The Deeper Dig is a biweekly podcast from the VTDigger newsroom, hosted and produced by Sam Gale Rosen. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
A new 300-page report offers Vermont’s first comprehensive strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the effects of climate change.
The state’s Climate Action Plan is the product of hundreds of hours of work by the Vermont Climate Council, a body established in the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act.
That law also included an ambitious set of emissions reduction goals. The new report outlines more than 230 steps toward achieving them.
Now, it’s up to an array of different bodies — the Legislature and state agencies, along with several regional, local, private and nonprofit agencies and organizations — to actually implement the plan. With just three years until the first deadline, and resistance from Gov. Phil Scott’s administration to several proposals, council members acknowledge that the work ahead is immense.
On this week’s podcast, VTDigger’s Emma Cotton discussed what’s proposed in the Climate Action Plan — and how the council plans to make it a reality. Below is a partial transcript, edited for length and clarity.
Emma, tell me about this meeting on Dec. 1.
This was a momentous meeting of the Climate Council, which is a body made up of 23 people. They are from different state agencies. They are members of the public appointed by the Legislature. And they’ve come together to complete this kind of mammoth task, which is creating a plan that will guide Vermont toward meeting these emission reduction requirements that are outlined in the Global Warming Solutions Act, which was passed in 2020.
Something that’s kind of interesting about those emissions targets is that they are required. So the state can be actually sued if they don’t meet them. So this was a really big task.
David Plumb: So we have a somewhat momentous meeting today, I’ll put it that way. It’s been a long time coming. And yet it came crashing upon us so quickly. Today is the day in which we will finish our meeting, or towards the end of our meeting, vote to approve or not the plan, the initial Climate Action Plan. That’s our big goal today, and we will work our way towards that goal.
The Global Warming Solutions Act set these targets, but it didn’t say how we were actually going to achieve them. So that was really the goal of this document — to kind of put the “how” into place.
That’s right. So when legislators passed that act, they knew that we needed to reduce Vermont’s emissions, but they didn’t know how to do it. The council really came together to try to figure that out. People are involved from the public — for example, farmers are involved on the council. You’ve got people from the renewable energy industry. You’ve got people from environmental organizations. And all these people are putting their heads together to bring their expertise and their knowledge to try to figure out a way forward with this.
This council has spent about a year trying to figure out how we’re going to meet these reductions requirements. And they finally got a plan together and they presented that plan on December 1. And at this meeting, they’re sort of making these final adjustments and correcting typos. And, you know, having their final conversations about this document that is going to go out to the public that day.
And then they take a vote?
And then they take a vote.
David Plumb: So we’ve got 19 yeses, and four noes. So that’s a strong, overwhelming majority. And thanks, everybody, for doing that. I really appreciate people taking the time and getting to this moment. You have approved your initial CAP. Like most things in life, there’s a little bit of bittersweet in it and in this moment has happened in the process to get here. But there should be an enormous amount of pride in getting to this moment in approving a document of this caliber with all the caveats, and all the frustrations involved in it.
Nineteen council members voted in favor of the plan, and four voted against. And that was pretty significant. Four doesn’t sound like a big number. But the four folks who voted against the plan are all secretaries of agencies, and they’re part of this administration. And so their vote said quite a lot.
Obviously, this group has come together because the Legislature passed a law saying that they had to, but what’s the broader context that this conversation is taking place in? What do we know about exactly how Vermont is contributing to climate change, and why we need to address that so urgently?
This plan also came out in the context of another really important report called the Vermont Climate Assessment. And this was led by UVM researchers who have been through this process before. They came out with the last Vermont Climate Assessment in 2014. And they’re looking at ways that Vermont is impacted by climate change.
Stephen Posner: Climate change is here. It’s impacting communities across Vermont now, today. We can see that happening when we look at the data and the scientific evidence.
We know, for example, from this latest report, that Vermont is warming faster than we previously thought. The last decade was the warmest on record in the state, and the state’s average annual temperature has warmed by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
And then also, I think, a really important fact to note is that Vermont is getting wetter on average. We’re seeing a lot of ups and downs in precipitation. For example, this year, we saw the northern part of the state was experiencing a drought. The southern part of the state was, too, for a while, and then suddenly, the southern part of the state was really, really wet, and it was flooding.
According to the study, between the early 1900s and 2020, average yearly precipitation increased by 21%. That’s pretty significant. And this will have an impact on various industries. The ski industry comes to mind. Less snow means less skiing. And of course, Vermont’s natural habitat suffers from this. In 25 years, there’s a projection that the common loon and the hermit thrush could disappear from the state. Those are pretty iconic species here. So this is having a lot of effects on a range of Vermonters.
Stephen Posner: Climate impacts and risks will increase without action. And fortunately there are opportunities for Vermont to reverse the trend and prepare for climate impacts. One example is the Vermont Climate Council, which is now meeting to identify many of these opportunities and plans to adopt a Climate Action Plan for the state in just a few weeks.
The conversation around the Climate Action Plan, as you said, was pretty dry. This is not a place where people are making grandstanding speeches about the climate crisis. But why is this document such a big deal? How is this different from all the other times that we’ve heard about climate policies that need to happen to help lessen Vermont’s environmental impact?
This document was really a game changer, because we’ve never had a plan before about how to reduce emissions in Vermont. And this is coming from a group of people who are acknowledging that climate change is a crisis that’s affecting Vermont at the moment.
It sets up a plan. Instead of having piecemeal policies — one here, one there — it really says, ‘OK, this is what we’re trying to do. Here’s how we’re going to try to get there. And here’s what kind of impact we think that’s going to have.’
One of the really important things that this plan is trying to do is to keep in mind Vermonters who are burdened by a number of different things — Vermonters who are low-income, Vermonters who are part of historically marginalized groups — with the knowledge that climate change will likely impact those people first. So the plan is trying to center those people and make sure that the policies put forward in this plan are not burdening those people — or Vermonters in general — but in particular, the people who are already going to be burdened by the impacts of climate change.
That’s all packed into this one 300-page document.
It is, and there are more than 230 proposed actions here. And every action comes along with a lead implementer. That’s the agency or the body that’s charged with carrying the action forward. Each action also talks about cost efficiency. It talks about equity. And it talks about the impact that that action is supposed to have.
Should we just go ahead and list all 230 real quick?
We can maybe provide a link to the document.
You’ve been reading through this massive document and these different action steps. What are the trends here? What are the main strategies?
I think some of the major trends are definitely reducing Vermont’s reliance on fossil fuels. That’s a really big one. And broad-scale electrification is one big way that climate council members have proposed doing that.
When you talk about electrification, you’re talking about the transportation sector? Or does that cut across a whole bunch of different sectors?
I would say it cuts across. You can also have heat pumps, for example, in your home, that are electric. Transportation is, I think, a really big deal. It is the largest contributor to emissions — it’s 40% of Vermont’s emissions. So climate council members are definitely very focused on transportation, but I think general electrification is definitely a theme here.
We’ve also got a clean heat standard, which basically requires wholesale fuel retailers to decarbonize the fuel that they supply. And this is encouraging Vermonters to maybe switch to something like a heat pump rather than the other fossil fuel-dependent sources of heat that we use to heat our homes.
It proposes weatherizing 90,000 additional homes by 2030, which is pretty ambitious. The state has already weatherized around 30,000 homes, so it’s an expansion of an existing program. And that weatherization program really is looking to prioritize low- and moderate-income Vermonters and people on the forefront.
There’s also a focus on making sure that the electricity generation is coming from a clean source. So it bumps the renewable energy standard from 75% to 100%, which means that our electricity needs to come from 100% renewable sources.
It also speaks to agriculture. For example, preventing carbon that exists in the soil from being disturbed and released into the atmosphere, and reducing the amount of methane and other greenhouse gases that are produced in the agricultural process from farm animals and other things. It proposes educational resources and funding for that. So there’s a really big suite of proposals listed in this.
And is there confidence that if these things are implemented the way that this plan lays out, that that’s going to be enough? That that’s going to have the impact to really, actually move towards those targets?
Yeah, I think there was some pretty solid confidence — until this Transportation and Climate Initiative Program fell apart.
Just for some background, this is a cap-and-trade program, where New England states were supposed to agree to require large wholesale fuel suppliers to purchase credits to allow them to sell gasoline and diesel in the state. It would have set a cap for transportation emissions, and then the money that it would have gotten from that program, it would have put toward clean transportation projects and infrastructure. But two governors recently pulled out of that program, basically due to lack of commitment from other states and rising gas prices. And so the program has sort of fallen apart.
Vermont’s climate council was really depending on that, because transportation is such a big contributor to emissions in our state. So now I think there’s a lot of uncertainty about whether or not we’ll be able to really reach the requirements. The first one’s coming up in 2025. I think now climate council members have committed to developing another plan for transportation by June of ’22. So we can look forward and see what they might be proposing there.
A lot of the things that you mentioned as dominant themes in here — things like electrifying transportation and weatherizing homes — are things that we’ve heard about over the years, knowing that they’re a big contributor to Vermont’s emissions, and knowing that we need to do more in those specific sectors. How does this plan go beyond what we’ve done in the past beyond just the numbers and the targets? Are there specific methods laid out for how we’re going to incentivize people to go get an electric car or weatherize their homes?
I think it comes down to a few things. First, legislators are anticipating that this plan is going to be coming out. And I think that the actions here that do require legislative action, they’re going to be pretty ready to take those up in the upcoming session.
Another one of the reasons why this could be considered a step beyond what we’ve done in the past is because these actions are coordinated together — that this is a sort of a cohesive planning process — rather than having those individual, piecemeal actions.
One of the interesting things when you look at the plan is — I was talking about that chart that lists who’s going to be implementing each action. There’s also a box that says, what else is this action going to do for emissions? So they’re trying to tie all of these actions together in a web in a way that hasn’t really been done before.
The other thing that I think is promising is, there’s an influx of federal funding coming into the state through ARPA and the infrastructure bill. And I think that really is going to help push a lot of these projects forward that might have been a really big lift in the past. So I think there’s a few things that make this seem like these might actually be a bit more actionable and less talk.
You mentioned before the four members of the Scott administration who are part of the climate council who voted against this plan. Gov. Scott has been pretty consistent since the Global Warming Solutions Act was being discussed in the Legislature — he ultimately vetoed it — in saying why he doesn’t like this law. What does it mean to not have a willing partner in the administration in trying to implement all these different new programs?
Every one of these actions requires a different body to move it forward. And some of them require legislative action, like I was saying. Some of them require regional, nonprofit partners; some of them require state agencies.
I think it’s worth noting that there were four members of the administration who voted yes on the plan. So I think there are some folks within the administration who may be more committed to pushing forward on some of these actions than others. And they did, in their statement, list some specific actions that they thought would not be effective and would not be a good idea for Vermonters for various reasons. I think that those areas may see more trouble than others.
I think it comes down to: The devil is really in the details with this. What they choose to support and what they choose not to support, time will tell. But certainly the council members who have been working on this plan, I think, are pretty hopeful that many of these actions will move forward in one way or another.
What’s the reaction been like from environmental groups, activists?
Most of those groups have reacted similarly in saying this is a great step. This is more than we’ve really ever done before. And many folks, including members of state agencies in this administration, have acknowledged the incredible work that has gone into this. A lot of volunteer hours.
Almost all of the environmental folks that I’ve spoken with since the plan came out say it really comes down to how we implement these actions. These are ideas or proposals. We’re not going to walk away from this plan having come out and have reduced emissions. There’s a lot of work to be done to make sure that these actions get implemented.
So I think a lot of them are hopeful. And a lot of them point to really specific things in the plan that they like or don’t like. But I think the broad message I’ve heard across the board is, it’s really going to come down to how these are implemented.
What about within the climate council itself? How have the members been reflecting on this milestone that they’ve reached here?
I think many of them are really happy to have reached this milestone. There are council members who have been a bit divided about how to approach climate change in Vermont. And this is something we reported on a little while back. Some of the council members really said from the beginning, we can reduce emissions, and that is really important. We also need to make sure that we’re taking care of Vermonters when climate change continues to impact people in the state.
Sue Minter: I would like us in our implementation to give more discussion and time to what it takes to help communities be and individuals be more prepared. And it’s different and distinct from the resilience strength strategies.
I think everyone is really on board with reducing emissions. Adaptation and resilience — which is sort of the process of preparing Vermont for climate change — those measures are harder to quantify. And it’s harder to hold the state accountable for not pushing those measures forward.
So I think there are a number of council members who really wanted to see a bit more in terms of adaptation and resilience. The plan does go into measures to adapt and change and become more resilient, but they’re not quite as strong and fleshed out as the emission reductions pathways at this point. So that was a major divide. But I think most of them are really happy that it’s done.
They also say this is a living document. This is something that they’re constantly going to be updating. It requires an update every four years. In the beginning, they’ll probably be updating it a bit more than that. So there’s a lot of work to be done ahead.
Sue Minter: I think we all know this is a beginning. And frankly, it’s a substantial beginning. Part of what worries me is how aspirational this plan is. Part of what worries me is the cost to already energy- and income-burdened Vermonters that this transition will incur. But absent aspirationals and trajectories, we won’t get there. And we need to keep moving. And we need to get started. And this is a start.
Emma, what are you looking forward to in terms of where you’re focusing your reporting on how this plan gets implemented? How do you go about tackling the implementation of 230 different action steps?
That’s a great question. I am really looking forward to being in the Statehouse, whatever that looks like, for this upcoming year, to see legislators having conversations about how to move forward with this.
I think it’ll also be really interesting to get out and look at some of these proposed policies. I’m curious about, you know, how will farmers be receiving this advice that they’re being given about more cover cropping and moving less soil around on their land?
I think the weatherization proposals are pretty ambitious as well. So whose homes are being weatherized? I think that’s an important question.
I’m also really interested in knowing what some of these policies might cost to Vermonters. I think a lot of this, we’re talking about federal funds. I think some of these programs will need to be set up in ways that have long-term, sustainable funding streams. So what does that look like? And where does that come from? And obviously, I’m really curious to hear what questions Vermonters have about the plan as well and try to answer those as well.
I have to admit that listening to this meeting, hearing people talk about these action steps on a very sort of technical level — it feels like there’s a little bit of a disconnect from what you described in terms of the climate impacts that we know are there. And when we go to protests and hear activists talk about climate change as a real emergency and a real crisis, that it almost is kind of jarring to hear people talking about this in a more bureaucratic, almost technical way.
I would imagine that the members of the climate council would just argue that this is how the work gets done — that if you’re implementing these high-level government programs, that this is what it takes to map them out and get all the stakeholders on board. But it is a striking difference in tone from when you’re looking at those somewhat dire predictions and then reading through a 300-page report.
It’s true. I would say the way that this conversation has played out among council members is in terms of the timeline that they’ve been given to get this action plan completed. Because I think good policymaking, a lot of people would say, takes time, right? You have to get a lot of people together and really think about how to do what you’re doing and make sure you’re doing it well. But the call to action that they heard was, you know, we don’t have enough time. We have to do it right now, because we’re already facing these pretty incredible impacts.
I think the message, too, is that Vermont has to do its part. It’s Vermont — you know, we are 620,000 people. You could argue that our impact is, in the grand scheme of things, relatively small. But I think Vermont really has a commitment to trying to figure out a way forward and trying to sort of set an example as well. And meanwhile, also, to try to figure out how to protect folks from the more immediate impacts of this.