the climate crisis!)
— Last year she asked all 14 House committees to promote climate action bills, but few did and she didn’t hold anyone accountable. Before that, according to Seven Days, she was “throwing cold water” on climate legislation.
Perhaps most telling, in the two-and-a-half sessions she has served as speaker no significant climate legislation has been allowed to reach the House floor for debate.
Vermont’s inaction isn’t a secret. The Boston Globe recently called our efforts to reduce climate pollution an “embarrassment.” It’s so bad that CEOs of some of Vermont’s iconic businesses went to the Statehouse in February to warn legislators that, in addition to the physical damages of climate change, articles like this pose a serious risk to the Vermont brand.
Vermont businesses, working families, young people and the environment deserve better than climate delay from the most powerful legislator in Montpelier. And if it’s fear of the political repercussions of climate action, Johnson could take the advice of Ocasio-Cortez and “use fear as a guiding light instead of a reason to turn off. … Without fear, there is no courage. Without fear, we don’t have the opportunity to prove ourselves in ways we never thought possible.”
Whatever it takes, the speaker needs to get over her fears and quit with the climate delay, or we’re toast.
