Editor’s note: This commentary is by Patrick Flood, the former commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living and former deputy secretary of the Agency of Human Services. He is now retired and lives in Woodbury.
[C]limate change is happening faster than we thought. Irreversible damage is being done every day, and it will only get worse. The world we are leaving our children is going to be difficult, even hostile. It seems to me that we are morally bound to do whatever we can to lessen the burden for them. After all, many of them have not even been alive long enough to be part of the problem. Many of them are too young to vote. They depend on us to make the right decisions for their future.
So what are we doing? As far as I can tell, almost nothing. There was an effort to raise the tax on heating fuel by 2 cents a gallon to raise $4 million for low-income weatherization. The House took that small but important step forward, and it appears the Senate will take some action but the outcome is not clear. Beyond taking a small portion of consumer settlement dollars from auto-manufacturer fraud to support electric vehicle incentives, that’s it. Even these small steps have been a struggle – despite the urgency. In the meantime, Vermont’s carbon emissions continue to increase. Taken all together, it’s minimal progress. So what’s the plan? There isn’t one.
I am shocked at the lack of action especially by the Democratic and Progressive parties. With a veto-proof majority, a very real climate crisis and many candidates now in office who ran on a climate action platform, one would think they would step up and take strong action. There is so much that needs to be and can be done. Weatherization. Subsidizing electric vehicles. Heat pumps. More solar power. We know what to do and how to do it.
There is even a ready source to fund these initiatives. Thanks to the Trump federal tax breaks, the top 20% of income earners in Vermont are receiving a $300 million tax windfall. It is astonishing to me that our legislators have not even had a debate about using some portion of that windfall to fund much needed climate change mitigation.
Do well-off Vermonters need a tax break more than our children need help preserving the world they have to live in? While our children and grandchildren stare down the barrel of a grim and difficult world caused by climate change, the Vermont Legislature protects the Trump tax cuts? We can’t even recoup 10% of that to fund meaningful weatherization?
We are miserably failing our responsibility to our children and grandchildren. As parents and elders of our society, we are morally responsible for the welfare of our children and grandchildren. Yet we do almost nothing as their future worsens with each passing day.
As this year’s Legislature winds down, all we can do is look to next year. Vermont needs a comprehensive climate change plan and legislation, complete with funding, and the taxes necessary to accomplish it. Poor and middle class Vermonters do not have to bear that burden. The well-off among us can afford to pay to do what is needed. We need courageous leadership to do what is right and necessary. The time to start is now.
