A bill introduced in the statehouse earlier this year would from investment in fossil fuel companies by the end of the decade.
It has the support of State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, who spoke about the proposed legislation at a conference on Vermont climate policy this week.
鈥淭he first thing as treasurer is to do no harm to the pension system 鈥� I don鈥檛 believe this bill does that,鈥� Pieciak said. 鈥淭hen you also need to look at the financial risk of investing in fossil fuels over the short, medium and long term. And I think this bill creates a framework to do just that and to reduce our risk over time.鈥�
He said the climate advocacy group for first introduced the legislation.
鈥淚鈥檓 thrilled that our treasurer is supporting the bill that was really our first piece of political action,鈥� said Beth Sachs, a member of Third Act, who鈥檚 been working to promote energy efficiency in Vermont since the 1980s, and helped create .
Several other municipalities have already passed similar legislation or voluntarily committed to divesting from fossil fuel companies in recent years 鈥� including , , , and .
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