The Vermont Climate Council is meeting on Monday. That’s the entity tasked under the Global Warming Solutions Act to make a plan to meet the Act’s mandatory emissions reduction targets. And from what I hear, Council members who represent environmental interests will be arriving with pointed questions for the Scott administration.

The issue: Is the administration ready to lead the rulemaking process necessary for attaining our target for the year 2025, which [checks calendar] is only about 15 months away? By law, the rules are supposed to be in place by next July 1. That might seem like a lot of time, but rulemaking is by nature a deliberate process, so we’d best be getting on with it.

You’d think our Year of Climate Disruption would inject a dose of urgency to the process. A mild winter, smoky skies from Canadian wildfires, the floods of July 10, and a very wet summer have brought the reality of climate change to our doorstep. One could imagine a Vermont governor seizing the moment to pivot from flood relief to a focus on aggressive climate policies.

But Phil Scott has shown no signs of being that kind of governor.

His much-touted climate investments have been paid for by federal cash. He’s been extraordinarily stingy with state funds and done his level best to block climate-related legislation. He and his lead environmental official, Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore, have indicated a lack of concern for the 2025 or 2030 targets as long as we hit the long-term goals by the year 2050. Given recent events, that seems downright insane.

Scott’s tepid approach has helped place Vermont dead last among Northeastern states in progress toward meeting emissions reduction targets in the Paris Climate Accords (which are now in state law, thanks to the GWSA), according to the latest edition of the Energy Action Network’s Annual Progress Report, which just dropped on Thursday.

Among the key findings in the APR:

• Vermont has the second highest per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in all of New England (behind New Hampshire), and the third in the Northeastern US (behind NH and Pennsylvania).
• Vermont’s per capita climate pollution is more than twice as high as the global average — and more than 40% higher than everyone’s favorite climate bad boy, China.
• Reliance on fossil fuels is a huge drain on our economy, and the burden disproportionately falls on low-income Vermonters.
• By the Scott administration’s own projections, Vermont is on track to only achieve half of its targeted greenhouse gas reductions by 2025, and only one-third of the way toward its 2030 target.
• Even so, meeting our 2025 and 2030 legal obligations is quite possible, but not without additional policy action and investment.

Given all of that, Monday’s Climate Council meeting could be, shall we say, interesting. Peter Sterling, Council member and executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont, expects the administration to step up to the plate on Monday. Otherwise: “Given our climate crisis and its effects on Vermont, for us to kick the can down the road is literally giving the middle finger to future generations,” he said.

Really, considering the events of this summer alone, it’s giving the middle finger to present generations as well. Scott’s obsession with the possible costs of immediate action seems ludicrous in the context of the aftermath of our July floods and the likelihood of further disasters in the near future.

It’s time for leadership. It’s time for our governor to step outside of his comfort zone, acknowledge that recent events have changed the calculus, and steer Vermont on a course of global leadership on climate change.

Yeah, I’m not holding my breath.