We’ve officially reached crossover – the time when bills in the legislature must exit their original chamber before swapping with the other. That deadline was last Friday for most bills but those that have financial provisions get an extra week this week to move through the Appropriations, Finance, and Ways & Means committees.
This year on the environmental front, it’s mostly been all about preventing rollbacks to climate policy from Governor Scott and leaders in the Republican caucus. We’ve seen a few proactive policies make progress including PFAS legislation that expands consumer protection from products containing the harmful forever chemicals, an energy efficiency bill which focuses on better leveraging existing resources to help more Vermonters – particularly lower income Vermonters – install cleaner and more efficient solutions like heat pumps, and a policy that expands the size of solar net metering projects.
Joining me on this week’s Democracy Dispatch podcast to discuss these and other bills, is VCV’s executive director, Dan Fingas. He and I provide you all with a progress report and lowdown of our priority policies in our annual Halftime Report.
Also in the episode, we highlight this week’s champ and chump of the week, where we hold electeds accountable for their words or actions.
Lastly, we’ve announced the VCV 2025 Environmental Lifetime Achievement Award Reception and honorees. On Monday, April 28th at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph we will be honoring former legislators Mark MacDonald (House of Representatives 1983-1995, Senate 1997-2001, 2003-2025) and Dick McCormack (Senate 1989-2003, 2007-2025) who served Vermont for a combined seventy years and were steadfast supporters and protectors of environmental policies. We hope to see you there.
As always, thanks for listening,
Justin Marsh, Political Director
Vermont Conservation Voters
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