Photographs and video by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger
On Tuesday afternoon, over a hundred sodden activists filed into the Statehouse, wearing “climate justice” banners on the back of rain jackets and carrying pussy willow branches.
The group had just completed a five-day climate solutions march from Middlebury to Montpelier organized by 350Vermont.
The march had started in Middlebury, where Vermont Gas’ Addison County pipeline ends, to halt new fossil fuel infrastructure, said Maeve McBride, director of 350Vermont.
Once gathered in the first floor of the Statehouse, the group sang the song “More Waters Rising” by Saro Lynch-Tomason of North Carolina.
“There are more waters rising / They will find their way to me / There are more waters rising / This I know, this I know.”
In a circle at the center of the group, activists issued calls for lawmakers to act swiftly to address climate change for future generations. In particular, the activists want lawmakers to pass bills this session that would ban new fossil fuel infrastructure in Vermont.
Bills proposing such bans look unlikely to be passed this session. Democrats controlling the Statehouse have moved on electric vehicle subsidies and home weatherization projects, but not on some of the more ambitious proposals coming from Progressives and members of their own caucus.
