 Good morning and welcome to the Eric Reddick show of Vermont Daily production. I'm your host Eric Reddick. This is a new video venture I'm doing in partnership with the online newspaper Vermont Daily which you can find at vermontdailychronical.com. We'll be covering the news out of Montpelier and around the state and why it matters to you. First up, January 4th, 2021 was the third meeting of the Vermont Climate Council and already there are concerns about conflict of interest and imbued white supremacy. The 23-member council was created in 2020 as part of the Global Warming Solutions Act, its task to create a plan for implementing the mandated reductions in carbon emissions. 26% by 2025, 40% by 2030, and 80% by 2050. Guy Page, Vermont Daily editor and Statehouse correspondent, joins us to discuss yet another bill to address the conflicts of interest. Guy, thank you for coming on the show. Shouldn't these concerns have been addressed before the members were appointed? Well, no time like the present, I suppose, Erica. Now this bill, it doesn't name names of course, but some of the current appointees do run companies and organizations that could benefit financially from changes made by the council to meet Vermont's rather stringent carbon emissions reduction mandates. For example, council member Adam Knudsen is the CEO of Dynapower, a south browns and battery storage company. Battery storage is seen as one way to store carbon-free solar and wind power to be available when consumers need it, on demand power. If Vermont ever goes big into battery storage, companies like Dynapower could benefit. Also, council member Brian Gray manages Energy Co-op of Vermont, which is a fuel oil company that is also committed to helping Vermonters transition to renewable power. If, for example, Vermonters are required to burn wood pellets instead of heating oil or natural gas or propane, companies like his are well positioned in the market. Now this is not to say that they have any ulterior motives, but it's the appearance of a conflict of interest. Thank you, Guy. Now this is not the first time we've dealt with conflicts of interest in the renewable energy sector in Vermont. Can you tell us about some other experiences that we've already run into here in the state? Sure. A little over 10 years ago, the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund, which dispensed often very large loans for renewable power development, approved a $4.3 million loan to a company operated by David Blittersdorf, who was, at the time, was sitting on the board of the Clean Energy Development Fund. So, some people flagged that as a conflict of interest. Governor Peter Schumann agreed, and he asked Mr. Blittersdorf to step down from the committee, which he did. So I'm curious why if previous conflicts of interest were addressed by the governor asking people to step down, I find it interesting that they're proposing a bill to address it this time. Do you know, does this new bill addressing the conflicts of interest on the climate council, does it also affect conflicts of interest in other councils or committees that are appointed by the state? No, this is targeted solely at the Vermont Climate Council, says so, right in the name of the bill. And because everything in Vermont has to be viewed through the lens of racism, the charge of white supremacy against the climate council should be no surprise. Susanna Davis, the state of Vermont's executive director of racial equity, believes the mandated deadlines may be too short to properly consider the implications for non-white Vermonters. Change the deadline. And I know what you're thinking, oh, this might require a long legislative process or hey, but we set a date and this is what we wanted. And here's the thing, though, if we're really wanting to do something right and do it equitably, then we don't have to remain beholden to a time frame that we ourselves made up and that we ourselves can change. So I do urge you to consider if slowing down the process to perfect it will lead to equitable policy, then do that because that's more important, I think, than the time that we set for ourselves. That's the most polite way that I can put it because other folks will phrase it as follows. Other folks will phrase it as deadlines are a tool of white supremacy. I don't usually refer to deadlines as tools of white supremacy, but deadlines often do reinforce a white supremacy culture that prizes itself more on process than equitable outcome. By law, the council must consider the racial equity implications of its carbon reduction strategies. I'm curious, can we get Miss Davis to coach the Vermont Department of Taxes about how deadlines are white supremacy? In other news, lawmaker Kurt McCormick of Burlington, a man who actually walks the climate change walk, urged for Monters to take a World War II approach to fighting climate change. He suggested that like Americans who went without during World War II in order to save the world from fascism, we too should sacrifice to save the world from climate change. Last year, legislators heard testimony that humanity has only a few years to act, lest we contribute to the alleged looming global warming disaster. Notice the contrast in Miss Davis's take it slow and do it right approach versus the climate caucuses all out war on emissions. So which is more important to the Vermont state legislature, climate change or systemic racism? Will this conversation be enough to get the council to consider the second and third order effects of its decisions? One thing is for sure, dramatic, even drastic changes to required by GWSA mandates will affect everyone's quality of life, for better or for worse. In upcoming episodes, we'll keep you posted on how or if the legislature and the climate council have addressed these concerns and explore what other legislation will affect you and your family. See you next week.