The Environment
“Taking care of our Vermont environment & fighting climate change are both important and necessary.”
As a farmer, David lives and works on the land every day. Like many farmers across the state, David sees and experiences the real and unmistakable effects that climate change is having on our land, our farmers, and our Vermont way of life. As a father, David also wants his child and all children in Vermont to have a safe and healthy future in our state.
Vermonters have long recognized our role in protecting our beautiful state. In 1970, under increasing development pressure, we passed Act 250 to ensure larger developments would complement Vermont’s unique landscape, economy and community needs. We also saw our first Green Up Day in 1970, now an annual tradition of coming together to clean up our roadways. In 1987, the first solid waste law (Act 78) was passed, and in 2012 it was expanded to include universal recycling. Taking care of our Vermont environment has always been a priority.
It is important to do everything we can to listen to our youth and step up to stop climate change. Despite laudable goals, our carbon emission rates are the highest per capita in New England! We must address this issue for our children and grandchildren and because older and rural Vermonters deserve the economic opportunities that local solutions will bring. We can do this in a way that builds jobs in our rural areas and strengthens our economy and our resilience to future storms.
We must work toward a future where Vermonters’ primary energy sources are renewable and sustainable — built and maintained by hardworking Vermonters and small businesses right here in the state. We will ensure that Vermont workers and unions are involved as we keep our promises to reduce emissions and reliance on fossil fuel sources.
We must ensure the solutions that we put forward reduce working Vermonters’ energy bills by investing in opportunities like weatherization, which improves health, conserves energy, creates jobs, and helps struggling Vermonters and seniors pay their bills and put food on the table.
We must support an invigorated agricultural economy that will create jobs in communities around our state. By working with farmers to build healthy soil for their farms, we would reduce further water quality degradation and create the best chance of mitigating flood impacts by holding phosphorous and other nutrients in the soil and sequestering carbon.
Protecting our environment and rural landscape will ensure that we elevate our rural communities and ensure our traditions and way of life are protected for future generations.
During the 2020 campaign, Lt. Governor David Zuckerman hosted a public conversation about the climate crisis, renewable energy projects, and the Global Warming Solutions Act. The event started with a legislative update on climate issues by Johanna Miller from VNRC and an overview of David's climate mitigation, green jobs and renewable energy plans. Guests were invited to share stories from their communities, ask questions and bring their ideas for growing a greener and more sustainable Vermont. Watch the video below to see that conversation.