Action alert: call your state senator on April 30!

Late yesterday, the Republican Party’s leader in the Senate introduced an amendment to the state budget that would repeal or gut some of Vermont’s most important climate policies. That amendment is up for a vote this afternoon, and we need to make abundantly clear to every state senator that rolling back climate action is unacceptable.

We need to let our Senators know immediately (by this afternoon): Hold the line on climate policy. Please vote NO on Senator Beck’s amendment on the budget bill and any other attempts to roll back Vermont’s climate laws.

Can you take five minutes to call the Sergeant at Arms to leave a message for your legislators?

Here’s how:

1. Call 802-828-2228 to reach the Sergeant at Arms starting 8:30 (please try to call by 1 this time around--the Senate will likely be on the floor all afternoon, and we don’t know when the vote will come.) If you can’t get through, that’s a good sign–-keep trying!

2. Tell them you would like to leave a message for your legislators. Here is a sample:

Hi, my name is _____, calling for Senator _____.  I would like to ask them to Please vote NO on Senator Beck’s amendment on the budget bill and any other attempts to roll back Vermont’s climate laws.

3. This message will be written down on a pink slip of paper and physically delivered to Senators immediately. We want them to get a big stack of these pink slips asking them to hold the line on climate progress.  Hard to ignore! 

(Don’t know who your legislators are? You can find out here.)

This amendment would be a disaster for climate policy in Vermont. It would:

• Repeal the citizen suit provision in the Global Warming Solutions Act, preventing Vermonters from holding the administration accountable for inaction on climate.

• Repeal Vermont’s clean cars and clean trucks rules, and permanently bar Vermont from participating with California and the dozen plus other states that require auto companies to provide electric vehicles. Vermont has been a part of this clean cars program for over 30 years, and won a Supreme Court case for the right to ensure that Vermonters have access to clean cars – and this amendment would immediately kick Vermont out of the program.

• And repeal the Affordable Heat Act.

Even if you’ve already emailed or called your senators in support of climate action this session, please call again – hearing from constituents in the hours leading up to a vote can make all the difference in a moment like this.

Climate policy is under attack. Trump, Scott, and now the Vermont Senate GOP are trying to take Vermont backwards on climate. Our senators(s) are about to take a key vote to decide if we move in that direction, or if we hold the course on climate policy in our state. 

Thank you for showing up again and again this session. Our collective voices are powerful!