The Vermont legislature is considering a critical bill that will cut climate-damaging emissions across the state and smooth the way for a more resilient future. The bill, the Vermont Global Warming Solutions Act, will simultaneously slash pollution and build climate-ready communities.
“I like this car because of the gas money it saves me,” says CLF Staff Attorney Elena Mihaly about her plug-in electric hybrid. Elena lives on a dirt road in Vermont and commutes 40 miles each way to the CLF office in Montpelier. To save on gas and reduce her carbon footprint, she’s leasing an electric car.
From more severe storms to prolonged heat waves, climate change is here and it’s happening now. Luckily, clean energy solutions like solar panels can help both our planet and our economy.
Vermont’s legislature hit the ground running this year. Lawmakers are taking up critical bills to tackle climate change – bills that put the state on a path to slash polluting emissions while making sure rural communities and hardworking Vermonters prosper.
Since installing solar panels on their barn, Sean Mahoney and his wife have noticed a huge difference in their energy bills. They’ve also been able to reduce their carbon footprint.
“We have a history of having these really important goals on the books and not making sufficient progress to meet them.” — Jen Duggan, Conservation Law Foundation
Every winter the gas industry tries to scare us, claiming there isn’t enough gas during cold snaps to heat and power our homes. Their solution? More fracked gas and new, expensive gas pipelines. But we don’t have to buy into their propaganda. We have all the power we need without expensive new pipelines.
“We have many options for heating our homes,” says Greg Cunningham, Director of CLF’s Clean Energy and Climate Change program. “Alternatives like heat pumps avoid the use of oil and natural gas furnaces, which pollute our environment and damage our climate.”
Although some New England states pioneered the bottle return system, they have since fallen behind. But New England can improve its recycling by updating or adopting bottle return systems in each state. This would help reduce litter in our neighborhoods, parks, and waterways; it would keep recyclable material out of landfills and incinerators; and it would lift some recycling costs off of communities.
Our electricity grid was designed over 100 years ago. But times have changed. Today, clean, renewable energy can be harnessed right where we live, so electricity doesn’t have to come from polluting power plants miles away. But we have to update our electricity grid to take advantage of it.
