The Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) contains a provision that gives standing to anyone who wants to sue the state, at taxpayers’ expense, if we fail to meet that law’s unrealistic, unattainable greenhouse gas reduction mandates. It’s known as the “private right of action” clause. The first case brought under the private right of action clause by the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) was just decided and dismissed by Superior Court Judge Timothy Tomasi. That’s the good news!
CLF’s complaint challenged the Agency of Natural Resources’ (ANR) chosen methods for meeting the mandates, arguing that they utilized inaccurate measuring criteria and weren’t acting aggressively enough to meet the targets. The judge ruled that the law doesn’t allow a plaintiff to question the methods adopted by the ruling authority (ANR), only the outcomes, which we won’t officially know until at least 2027, after the first deadline has passed (2025) and the GHG reduction data can be fully collected and evaluated.
Okay, good. But here’s the bad news…. ANR has already admitted it likely missed the 2025 GHG reduction mandate by an estimated 6 percent and is even more likely to miss the next target coming up in 2030 by a whopping 29 percent. Climate radicals say those numbers are/will be significantly higher.
Either way, and in other words, the next lawsuit is going to be successful. And Vermont taxpayers are going to be on the hook to pay big time. Unless, that is, the legislature repeals right of action provision in the GWSA when they return to Montpelier in January 2026. This must happen. It’s the only way to avoid a continuing and colossal waste of money.
Just look at what this first stupid, unnecessary game of lawfare entailed. (How many words is a picture of a thousand words worth?) You paid for every one of these bullet points…
How many hours (and time is, of course money; the taxpayer variety in this case) and limited resources did this frivolous lawsuit eat up for the Agency of Natural Resources, the Attorney General’s office, and the judiciary branch over the ten months it took to dismiss it as baseless? Time and money ANR Secretary Julie Moore pointed out could have been better spent, you know, actually addressing real problems and benefiting everyday Vermonters. Things like preparing for and protect citizens from future floods (ANR) and reducing rising crime in our neighborhoods (AG).
How much time and money will the next lawsuit waste? (Not to mention the potential appeal of this one?) Certainly more, because the state is sure to lose, and Vermont taxpayers will be on the hook for both the state’s cost to defend the suit, and the plaintiff’s “reasonable costs and attorney’s fees.” See all those bullet points pictured above, over and over and over again until the year 2050.
But the advocates will argue, if you don’t want to be sued just do whatever it takes to meet the greenhouse gas reduction mandates in the law. Yeah, sure. If meeting those mandates was fiscally, logistically, and politically impossible when the GWSA passed in 2020 — and they were — they are even more so now. A major chunk of what Vermont spends on climate change polices came from the federal government. Not anymore.
The Trump Administration is cutting subsidies for electric vehicle purchases and infrastructure, and for home and industrial renewable energy projects, they nipped the clean cars and trucks eventual ban on internal combustion engine vehicle sales in the bud, and are working to eliminate the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases at all. Vermont doesn’t have the resources to expand our own programs let alone backfill the hole being left by the feds. It’s… not… going… to… happen.
So, leaving Vermonters on the legal hook for outcomes that aren’t going to happen — can’t happen, and nobody in government, including those who passed the GWSA in the first place, is seriously trying to make happen — is sociopathic. A vicious violation of the public trust born out of I don’t know what other than the pure meanness of zealots scorned.
The bills to repeal the lawsuit provision of the GWSA are on the walls of the committees of jurisdiction. Better yet, there are a few that would repeal the whole darn GWSA! Take them down. Pass them! We’ve already wasted enough time, money, and energy on a this pipe dream turned pipe bomb.
And, in case you think this whole lawsuit thing was just an unintended consequence, see the video below from two years ago when Democrat and Progressive senators on the Natural Resources and Energy Committee were literally begging the CLF to sue their constituents, and laughing about it. They got their wish!
