by Alison Despathy

For decades, Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE) has been a watchdog looking out for Vermonters, our communities, and the environment. VCE attends local and state level meetings, engages at the State House, watches committee hearings, submits testimony, educates the public and works to support the development of responsible and balanced laws. 

VCE monitors policy, supports good public process and works to ensure that Vermonters are not preyed upon. It is often grueling, tedious work but it is critical to help prevent Vermont from being taken advantage of. 

Special interest groups have been working and engaging in much the same way to move their agendas forward. Well funded and staffed with many lobbyists paid to achieve specific outcomes, groups such as Vermont Natural Resource Council (VNRC), Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), Energy Action Network (EAN) and Renewable Energy Vermont (REV) have gained tremendous influence in the State House, often associated with 501(c)4s or Political Action Committees dedicated to influencing elections.

Money, numbers, biased messaging, social media presence, fancy studies and data, glossy handouts all help special interest drive their ‘solutions’ home with legislators who seek to solve problems and want answers to difficult issues. It is easy for many to succumb to the whole package without question. Leadership has allowed special interest groups to write policy at the expense of the people and the environment. This is an ancient story — there will always be those who seek to prosper regardless of inflicted harms. 

This pattern often results in Vermont positioned as a test case for policy experimentation, a trend that has many people stressed about future viability, land use impacts, environmental degradation, compromises in business opportunities, resource access, use of working lands and risks placed on Vermonters to afford basic necessities such as heat, fuel, electricity, and groceries, 

Examples include the Clean Heat Standard, Act 181, the Renewable Energy Standard, the Global Warming Solutions Act, Advanced Clean Car and Truck initiatives. Policies related to energy, land use and climate are burdening Vermonters, communities, businesses, utilities, and our agencies with higher costs, reduced choices, and ‘solutions’ that do not work. This places Vermont’s environmental health and economic viability at risk. Vermonters feel we are increasingly under attack.

Many legislators appear to have forgotten their job as representatives of the people and instead have acted like social engineers, forcing their misguided utopia on others. Instead of allowing access to options and respecting individuals’ ability to choose freely without economic and financial assaults, leadership has inserted themselves and chosen for the people by force and mandates. The distortion places Vermont under duress while special interest desires are prioritized at the expense of Vermont and the environment. 

With the Act 181 law passed in 2024 over the Governor’s veto, a line was crossed, a property line to be exact and many Vermonters abruptly woke up to this blatant infringement. 

It is unfortunate that it had to get this bad and that property rights needed to be threatened for Vermonters to wake up but on the other hand it makes perfect sense. We elect good, kind people to do the work of the people. We have faith this is happening because we are busy with our lives, working and raising families.

Rural Vermont Rising organically coalesced as more Vermonters tuned in and began to understand the overreach of Act 181 and how it had weaponized Act 250, a good law with an important role for guiding responsible commercial development in Vermont. People saw maps, found their property, wondered what Tier 3 critical resource areas or road rules even meant and viscerally felt a personal attack on themselves, their families and home. Emotions were triggered as many felt violated, saddened, enraged that this law passed by a supermajority over the Governor’s veto.

Act 181 was a direct hit on what many work so hard for their entire lives: a piece of land to call home, carve out an existence, grow food, raise a family, start a business. This prompted a response that any would feel when their home is threatened and this primal reaction resulted in an activation of people unlike any we have witnessed in this lifetime. 

The numbers grew, word spread like wildfire as neighbors spoke, friends connected, citizen journalists activated and Vermonters dove in to understand what this was and how it happened, resulting in the repeal of Tier 3 and the road rule.     

There is still much work to be done to get Vermont back on a steady track that respects and works for Vermonters. Vermont’s authentic grassroots network continues to expand, coalitions are growing, education and collaboration are in play, and engagement is happening on local and state levels. This is exactly what is needed to get the work done right. 

Civic engagement is an ongoing work in progress and when good people with clear intentions and a will to work come together, it is truly magnificent what is possible. The Rural Vermont Rising movement has clearly demonstrated this fact. Renewed interest in our civic duty is the spirit of this year with the 250 year anniversary of our country and Vermont has definitely heeded the call.

Alison Despathy is the Community and Environmental Health Director at Vermonters for a Clean Environment. This article was first published in the VCE July, 2026 End Year Report which can be accessed at vce.org