 Thank you so much for joining us. My name is Lauren Hurl and I'm the Executive Director of Vermont Conservation Voters and I am really excited to be with you all today to talk about an important and historic election where Vermont voters sent a clear and resounding message that we want leaders willing to take strong action on the climate crisis and ensure a healthier, more resilient future for our communities. Well it's not yet clear what the national landscape will look like. We already know that Vermont voters elected more climate champions to the Vermont legislature than ever before. We consistently see our work in communities around the state and in polling and we saw again in these election results that the climate crisis and a healthy environment are issues of high concern to Vermont voters. The candidates who questioned climate science and opposed climate action were resoundingly defeated. Well the candidates who spoke about the benefits of not just doing our part on the most pressing issue facing humanity but who also recognize that acting on climate means we're creating good paying jobs, we're building communities that are cleaner and healthier, more equitable and more affordable. These candidates overwhelmingly won their races meaning we'll have significant majorities of lawmakers at the state house ready to get to work building a brighter future for Vermont. So today you're going to hear about some of the important work that Vermont conservation voters and VPURG votes political action committees did to help elect pro-environment candidates and I'm pleased to be joined today by some key allies including Paul Burns of VPURG along with a couple key members of the climate solutions caucus, representative and senator elect Becca White and representative Gabrielle Stebbins as well as Johanna Miller of the Vermont Natural Resources Council and Jordan Hayden of VPURG and I'd like to take a moment to thank some of the many partners we work with this election season including the Alliance for a Better Vermont Action Fund and Planned Parenthood of Vermont Action Fund. So we're going to share with you in a moment a short video highlighting some of the work we did this election season and why it matters and then we'll hear a bit about the types of climate action we anticipate working on in the upcoming legislative session to respond to this mandate from voters and we'll hear about some ways that Vermonters can get involved in climate efforts in the coming weeks and months. So first let's watch the video so this might take a moment to load so bear with us. Vermont state fish the brook trout can only survive in cool clean water much like the brook trout vermonters rely on a clean healthy environment but unlike the brook trout vermonters can vote in the 2022 election Vermont voters made their voices heard electing strong majorities of pro-climate candidates across the state vermonters love the great outdoors but climate change threatens so much about what makes our state special the environmental community knows that we need leaders who will take strong action on climate it takes collaboration coordination and commitment which is why together vermont conservation voters and v perd votes worked hard to support pro-environment candidates and educate voters on where their leaders stand on the climate crisis this election season we went all out recruiting and training candidates hosting forums and debates financially supporting candidates hitting the phones radio and digital media and knocking on doors like never before now it's time to get to work on building a just equitable future for every vermonter we can bring hundreds of millions of dollars of federal investments into Vermont to benefit our families and businesses we can put thousands of vermonters to work build renewable energy weatherize our homes and modernize our electric grid improve the way we get around and support communities most impacted by climate change so to protect those who voted and those who can't now is the time to act great thank you i'm gonna now turn it over to paul burns to speak a little bit more about the work we did this election season and what the results mean oh we can't hear you if you're talking okay can you hear me now and can you see the screen yes so awesome technology working thank you very much so i want to say i'm really happy to be here thanks everybody for gathering on this conversation a real pleasure to be with our colleagues who helped to make some good things happen and of course with a couple of key legislative leaders as well as the video that you just saw makes clear i think that the climate community really stepped up and delivered in 2022 our efforts at candidate recruitment training and endorsements was really beyond anything that we had done before we hosted most multiple forums around climate our staff and volunteers conducted more voter contact in 2022 than ever before including phone calls text direct mail radio digital communications and of course v perk votes did what we do best going door to door in communities and key districts around the state our efforts paid off and while it's too soon to have a full analysis we can look at some of the key races in particular one key race that caught some observers by surprise this was the district from hitting the north the senate district there we spent a lot of time knocking on doors in this district early voter turnout in this district was 41 percent of all the people who voted here 41 percent voted early and that shows that we can contrast that with the folks that we talked to in going door to door were 53 percent of them voted early in an election that was decided by just 315 votes that hard work in those communications we think really paid off this district was not an outlier our climate champions helped to our support for climate champions helped to deliver victories across the state and down the ballot some of the climate champs helped to oust those who were most recalcitrate in doing anything to address the climate crisis here are a few examples we also have climate champs who moved up some who moved from the house to the senate very excited about that some who moved from the legislature to statewide office which is awesome sarah copenhansis our incoming secretary of state for instance has led the climate solutions caucus in the legislature for the last two terms and we also have a great group of incoming climate champs in addition to tanya behofsky and becca white we have others who that you can see on the screen here and many new ones in the house as well too many for a single slide we also want to point out that of the many climate champions who won it also means some of the worst climate deniers ended up losing seats in the legislature almost across the board the worst of the climate deniers lost their bids for office the entire slate of climate opponents in adison county for instance lost as did candidates who built their campaigns around a tax on a boogeyman carbon tax or that sort of thing and of course one lesson that we take from this election is really clear that is that vermonters want to see climate action and they want to see it now and we are so thrilled to be joined by a couple of the real champions in this effort and it is my happy task to introduce to you all my friend and a new incoming senator house current house member becca white senator elect becca thanks paul and great slide we had a race here in windsor county for windsor county state senate and one of the main themes we heard from our opponents was no carbon tax boogeyman rhetoric so it really shows that vermonters came out and voted to elect folks who actually are going to do the important work of responding to climate change so really excited to be here and thrilled to be able to be a part of the climate solutions caucus moving from the house to the senate i just want to tell you briefly about two things which is that first we have seen the election results and that's going to transform into policy victories vermonters have elected us and now it's our job to put that vote to good use and i'm hoping that with an even larger climate solutions caucus just numbers wise and even more strong advocates in the mix that we'll be able to get that work done so that's the first thing i wanted to tell you about and then the second thing is that the climate solution caucus we've been around for a while we're one of the largest caucuses in the state house we're across the house and the senate and we're nonpartisan and one of the key things that this race has shown us is that we can be more assertive we can be bolder and the asks that we have going into this 2023 session so you'll be seeing that and it's not just the senate side that's going to be doing fantastic work it's going to be the house so i'm thrilled that i get to work alongside representative gabriell stephens who i'd love to pass the baton to to tell us a bit more so thanks for having me thank you senator elect white i will miss you sitting next to me in the transportation committee what i love about the news of these results is that the connection that some people have made about addressing climate change and having that not be a win for our communities and for our home bank accounts that that connection was resoundingly called out to be false the truth is we send out one and a half nearly one and a half billion dollars a year on fossil fuels by heating our homes and driving our cars imagine if we actually were able to figure out policies to take that one and a half billion dollars and reinvest it in our families our businesses our schools our communities here in vermont that is what i'm really excited about looking at a couple of the policies that we've been discussing are market driven they're really designed to work with businesses nonprofits state agencies homes in a way that makes shifting off of fossil fuels affordable and ultimately win win win so that we can have really good climate workforce jobs that pay good salaries so that we can go home pay our bills and not worry about affordability while wondering how to get to our job that might be three counties over so i'm very excited about uh re bringing back the clean heat standard that's an opportunity to work with several different vermont businesses to really help vermonters lower the cost to heat their home and also there are a lot of regional efforts we have a meeting coming up in early december now that we have a massachusetts and a connecticut governor that are likely both very supportive of regional efforts to address our shared transportation challenges that's one of the that's one of the policy areas that really we need to work together beyond vermont to address really excited to also look at the renewable electricity renewable energy standard particularly with all the federal dollars coming our way it's it's critical to make it possible for vermonters to capitalize on those dollars and bring both the one and a half billion in as well as those federal inflation reduction act dollars and lastly looking really carefully at how we plan how we develop how we grow vermont's economy and what that means for our land and our water and our animals and our air quality because all of that comes back to can we live in a place that can support our families and our communities we have great opportunities here and i'm so grateful that our numbers are what they are passing the torch great thank you so much and now we're going to hear from johanna miller of the vermont natural resources council thank you lauren thank you representative stephens and thank you everyone um so yeah i just want to say a couple things as you've heard and as we know there are tremendous benefits to acting on climate cutting costs enhancing public health creating a more equitable energy system and it's really exciting to have such a strong mandate from vermonters to undertake this work thankfully we also have a climate action plan adopted last december crafted by the climate council of which i am the environmental rep on that council we worked hard within our five subcommittee structure to engage the public to craft a plan to provide a blueprint and a roadmap for strategic action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and build more resilient vermont so that is an important foundation to do the work that vermonters have clearly charged us to do so now it's time to get to work with that unprecedented slate of new elected officials and a bench of lawmakers who've already been working hard in their respective roles including the two camps we just heard from to make the significant progress that we need to to meet our legally binding pollution reduction targets as well as help our communities adapt and become more resilient in a warming world so we're looking forward to doing that with policymakers as well as the public and so now i'm going to turn it over to jordan hyden to talk about some of the nearer term efforts to continue to make sure that we are partnering with vermonters and engaging vermont communities partnering with policymakers to ensure that we make this transition make it swiftly make it make it equitable jordan tell us what's on deck absolutely thank you so much and i did share some slides hopefully you can see those let me know if not but again good morning everyone my name is torden hyden i use she her pronouns and i am v perg's keep vermont cool campaign manager so as you've heard we've recently experienced some really exciting victories here in vermont and now it's time to get back to work so i'm thrilled to share some details for two upcoming opportunities both completely free and open to the public so first i want to let you know that v perg's keep vermont cool campaign and senator elect becquo white are hosting a climate action and advocacy tour a multi-county event series we've developed to reflect on the recent election to discuss climate impacts and opportunities in the coming legislative session and to inspire and empower vermonters to take meaningful climate action will feature many local legislators and partner organizations throughout this effort which will be announced very soon we anticipate that each interactive 90 minute event will include mixing and mingling a post election and climate presentation and advocacy training and be in great with legislators music food drinks tabling resources and of course lots of swag and giveaways all current and upcoming event details can be found on our website keep vermont cool dot org slash tour and we will be posting information on our facebook twitter and instagram accounts at keep vermont cool shortly so next i am excited to also share details for the 15th annual vcan conference a multi-day virtual event tailored largely to the state's network of all volunteer town energy committees this event will commence on saturday december 10th at 9am and will be accompanied by a series of virtual workshops throughout the following week on a timely energy and climate action topic focused on transforming our transportation heating and power supplies equitably affordably and swiftly in rural vermont so again everyone is welcome including you all it's completely free and to learn more and register you can visit vcan.net that's all from me thank you so much great thank you jordan and so at this point as you can tell we are enthusiastic about the election results and the climate mandate that voters have sent and have some really exciting upcoming work and opportunities for vermonters to get engaged in this work and now we would love to answer any questions that anyone might have thank you so much i'm wondering so the house now has a supermajority i think dems have have a larger showing in the house than than ever before i wonder obviously the clean heat standard you've said is coming back i wonder if there's any other legislation that you might take the opportunity to try and pass given how strong that supermajority is this year i'm thinking maybe particularly of act 250 which i know experienced some challenges last year i'm assuming that's my turn uh yes thanks emma certainly i i do believe there will be a fair amount of discussion around act 250 obviously last year there was a lot of discussion about how to balance the need for example for more affordable housing and where do we where do we build where do we not build and how do i how do we identify those appropriate locations and a key tool for that is act 250 so i'm fairly certain we'll see that come back up the renewable energy standard i suspect we will be seeing that come back up as well in part because we haven't touched on it in a number of years but also in part because the inflation reduction act has so many opportunities there that taking a moment to look at our statue to assess what aligns with federal opportunities and what might need to be changed really does help to make sure that we're capitalizing on as much opportunity as possible from the feds and you know transportation wise we have done great work in the last couple of years really harnessing again the federal dollars to offer vermonters of all income ranges the opportunity to spend less on getting from a to b but we're needing now to really look more comprehensively and regionally at how do we crack this nut because it really is beyond the vermont borders and that's why i'm very very excited senator elect and myself went to a conference last month in road island and spoke with other senators and representatives from main new hampshire massachusetts road island connecticut all to discuss how do we come back to figure out what the next if it's the transportation climate initiative if it's something different what that next tool in the toolbox needs to be because avoiding this does not help our constituents what it does is kick the cost down the road and it will just become more costly so it is our requirement to really pick this up and work together and i would just add to representative seven's point we're in the strange period between folks being elected leadership not being yet elected and soon to be the session and all of those holidays that we celebrate in the middle so what we've seen from voters is a clear mandate around responding to climate change so now it's our job as folks who have been elected to make the case to bring those policies to the top of the priority list to our leadership and i know that with the amount of folks who've been elected that clear majority you mentioned in the house and one in the senate as well we're going to be able to make a stronger case to prioritize climate legislation like the ones that you heard from representative seven's so it's still in flux but it's now the time to make the case and that's what we'll be doing as we lead up to january thank you both any other questions hi god thanks thanks for having me calvin here with channel three i i can just see our inbox now you know some vermonters certainly might have concerns about their bottom line and about affordability you know especially with gas prices and home heating fuel prices i'm wondering just broadly maybe if um some of our elected leaders or others could just speak about how you would you know contend with the affordability question and what you'd say to people uh and vermonters who are are concerned with um you know whether it be a tci or a clean heat standard that type of thing since you did call out elected leaders i guess i'll take this one first but um we've also had folks who were at the doors of vermonters across the state who heard that exact concern and i when i've had conversations with folks in windsor county as i was door knocking that was one of the big concerns it was housing and the cost of living so when i talk to vermonters about that nexus of concern with climate change is to express that the cost of doing nothing is so much greater in the long term than responding to it now also it will support our economic goals to be able to invest in our priorities um the most vulnerable people are going to be left behind when we talk about climate change uh if we don't proactively include them in the solutions so the things that i highlight for vermonters is that a regional transportation climate initiative for example would provide us tools to invest in programs like mileage smart replace your ride two programs that support our lowest and moderate income vermonters to switching into uh high efficiency or all electric vehicles so it's those types of programs that once i express that to vermonters that it clicks it's like okay it's not an is or situation it's we need to invest to actually include folks who will be left behind without um that investment so that's the way that i talked to vermonters about it and it seems to resonate um and if folks are concerned about affordability in the short term uh even states like what uh representative sevens highlighted earlier even states that we talked to at that conference who put something like a freeze on the gas tax they still saw an increased cost in their gas prices so some of those short term quick injection solutions that other states tried that do have continual negative effects on their revenue also didn't work so we're not going to take a short term uh rush to fix it approach um and we can't do that while also prioritizing climate so and i know the advocates were at the door too so i'm sure you're the v perk canvasser's heard from it if i if i can add one more thing paul just for a moment um palvin this is i'm not sure there's anything more critical frankly than the key issue of affordability because if we lose people on that um then we lose this entire conversation and i think there are two pieces to keep in mind first of all uh we have many many hundreds if not thousands of programs that we can point to where we have designed them in a way that they are income tiered and so that if you are the person who is not going to be left behind you can buy your tesla you can put the solar on your roof you can put in a ground source heat pump you don't need support uh it's the folks as you work down that tier uh that really need that support particularly when so much of the cost reduction for these projects comes from a federal tax credit so first of all we do have tools in the toolbox to address this in terms of really looking at that income tier and second of all i mentioned the one and a half billion dollars these are dollars we're spending every year and they're just gone so the key here for me is how do we design programs so that the savings you get over a 15 year investment instead of a new boiler when your boiler fails instead of investing in that you're investing in some heat pumps how do you get that 15 year savings through your financing loan how do you get that applied up front so the homeowners paying the same every month to heat their home but ultimately they're not actually at the whims of what we see with fossil fuels in terms of how much it goes up and cost and down and cost i don't know if that helps but um i really if there's one thing i can put out there um affordability and addressing climate change are not at odds they go hand in hand thanks so much representative stevens i wanted to just echo some of that and to say you know failing to act on climate is among the worst things that you can do for lower income vermonters they suffer the worst harm because of the climate crisis that we are in there's no question about that so anybody who says you know failing to act on climate not doing everything we can hear is somehow saving money for those who are of lower or moderate income is not telling the truth we have to act what we have to do is do it sensibly so that our clean transportation clean heating and clean electricity options are available and open to everybody they you know an ev or clean heating options they can't be the play things of the rich everybody needs to be able to participate in our clean heating solutions and our clean transportation and our clean electricity clean energy solutions here moving forward i think you'll find that we are all committed to that but we are all in that together it's just that the harms that we suffer now and for the foreseeable future are suffered worse by those who are of lower income and so we have to this is a commitment that we have to address this in order to help those who really need that help the most i guess just a quick follow-up and it's kind of on a separate program but of the same vein net metering the the puc lowered rates for for net metering this past summer maybe this is a question for legislators as well do you see any changes coming coming to that program and in that same way what what what do you see as a vision for the net metering program going forward we're playing chicken with each other uh you know i would actually turn to the advocates on this point um we're going to be uh having serious conversations with the renewable energy standard that we've talked about that representative stevens talked about um and i think the goal that every person um who's a member of the climate solutions caucus has is to make renewable energy affordable and incentivize for vermonters and to have it be a part of our portfolio when we look at our energy breakout so i don't know necessarily what the right legislative response is but um i know that we've got advocates and folks who are working closely on that topic so i would i don't know representative sevens you're like on the ground on this so i don't know if i'm on the ground i used to be um i'll i'll just say you know net metering uh has done a tremendous amount for really spearheading uh solar in the state and making it affordable for a lot of folks um what i see from my other job um as a as an energy consulting professional uh is that um we're seeing this discussion across the nation in terms of you know how as as we see more solar as we see more net metering how do we maintain that affordability how do we maintain that reliability there's some really interesting uh initiatives in terms of community solar net metering um income qualification uh programs to make sure that the folks who maybe weren't able to participate earlier are able to participate now we're also seeing a lot of programs where it's solar plus storage um to raise the overall value of that system um so uh i guess i'd echo senator elect white in that i couldn't say right now what that's gonna look like i know it'll be discussed um just because there are so many people that it's it's important for um and it's a key tool in the toolbox um but there are there are a lot of policy options there and i know a lot of folks are looking at them any other questions well thank you so much for looks like calvin you might have another one sorry i i have one more and it's it's a legislature question or legislative kind of election question not necessarily on climate for for paul burns if i may sure uh where where do we stand with um rank choice voting do you see that making a a comeback or another proposal this session yeah i think um i think rank choice voting both here and across the country there's a strong and growing interest there um you no doubt are following burlington it will be used for the first time in a council race uh early next month for that special election i think on the 6th of december um that and then of course it will be used for all council races on town meeting day next year in burlington but what we'll be focusing on calvin is actually putting rank choice voting in place in vermont for the next presidential primary so that'll be in 2024 and that'll be a wonderful opportunity for vermonters all across the state to have a chance to use the process and use it on a ballot where the only thing on that ballot is the presidential campaign is the presidential primary so there's no confusion about it it's kind of a nice pilot project if you will to to to bring it in front of all voters across the state it's something as i'm sure you know the incoming secretary of state sarah colpin hanses has expressed support for um we will have new chairs and house and senate of government operations but we're communicating with a lot of legislators leaders about this and i think that there'll be an openness to it but but we've got some work to do but i think it'll be a a focused piece of legislation trying to put it in place for the presidential primary and of course there are about five or six states in the district of columbia that have been using it or have used it and of course will use it for the next presidential primary and that's a mix of red and blue states so-called as well this is not not about one party or or or anything like that so i'm hoping that we'll find some good support for that and that would be one more step in the process of course our ambition is to go further for for other federal offices but i would think in 2023 we will go for the presidential primary piece thanks for asking yeah thank you great all right last call for any questions we've kept you a little longer than we'd said already but happy to answer any last all right well thank you so much for joining us everyone and great to see you and hope you have a wonderful rest of your day