A farm is surrounded by the forest of Elmore State Park on Oct. 5, 2024, in Lake Elmore, Vt. Credit: Craig T. Fruchtman/Getty Images To net or not to net. That is (one) question currently under debate in Vermont following Gov. Phil Scott’s introduction of a suite of proposed changes to the state’s climate laws, now under consideration by the state Legislature. Scott, a Republican, has proposed changing how the state counts greenhouse gas emissions in its official inventory —which the state’s legally binding emissions targets are based on—to include carbon sequestration by forests and farms. His proposal would also replace the state’s declining greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2025, 2030 and 2050 with a single target of achieving and thereafter remaining at “net-zero” emissions by 2035. This proposal to switch from gross to net emissions accounting has raised serious questions because it could decelerate Vermont’s transition off fossil fuels and introduce uncertainty into the state’s calculated emissions. We’re hiring! Please take a look at the new openings in our newsroom. See jobs Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore, who joined Scott in announcing the proposed changes at a press conference earlier this year, said in an interview that there are two main reasons to change to net accounting. The first is essentially to buy the state more time. “The 2030 goal that’s currently in the Global Warming Solutions Act is … not actually practical,” Moore said, pointing to recent studies of two proposed decarbonization policies that found each could impose high up-front costs on Vermonters (but also long-term savings) without getting the state all the way to the target. Moore said that the governor’s proposed 2035 target is functionally equivalent to the currently enacted target for 2030. Environmental advocates say this justification rings hollow and that if […]
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