 So many years who deserve a place in this conversation. I walked out today to show everyone in the state house that I will not tolerate climate inaction so that the children of the future will not have to. This planet will wait for no one, including us. If we want to make a difference in a climate issue of global concern, we have no time left to wait another year. We are almost halfway through this session, and although there have been many bills introduced, I have seen no leap of faith in a plan of passing a bold climate change solution this year. The Speaker of the House has said the House doesn't have time for a carbon tax. What do they have time for then? We the youth are ready to see the solution for this climate crisis, because doing nothing is not an option. I know leaders in the House and Senate believe this issue is real and pressing, but we are looking for an active plan that has purpose and intention to make a vast difference. Be it your way or my way, the youth of Vermont are here to make sure our clean planet is well on its way. I'm Max Sabo. I go to U32 High School, and I am also a member of the Vermont Youth Lobby. First of all, I wanted to just say how amazing it is to see such a great turnout. Thank you all for coming today. I will be honest, I had previously planned on talking about just some exciting climate action stuff that I would just I'd seen and I wanted to talk about because it's stuff that's going to be coming in the near future. But then I read the Vermont House Democrats' plan for the rest of the session, and I was shocked to see that in their top five priorities, although all very important, very important things, climate change was not on the list. I would expect that to be a six bullet point and actually be at the top. And in fact, I couldn't find climate change anywhere on the newly published website. This stands out to me because it shows that my representatives don't care about climate change. We already are many years late in addressing this very important issue. And now it appears that we're about to throw away another year. I am so grateful to be standing alongside Representative Deanna Gonzalez, who happens to be a co-sponsor of H-477 Vermont Equity and Infrastructure Act. Now that that is the type of climate legislation that we at the youth lobby support. It is bold. It hits many crucial attack points for addressing climate issues in Vermont. And yet it's being taken up so late in this process that it won't even be acted on this session. So it is essential that we take opportunities like today where students have taken time out of their day to protest climate inaction because these are the times where we can show our elected officials what we want to see from them in office. We need to show them that we want bold and comprehensive climate legislation and that we will elect those who will give that to us. And then from that point, we need to hold our elected officials accountable for following through on passing this legislation. No more waiting. We've waited long enough and we're not going to throw away another year. Thank you. I'm also a member of the Vermont Youth Lobby. I came here this year and I think that's pretty scary looking at that, especially for a bunch of youth. It's quite possibly all the decisions I'm going to make are going to affect me for the rest of my life, hopefully for the better. And I think that's what working in this building is like. You're making decisions for Vermonters that will quite possibly affect them for the rest of their life, hopefully for the better. But that's their job. It's their job to have Vermonters' best interests at heart and always in mind. It's their job to make big decisions that will make our state better in the long run and not just at this moment. It's their job and I'm here because I don't think the policy makers are doing their jobs to their full potential, especially when talking about climate change. Vermont has the potential to be the leader in America in terms of going green and we simply aren't doing enough. The next thing Vermont needs to be doing right now is distancing ourselves from fossil fuels. Vermont has received $18.7 million from Volkswagen. The money comes from what was supposed to be clean diesel. It wasn't. They lied to us about how clean their diesel really was. This money needs to be put towards transportation instead of going back to the same diesel eating buses that we've been using for years. It's a simple change that wouldn't affect Vermonters' tax money at all. This money that we have and we simply aren't doing anything with it. And if you don't find that ridiculous, I don't know what you will. The policy makers aren't doing enough. They aren't doing what we elected them to do and if hundreds of kids skipping school and standing in your offices doesn't tell you that, I don't know what will. This is a beautiful site. Standing here with all of you, standing up, thank you so much for being here today for saying we need solutions to the climate change. We need to be able to have smart policies that benefit all of us. Right now, we have so much money going out of states for fossil fuels that are poisoning our planet, that are impacting in negative ways our health in the short and long term. I'm the lead sponsor on H477, Equity and Infrastructure Act, that for a very small amount of money over the course of ten years, would put $1.6 billion into Vermont's economy. The statutory and Paris Accords levels would reduce our carbon emissions and be a leader for the nation. The inequity of living morally, the inequity of poverty and by putting money into the pockets of folks that don't have that much, we benefit all of us. When we're able to weatherize our homes, our schools and municipalities, we not only reduce our carbon pollution, we also reduce our negative health impacts. We increase our comforts and we reduce our taxes because less money heating outside is better for all of us. Billing in dollars, we are able to increase our electrification. We're able to have electric vehicles incentives, electric vehicle charging stations, high energy heat pumps, high efficiency heat pumps, and other ways that we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, keep that money in Vermont, and impact climate change. This is a bill that, while one can say it's bold, it's the boldness that we need, it also is very small, it's a very small money at the pump, and it has a huge impact. And so I really want to encourage you all to look at this particular policy. There are other policies as well that we can support and see what we can accomplish because getting the gas prices to what they were last November is not that significant. But it will have a huge amount of money coming back into Vermont, a huge amount of possibility of addressing our statutory requirements and reducing our carbon emissions. Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you so much for standing up for all of us. Climate, this room is heating in an alarming way. Hey, everyone, I'm Gabe Groveman. I'm a freshman at MHS, and I'd like to start off with thanking everyone who left school early to come out here today. Just by being here, you're showing all the legislators in this building that we do care about these issues, that we'll fight for these issues, and that even though all of us will pay, we're doing far too little on climate, young people like us will be the ones who will bear the burden the most. Now I'm sure all of you know our climate is changing. Every year we see a hurricane after a hurricane in the Caribbean. Droughts and wildfires in California. More and more ticks in Vermont each summer, and the list goes on. We will continue to go on, but the question is how much longer will the list have to get for us to finally take action and do something? Because the cost of doing nothing will only get greater, not only in hard economic terms, but in quality of life, public health, the diversity of life on this planet, and the diversity of life on this planet. These costs will ultimately be born mostly on our generation who didn't create this problem, but will no doubt be the ones to have to deal with it. There was a report a few months ago from the International Panel on Climate Change that showed that if we don't start to at least, we don't start to at least try to seriously reduce carbon emissions, there will be a catastrophic damage to our environment by the year 2030. That's only 11 years, and our government isn't helping. Another report, followed by Oil Change International, exposed that, on average, the government spends over $20 billion on fossil fuel subsidies. Just imagine the amount of work we could do with even a quarter of the $20 billion a year we give to gas and oil companies. If we work together by creating climate change, by taking climate change seriously and passing comprehensive climate legislation, then maybe we can save our climate. Right now, we have the power to change our future. We have the power to fight this. And if after today, nothing happens, if after today, we continue to pollute our atmosphere and destroy our land, then at least I can say I made an effort. But if in 50 years the earth is still standing, then everyone here can say that we did do something. We made a difference. We were able to come together as a united front and say enough is enough and decided to recognize climate change as the threat it is. Yet while us being here is a substantial step forward, the power still lies in the hands of the policymakers to make it happen. My hope is that this push from youth across the globe will be the push needed to wake people up and create meaningful change for our future. Because if we don't do something, then who will?