Welp, Gov. Phil Scott has revealed himself to be all hat and no cattle when it comes to climate action. As Seven Days’ Kevin McCallum reports, our alleged climate fightin’ leader is calling for a full retreat on, you know, doing anything about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With the exception of furrowed brows and earnest expressions of concern. Per McCallum, here is Phil Scott’s climate agenda:
- Kill the clean heat standard
- Kill the Global Warming Solutions Act
- Ignore our 2025 emissions reduction targets
- Ignore our 2030 emissions reduction targets
- Effectively put all our eggs in the 2050 basket
That’s one hell of a platform for a guy who claims to believe that climate change is a clear and present threat to humanity’s future.
His argument here, as on every other issue, is affordability. Vermont simply can’t afford to cut emissions or transition to a clean energy future.
A couple things about that. “Affordable” compared to what, exactly? His projections about the unaffordability of energy transition appear to rely on the assumption that fossil fuel prices won’t rise. Anyone who’s played Russian Roulette with the cost of propane or heating oil could testify otherwise.
Putting all his chips on affordability also ignores the impacts of climate change. As we have seen, Vermont is far from safe in this regard. In fact, we have one of the highest totals in the nation of federally-declared disasters since 2011. We don’t have beachfronts or flatlands, but we do have a rugged topography of mountains, hills, and deep valleys. The latter is where (a) most of our people live, and (b) the runoff easily overwhelms our rivers and streams when greenhouse gas-fueled downpours occur. We have yet to experience catastrophic wildfires around here, although the risk has been worryingly high for a good chunk of this year. Just a matter of time.
But Scott’s latest statements should come as no surprise. All he’s done is pull the sheep’s clothing off his inner wolf. In truth, he has been a resulote obstructor of serious climate action since he became governor. (Back in 2021, I called him the biggest obstacle to climate action in Vermont.) Kind of fitting for a guy who’s spent his entire adult life working with fossil fuel-powered machinery.
For years, Scott and his officials have downplayed the 2025 and 2030 targets, instead focusing on 2050. Which is a nice way of kicking the can down the road until he’s safely out of office, but a terrible way to handle a crisis that’s getting worse each and every day. When we can’t go six months without experiencing a “hundred-year” weather event, then how can we afford to put off action for a quarter-century?
Oh, sorry, did I usurp the governor’s favorite word there?
Not to mention that under Scott’s leadership, the Public Utility Commission has been a resolute foe of green energy infrastructure, blocking large-scale solar and wind projects on every imaginable pretext. You know, if Scott is so concerned about affordability, he ought to welcome a new, cleaner energy system that would reduce the need to send huge amounts of money out of state for fossil fuels. (We’ve paid off our home solar array, and from now on we’re getting free electricity for most of the year. I call that affordability on steroids.)
The new verse on this old song is that Scott is emboldened by Republican victories in November that, he believes, will allow him to push around the Democratic majorities on an array of issues from climate to housing to property taxes. Sure, he wants them to “come to the table,” but only to capitulate, not negotiate.
At some point, he’s bound to start dog-whistling on climate — bemoaning the potential loss of Vermont traditions like choppin’ firewood (the stuff that Warms You Twice) and workin’ the land with gas-powered monsters and drivin’ a big-ass pickup truck. His fellow Republicans, including a bunch of newly-elected far-right lawmakers and my choice for future Bemoaner-in-Chief, John Rodgers, will be a lot louder and less subtle about it. Because we are edging closer to the onset of the climate culture wars.
Limits on sales of traditional vehicles will start phasing in next year, and by 2035 Vermont will only allow new-vehicle sales of the zero emission variety. I can almost hear the outraged protests from politicians claiming to defend the honor of Real VermontersTM. I’m waiting to hear the storied phrase “cold dead hands” when it comes to liberal politicians trying to take away their beloved F150s. I can fully imagine a protest in front of the Statehouse featuring pickup trucks rolling so much coal you won’t be able to see. Or breathe.
For now, this sort of thing is confined to the rancid pages of conservative commentary, but it’s gonna be irresistible to Republican politicians looking to capitalize on the grievances of Real VermontTM. It’s the next phase of the Republican climate backlash.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
That Lowrider has only just begun lifting the mask.
He’s still living off the great job he did during the pandemic. But things have changed. We need a visionary leader to help lead us out of our housing crisis, health care crisis, increase in crime, and the need to have a young demographic to come enroll in our schools, buy houses, add to the workforce and economy. As well as the Climate change crisis. He blamed the Dems for the Ed property tax Ed fund debacle yet he offered no plan or help except to blame the Dems. His only message is that: Blame the Dems and keep him in office to keep Vermont affordable. We don’t need an accountant, we need a leader. We don’t have one. Hopefully in two years, Mike Pieciak will step up. Or someone else who understands this.
Does he think it’s more affordable to have to replace a flooded-out home?
It’s payback for all those campaign donations that came in this year to roll the Scott wave. Now the energy companies elites can just keep raking in the money off of the fossil fuel culture and leave climate change for us to deal with when it’s too late.