Letter to the editor: Young people, support climate justice, not Affordable Heat Act - VTDigger

Letter to the editor: Young people, support climate justice, not Affordable Heat Act - VTDigger

Letters to the editor are brief reader responses to stories and opinion pieces published by VTDigger. Letters give voice to community members and do not represent VTDigger’s views. To submit a letter, complete this form.

I was disturbed and saddened to read about young people recently calling for the passage of the Affordable Heat Act (S.5). As someone in my mid-20s, I feel for teens and am deeply grateful for their work on climate action, equity and justice. I was in that position just a few years ago, and I can say the climate-induced dread and confusion don’t go away.

I wonder, however, if the young people speaking had a clear picture of the nature of the Affordable Heat Act. I wonder if passing a bill written with outsized input and testimony from the biggest polluters in the state helps “actually have BIPOC and low-income people as integral and valued members and leaders.” I wonder if politicians have finally stopped “putting profit and political maneuvering before our lives” with a bill containing a special giveaway for Vermont Gas to claim “renewable” gas from a toxic source that would never even make it to Vermont.

I wonder how the Affordable Heat Act is “real, impactful climate action” if the underlying Global Warming Solutions Act targets and climate council studies do not include biogenic emissions, thereby falsely incentivizing fuels that put at least as much carbon into the air as the ones they replace.

I admire the urgency and eloquence that young people — and Vermonters of all ages — bring to climate action. I hope we can fight for solutions on our own terms, rather than accept “solutions” like the Affordable Heat Act written as much to sustain existing wealth and power as a livable climate.

Chris Gish

Burlington
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