This commentary is by Rep. Mike Mrowicki, D-Putney.
The costs of climate change keep growing and any mention of making Vermont more affordable without addressing the climate chaos we’re experiencing is shortsighted.
So, for those still in denial that climate change is real and that it requires action: know who believes in climate change?
Your insurance company!
Rates all over are rising to cover nationwide losses. And in some places companies are packing up and leaving states to figure out what homeowners should do to get coverage.
Know who else believes in climate change?
Your realtor.
Climate could make that most basic family investment — your home — lose value.
Add to that what Vermont taxpayers are coughing up in local and state taxes to pay for road and property damage. Add again the reality that FEMA doesn’t make homeowners or towns “whole” for damage done. Beyond that, often their payouts can take months or years.
Those are among the good reasons the climate bills passed in Vermont still make good sense, like the Climate Superfund bill. Vermont taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for damages that fossil fuel companies knew their product would cause. Also notable is that they knew it decades ago. Just like the tobacco corporations and opioid purveyors, the huge oil corporations should be held responsible for the damages their products cause.
As New York state has passed its version of a climate superfund and other states are looking to do the same, we can hope that some sort of redress isn’t too far into the future.
What makes even more sense to me is moving forward with climate actions that both reduce the carbon we’re spewing into the air and promote the resiliency to address the latest “storm of the century.”
As well as actually saving money, in the short and long term.
What makes no sense at all are the efforts of the Trump administration to grind all climate actions to a screeching halt. Sadly, we see Vermont following that lead in trying to stop any meager progress we’ve made.
The topper to all of that is that clean heat is cheaper heat. Clean cars cost less to run, and heating your home with a clean heat source and/or tightening up your home is cheaper. It makes good economic sense to keep these efforts moving forward.
As important as any consideration are also the adverse health effects we are experiencing, which cause human suffering and add to the costs climate change is foisting on us. As the Vermont Climate & Health Alliance articulates better than I can, carbon pollution is the dominant threat to human health in the 21st century.
There are smart solutions that will protect us and our kids and grow Vermont’s economy. If only we’d stop bending the knee to the fossil fuel corporations and the Koch family (funders of the large glossy postcard many Vermonters got in their mailbox last election cycle advocating to stop our climate actions).
The costs climate change impose on society for all this — including medical costs — are going through the roof, so I’ll say it again: any efforts at making Vermont more affordable that don’t include addressing climate chaos won’t work.
Why, then, the efforts from the administrations in D.C. and Montpelier to stop climate action? Good questions — and I hope we get good answers, too, sooner than later.
In the meantime, let’s not stop what progress we’ve made on climate change. Let’s keep moving forward to creating a legacy of a cleaner planet that’s more affordable, with a better future for our kids, grandkids and future generations.
