Advocates give Vermont low marks on combating global warming

MONTPELIER — A coalition of environmental advocates is giving Vermont low marks for efforts in reducing global warming pollution, according a report released Tuesday.

In the past, the state received a D-plus in 2004 and a C in 2005. This year, it received a C-minus. The drop in grade this year reflects a failure by the Douglas administration to follow through on past promises, despite strong encouragement from the Legislature and Public Service Board, the advocates said in a release.

Vermont’s policy grade ties it for fourth place of the six New England states and gives it a three-way tie for sixth place of the eleven states and provinces.

The release of the 2006 Report Card on Climate Change Action coincides with the five-year anniversary of the signing of a 2001 regional climate agreement by the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers, which outlines global warming policies that the states and provinces should be implementing and commits the region to the following goals:

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010;
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020; and,
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75-85 percent in the long-term.

This year’s report card gauges how well the states and provinces are implementing global warming policies, and also adds a new grading category based on whether the states and provinces are on track to meet the 2010 pollution reduction target. Vermont received an F for the pollution reduction grade.

“Five years ago today, the governors of New England and eastern premiers of Canada committed to making our region a leader in the fight to stop global warming,” said Drew Hudson, the field director for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. “Unfortunately, Gov. Douglas has consistently failed to live up to his promise to abide by this agreement, and as a result Vermont lags behind our neighbors in permitting commercial wind power and developing a comprehensive climate change action plan.”

Most of the eleven states and provinces who are party to the 2001 regional agreement have seen a similar lack of leadership over the last few years. Though there was a fairly wide variation in the global warming policy grades, none of the states got better than a D for the pollution reduction grades, since none are on track to meet their 2010 target.

On the same day of the report’s release, Douglas announced the first of several plenary sessions of the Commission on Climate Change. The group is charged with producing our first comprehensive global warming plan by September 2007.

“I am proud of Vermont’s leadership on greenhouse gas issues,” Douglas said in a statement. “The first plenary session will continue that leadership and ensure that the Greenhouse Gas Commission receives the best and most valuable advice and input as it considers practical, commonsense steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

“Vermont has already taken some important steps to address climate change,” Douglas added. “We began by recognizing that state government must lead by example, and we are implementing a series of steps, from making state buildings more energy efficient, developing new energy conservation strategies, and upgrading our fleet of state-owned vehicles with smaller more efficient vehicles including hybrids.”

Members of the governor’s commission are: Ernest Pomerleau (chairman) of Pomerleau Real Estate; Donald DeHayes, University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources; Brian Searles, Burlington International Airport, Patrick Berry, Vermont Natural Resources Council, Theresa Alberghini DiPalma, Fletcher Allen Health Care, and Parker Riehle, Vermont Ski Areas Association

In September 2003, Gov. Douglas committed his administration to the regional climate accord. But since then his office has stalled on producing a promised analysis of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and a comprehensive climate plan, both of which were to be completed more than 12 months ago, according to VPIRG.

Vermont has led on some issues, however. Most notably, the state was the first in New England to adopt California’s tailpipe emissions standards for global warming pollution; was among the first to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which addresses power plant emissions of greenhouse gasses across New England; has adopted modest measures to encourage growth of renewable energy with the creation of the Sustainably Priced Energy Enterprise Development (SPEED) Program; and this spring took action to reduce electricity use with adoption of tougher appliance efficiency standards and the Public Service Board increase of funding to Efficiency Vermont, activists noted.

But none of these achievements effectively address the two largest contributors to Vermont’s global warming pollution: heating and transportation, which account for 55 and 44 percent of Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions respectively. As a result, actual emissions of global warming pollution in Vermont have continued to rise, at precisely the time when they are supposed to be decreasing.

For Vermont to meet its 2010 pollution reduction target (which was written into statute last year by the legislature), activists say the state will need to take the following steps:

• Begin amore serious investment in the siting, not just discussion, of new renewable electric generators, especially commercial wind power.
• The Public Service Board should fully fund all cost effective work by Efficiency Vermont when it revisits the issues later this year, and the energy efficiency utility’s mandate should be expanded to address energy efficiency regardless of fuel type.
• Vermont should coordinate with neighboring states and provinces to build out the region’s rail network.
  Both the legislature and the governor must coordinate and invest in a comprehensive, statewide education program to help inform Vermonters about the urgency, importance and solutions to global warming.

The full report card can be downloaded at www.vpirg.org.

For more information about the Commission on Climate Change, visit www.vtclimatechange.us

Posted August 29, 2006

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