Vermont’s attorney general and state treasurer are backing a bill that would allow citizens to sue the state if it does not slash emissions by 25% over the next five years.
Attorney General TJ Donovan and Treasurer Beth Pearce, both Democrats, told lawmakers this week that they support the legislation, H.688, known as the “Global Warming Solutions Act,” which is a top priority of Democratic lawmakers who plan to take sweeping climate action this year.
“In an era where the federal government has stepped back and stopped doing its job, it’s incumbent on states to step up,” Donovan told the House Energy and Technology Committee while testifying Thursday morning.
“This is a chance for Vermont to lead on the climate crisis, to be a national leader and to hold ourselves accountable as a state government,” he added.
Pearce delivered testimony backing the bill at a meeting of the energy and tech committee on Friday.
“I think that climate risk is is very important to address — it affects our way of life, it affects our health, it affects our safety and it affects the bottom line,” she said in an interview after the meeting. “The time to take care of this is immediately and I think this bill goes a long way to getting us down that road.”
She added that credit rating agencies consider how well states are mitigating risk from impacts of climate change.
“People investing in the state, whether it’s investing in our bonds or looking at a future location of their businesses here, want to know that we’ve addressed the issues of climate change and are taking the appropriate risk mitigation strategies in our state,” Pearce said.
The House Energy and Technology Committee has kicked off the legislative session working on the bill, H.688, which would turn goals for emissions reductions into mandates.
Although the state is supposed to have reduced emissions a quarter below 1990 levels by 2012, emissions are 13% higher than that target.
While Vermont’s total greenhouse gas emissions are the lowest in the country, the Green Mountain State now has the highest per capita emissions in New England. Although emissions from electricity have declined slightly below 1990 levels, transportation and heating pollution — the state’s biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions — have gone up.
The bill would require the state to reduce emissions 26% below 2005 levels by 2025 — or roughly a quarter from present levels. This would align with the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement, which Gov. Phil Scott and at least 23 other governors recommitted to when Trump signaled the U.S.’s withdrawal. By 2050, emissions would need to be 80% below 1990 levels.
Despite his support of the Paris agreement, Scott has signaled his opposition to the current version of the Global Warming Solutions Act.
In an interview this fall, the governor said he prefers carrots over sticks. “Trying to use a regulatory method and punishment as a means to drive change typically doesn’t work that well,” he said.
If passed, the bill would create a climate action panel made up of representatives from state government and citizen experts to come up with an emissions reduction plan by mid-2021. Included in the plan would be guidance for the Agency of Natural Resources to adopt rules to regulate greenhouse gas pollutants.
And municipalities would be required to submit a plan every three years to the state director of Emergency Management about disaster preparedness and infrastructure resiliency.
The Global Warming Solutions Act would also allow Vermonters to take the state to court for either not writing the rules in time or for not developing strict enough regulations if emissions don’t go down. Citizens would have to prove that the rules, not other factors, that had been a “substantial” reason why emissions had not declined.
If a lawsuit prevails, the state would have to go back and write stricter rules and could have to pay attorneys’ fees to the plaintiff. If the suit was deemed frivolous, the state could recoup attorneys’ fees.
Similar laws have been passed in Massachusetts, New York and Maine.
Donovan, who referred to climate change as an “existential crisis,” said that he did not envision there being a “windfall” of state money at risk since monetary damages are not a possible remedy.
“I’m the one who’s going to be defending state government but the climate crisis is bigger than all of us,” he said.
Both House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, and Senate Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, who have made climate legislation a priority this session, have expressed support for the bill.
House Energy and Technology Committee Chair Timothy Briglin, D-Thetford, said his committee will vote on the bill early next month.
