The Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee passed out a bill Friday that would allow Vermonters to sue the state if it does not cut down emissions by 26% over the next five years.
The Global Warming Solutions Act sets strict emissions goals for the state in an effort to mitigate the effects of climate change. The bill puts the onus on the state to reduce these emission levels after the federal government pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, which would have required these same reductions.
The bill would require the state to reduce greenhouse gas pollution to 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. Emissions would need to be 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below by 2050. It passed the House in a 105-37 vote in February.
The bill passed out of committee in a 3-2 vote. Sens. John Rodgers, D-Essex-Orleans, and Corey Parent, R-Franklin voted against the bill.
Committee Chair Chris Bray, D-Addison, said in a follow-up conversation with VTDigger that the bill is “essential work” that the Legislature needs to get done. He hopes it will pass the Senate before the body adjourns by the end of next week.
“We have a literal climate crisis underway,” Bray said. “And one of the most important pieces of the bill is that it makes goals that were aspirational into hard targets.”
Before passing out the bill, the committee added a member to represent manufacturers on the Vermont Climate Council, which would oversee the strategies and programs the state would take up to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The committee would be made up of various officials and representatives of various sectors in the state.
Before the bill was approved by the committee, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Peter Walke made a last attempt to include more funding in the bill for the Agency of Natural Resources to carry out any responsibilities associated with these goals.
The bill appropriates $972,000 to support any administrative costs or resulting actions that the ANR takes on the strategies prescribed by the council for fiscal year 2021. Walke called this the “bare minimum” needed for the agency to carry out the responsibilities that will be created by this act.
“I worry frankly about whether there will be the resources to do this work,” Walke said.
“It is of significant concern to me, if you’re going to move forward,” he said, “that this is sort of an empty promise to Vermonters that doesn’t have the resources to go along with it.”
Bray responded that it’s not the intention of the Legislature to add more work to an agency without the necessary funds to do that work successfully. But he didn’t commit to adding any more funding into the act.
Other industry representatives have also pushed back on the legislation while it was in the Senate committee’s jurisdiction. Matt Cota, executive director and lobbyist for the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, made clear to committee members that his organization does not support the act.
That’s not because the legislation would undoubtedly affect the supply of fuel being pumped out by the dealers he represents. Cota argued that the Vermont Climate Council established by the bill could make sweeping decisions without receiving any approval from the Legislature on the changes it mandates.
“The Climate Council could ban the sale of vehicles with combustion engines,” Cota wrote in his testimony. “This would limit the mobility of Vermonters that can’t afford an electric car, especially those living in rural areas and those in the trades that need an SUV, van or truck.”
Bray said the council has to work with ANR to develop any strategies it proposes. And because ANR does not have the rulemaking authority to ban automobiles, Bray said he doesn’t think that kind of restriction will hit the state any time soon.
