January 7th marks the first day of a brand-new legislative session. As always, LCRCC will be in the State House every day to support Vermont businesses and provide you with the information you depend on. In this brief update, we want to bring your attention to:
- Our Legislative Breakfast Series.
- Tourism Day in the State House.
- Opportunities to sponsor this newsletter.
- Potential climate legislation in the coming session.
Legislative Breakfast Series
Registration for the Lake Champlain Chamber 2020 Legislative Breakfast Series is now open.
Our first breakfast in the series will be Monday, January 27 from 7:30 – 9:00am at Delta Hotels Marriott Burlington (formerly Trader Duke’s Hotel). The second breakfast will be Monday, March 16 from 7:30 – 9:00 am at Costco in Colchester. This year we are doing more to encourage connections between legislators and their constituents at our breakfast.
Thank you to New England Federal Credit Union for sponsoring our Legislative Breakfast Series.
Tourism Day
The Vermont Tourism sector contributes over $391 million in tax revenue to our state each year and accounts for 10% of Vermont’s workforce, however, as a state, we are living off the interest of past investments in this sector. While other states have been boosting their destination marketing investment, Vermont has decreased its investment by 6% over the last 5-years. On January 15th, businesses from all across the state will travel to Montpelier to advertise and advocate for the Vermont tourism sector. Please join us! Email [email protected] for more details.
Sponsor Legislative Updates
Would you like to show others you support LCRCC’s advocacy? Sponsoring our legislative updates supports our business advocacy and gets your message out to a diverse business audience. If you would like to sponsor an update, please email [email protected]
Climate Legislation Expected This Session
A number of climate proposals are being floated as the legislative session draws near and we thought we’d take the time to explain the prominent proposals for you.
Global Warming Solutions Act
As the legislative session draws nearer, members of the House grow more-and-more intent on passing a Global Warming Solutions Act which would codify Vermont aspirational greenhouse gas goals into law. While such a proposal seems simple enough, LCRCC is concerned that such a proposal might create unintended consequences and incentivize short-term fixes while disincentivizing or sacrificing greater long-term goals.
For example, investments in grid infrastructure are needed for the “grid of tomorrow” which can handle more demand for electric products, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, our state hopes to deploy; however, these grid modernization efforts result in little short-term emissions reductions. With a finite budget and the axe of a statutory mandate looming over their heads, these updates will be less preferable than something that creates immediate, short-term emissions. In short, these efforts back Vermonters into a corner, where all they can do is tread water and not focus on swimming to shore.
Transportation and Climate Initiative
The working body involved in creating a regional greenhouse gas cap and trade program to mitigate emissions from the transportation sector has released a draft memorandum of understanding which they are taking comments on until February 28th. LCRCC recognizes that global climate change requires action and accomplishing this action at a regional level is preferable to the state doing so alone, however, there are improvements that can be made to ensure that such a program might avoid unintended consequences.
On-road diesel fills a gap in our transportation system where there are not viable electric alternatives. Trucking and mass transportation are dependent on diesel fuel and already represents a more energy-efficient alternative to small, gasoline-powered vehicles. For the delivery of basic goods and services that rely on diesel fuel, there is little-to-no behavioral change that can be made in response to increased cost, and LCRCC worries that cost will be passed along to customers. This is a hurdle that can be overcome by exempting this class of fuel.
You can read the draft MOU here and submit comments here.
We look forward to working with you this session.
Sincerely,
The Lake Champlain Chamber Advocacy Team
