Scores rally at Statehouse for action on climate change
MONTPELIER, Vt. --Scores of people gathered on the Statehouse steps Saturday to push for local solutions to climate change caused by global warming and urged the Douglas administration to do more.
As a band played, people ate apple pie and ice cream, and some waved flags promoting what they say was the need to do more to stop global warming.
The Montpelier rally was one of hundreds across the country Saturday that were part of a national "Step it Up" event, a "national day of climate action," all committed to reducing the threat of climate change.
"We're here to demonstrate how upset we are that Vermont has not taken more action to confront global warming," said Catherine Bowes, the global warming program manager at the Vermont office of the National Wildlife Federation, one of the organizers of Saturday's event. "We're here to tell Gov. (Jim) Douglas to do more and 'step it up.'"
Some feel that Douglas, a Republican, is failing to provide leadership to help Vermonters reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide -- believed to be the main culprit in climate change.
Late last month a commission appointed by the governor released a report that called for the state to become a national model for energy efficiency. Specifically, it urged the governor to extend the state's energy efficiency programs for electricity and gas to heating oil and other fuels as well as explore ways to boost investments in renewable energy, such as wind power.
The Douglas administration has said it would release its recommendations stemming from the report in the near future.
"Gov. Douglas is proud of the steps that Vermont has taken over the last several years under his leadership to address global climate change, diversify our energy portfolio, and hold down the cost of heating our homes," Douglas spokesman Jason Gibbs said Saturday.
Gibbs said Douglas has led a multistate effort to combat global warming, he defended in federal court state rules designed to reduce auto emissions, a major source of global warming gases, and he's pushed for the creation of environmentally friendly jobs.
"The governor shares the concern about this challenge expressed at today's rally, but he's proud of the progress that we've made and he's optimistic we can make much more," Gibbs said.
But some people were upset that after Douglas's just-completed "set the agenda" tour of the state, he found that majority of Vermonters were more interested in reducing their tax burden than reducing climate change.
"He goes around the state and mobilizes people and then throws up his hands and says people are just interested in their financial situation," said former Vermont Gov. Philip Hoff, a Democrat, who spoke at rally. "The role of a governor goes way beyond that. If you have a problem you are supposed to address it. And I don't see him doing that. He forms a commission and then backs away from it."
