by Tim Page
Last week The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) indicated their intent to sue the state of Vermont under a provision in the Global Warming Solutions Act.
Attorney General Charity Clark has not commented on the case on her website or social media. VTGOP Chairman Paul Dame issued the following response:
“In the past week since the Conservation Law Foundation indicated their intent to sue Vermont, the one person who is expected to be there to defend our taxpayers has been mysteriously silent: Attorney General Charity Clark.
CLF is a Montpelier-based advocacy group with a 50-year-track record of filing suit on environmental issues. The announcement led opponents of the carbon emissions mandates to call for the repeal of the 2020 law that created them, the Global Warming Solutions Act.
In a letter sent July 23 to Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore, CLF says ANR failed to meet the July 1 2024 deadline to review whether the State is on track to meet 2025 greenhouse gas emissions, adopt rules to ensure the emissions are met, and hold hearings “in areas and communities that have the most significant exposure to the impacts of climate change, including disadvantaged, low-income, and rural communities and areas.”
The 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act (see pg. 4) sets three carbon emission reduction goals: 25% by 1/1/2025, 40%, by 1/1/2030, and 80% by 1/1/2050. The GWSA specifically grants the right of lawsuit for failure to adopt the necessary rules (pg. 20): Any person may commence an action based upon the failure of the Secretary of Natural Resources to adopt or update rules pursuant to the deadlines in section 593 of this chapter.”
Dame’s demand continues:
It’s hard for Vermonters to know if we have an Attorney General who is willing to fight to protect our taxpayers from what could be an expensive lawsuit, and whether we are free to pass the legislation our elected representatives believe is fitting. If Attorney General Clark is unwilling to protect taxpayers and our legislative process from lobbyists looking to rake in a massive payday, then Vermonters need to consider a new attorney general.
While it’s too late to protect us from this lawsuit, Vermont voters need to also reject the foolish or cowardly legislators who invited this lawsuit. The Democrats who passed this were either foolish legislating an invitation to sue, or they were cowardly because they wanted the court to impose policy for them, so they didn’t have to vote to turn over Vermont’s legislative process to a lobbyist.
But for the troubles facing us today, Vermonters deserve a response from Attorney General Clark on whether she intends to vigorously defend the state from this legal attack, or whether we can expect her to waive the white flag and let a lobbyist group go essentially unopposed. So far not even a simple press release has been issued from the Attorney General’s website.”