Legislators and members of the Vermont Climate Council on Wednesday discussed ways to incorporate public comment into the forthcoming climate action plan while maintaining a swift timeline designed to address the global emergency.
The council is charged with developing an initial plan, to be adopted by Dec. 1, that will recommend strategies to cut Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions and prepare the state for the impacts of climate change.
Three members of the council, along with the director of the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act, presented preliminary recommendations and notes about their process during a hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Technology. The council has been providing the committee with regular updates on their progress.
They summarized pathways the council’s subcommittees presented in their first discussion of high-level draft plans to the full council last month.
While Wednesday’s meeting covered topics that ranged from weatherizing buildings to creating local hazard mitigation plans, much discussion occurred on the topic of engaging the public in the planning process.
The present council members fielded a number of questions after they told legislators that, while they’ll work to engage the public on their preliminary ideas starting in September, the public won’t have an opportunity to comment on the climate action plan before it’s released — and adopted — on Dec. 1.
Julie Moore, the secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources, who serves on the council, said the council will hold statewide and regional events this fall to include Vermonters in creating the climate action plan.
Moore said the group has made headway this summer creating a network with underserved and traditionally marginalized groups and said they’ll use that process to inform outreach efforts going forward.
“The challenge is there really isn’t time there to then take a draft of the plan back out to the public for review and comment and deliver it by Dec. 1,” Moore said. “We simply don’t have the time.”
The plan, she said, is to do that work in early 2022 and recognize “that the climate action plan is a living document and will continue to be upgraded and revised as we move forward.”
The plan released Dec. 1 will focus on the state’s requirements for 2025. The Global Warming Solutions Act requires Vermont to reduce greenhouse gas pollution to 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. Emissions must be 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, and 80% below by 2050.
Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury, asked whether the Dec. 1 plan could be considered a draft until the council is able to consider feedback.
“I don’t know that the council feels like it has that kind of discretion,” Moore said. “That’s not what’s in the statute at this point. I’d say it’s up to the legislature. If that’s the direction that you’re interested in seeing us go, that’s direction we would need to receive, but right now the statute requires us to adopt the plan by Dec. 1.”
Liz Miller, a member of the council, emphasized that the Dec. 1 plan will be “humbly, an initial set of recommendations.”
“The really great thing about the way you put the law together is that it continues,” she said. “It will be really important how we, as people who are used to this sort of thing, let’s be honest, frame this process.”
Chris Campany, who serves on the steering committee and just transitions subcommittee on the Climate Council, said the council and legislators will need to be ready to gather feedback on that plan.
“We’re talking about, basically, adjusting how we use land; how we prepare for the climate change impacts that are coming,” Campany said.
“This is going to be an iterative process that’s probably going to last for the rest of our lives,” he said.
Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, said it’s critical to be getting “really deep into our communities.” She said she understands the restrictions of an aggressive timeline but emphasized the importance of keeping “regular Vermonters engaged the entire time.”
Rep. Timothy Briglin, D-Thetford, said the climate council’s deadline of Dec. 1 is set so the Legislature, which meets from January until May, can consider and act on the recommendations they make. He said the process is happening quickly for good reason.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report on Aug. 9 that says human-induced climate change is “already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe.”
“I appreciate the monumental task that we’ve handed you and the extraordinarily tight timeline that we’ve overlaid on this process,” Briglin said. “That concept is related to the fact that we’re in a climate emergency. It would be lovely to take another two or three years to think through this, but we don’t have that time.”
Corrections: Liz Miller’s name and Rep. Katherine Sims’ town have been corrected.