Three of our fearless and passionate classmates, Alex Cobb, Finn Lester-Niles, and Connor Wertz, dedicated months of research and inquiry into developing an extensive report of Vermont State House’s political landscape. We encourage you to dig into their interviews and information in order to learn more about the current climate here in Vermont.

Summary of Report

Vermont stands at a historical crossroads in its response to climate change. Public recognition of anthropogenic climate change has skyrocketed in recent years, as the climate crisis has only worsened and serious calls for change that meets the scope of the problem have been ignored. Vermont, despite its best efforts, has fallen behind its neighbors in curtailing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Legislative action on climate change stalled out in the 2019 session, even with Democrats and Progressives holding a supermajority in both the House and the Senate; while many legislators have worked tirelessly to ensure that this session produces different outcomes, significant challenges stand in the way of Vermont realizing comprehensive climate action.

This report attempts to illuminate these barriers and to recommend strategies to overcome them. With the upcoming session ticking its way ever closer, we interviewed ten legislative professionals–who work inside the State House as Representatives and Senators or outside the statehouse as policy specialists, professors, or reporters–and attended two informative legislative forums on climate. Each time we asked: what holds us back, and what must we do to move forward?

Situating the trove of data collected within social movement theory from legendary change agents such as Jane MacAlevey, Marshall Ganz, and others, this report answers the above questions to its best ability and presents the following findings and recommendations: