Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson met with four other regional leaders at a virtual panel discussion on the impacts of climate change this week. Watson joined mayors and city councilors from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
An advocate of the Montpelier city council's net-zero energy goal, Watson is also a high school physics, engineering and mathematics teacher.
VPR's Mary Engisch spoke with Mayor Anne Watson about the panel discussion, specifically how to steer federal funds to climate mitigation projects that can easily fit into Vermonters' lives. Their conversation below has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Mary Engisch: Tell me first, what was the goal of this regional panel on climate action?
Anne Watson: The main reason was to encourage folks to get in touch with their U.S. delegation, to encourage them to vote in favor of this reconciliation bill, the that has some substantial funding going towards basically climate work.
In terms of energy efficiency and renewable energy. And then also to ask that 40% of the benefits from these weatherization and energy efforts be invested in or go towards communities of low income or communities of color.
Yeah, talk more about that. This group is asking for both local and federal action to help fight climate change. What would that action look like?
Yeah, so that looks like a lot of investment in fuel switching and getting off of oil. It looks like weatherization work. Cleaner water and cleaner air. There's a significant portion in there, on switching out lead pipes, so that folks can have clean water.
It also puts people back to work. We know that work in sustainability is well-paying, and it's good work that is gonna benefit every aspect of society.
So those jobs are gonna be really important for us, especially coming out of this pandemic.
"When it comes to climate change mitigation, you know, in terms of getting off of oil, it really just comes down to money. That is, unfortunately, or fortunately, the solution for a lot of these problems."Montpelier Mayor Anne Watson
Can you name some of the effects of climate change that you're actually already seeing locally here in Vermont?
We certainly in Montpelier are familiar with flooding, and that has increased over the last few years.
We also see that there may be more stressors on our ecosystem, you know, as we see the invasion of the emerald ash borer, you know, coming to town. That is, again, an indicator that our ecosystem is under stress. And these are things that we know need to be mitigated.
When you met with the other folks on this panel discussion 鈥� they're from New Hampshire and Maine and Massachusetts 鈥� did they also name what exactly is going on in their own regions?
Increased precipitation. Something that also came up was drought. Just more extreme weather events.
And particularly the loss of industries. You know the person from Maine talked about the seafood industry, that they are anticipating and are already starting to see the beginnings of.
Are they already taking steps in their own regions to combat climate change now? What are some action steps that are already in motion?
It's actually really delightful to hear from other folks as to what they were doing, what they were working on. They're working a lot on transportation, that they're getting a lot of public transit going.
How can federal action help in federal funding? Can you give some concrete examples of what that's going to look like in you know, in the coming years?
When it comes to climate change mitigation, you know, in terms of getting off of oil, it really just comes down to money. That is, unfortunately, or fortunately, the solution for a lot of these problems.
And so, for example, the city of Montpelier just got a. We've already made a significant amount of progress that I'm very proud of. But we've also got a long way to go.
And so part of this net-zero plan outlines some changes that we will need to make in terms of, you know, switching to pellet boilers or wood chip boilers for heating systems or switching out our vehicles for EVs or biofuels, as that makes sense for us or as it becomes available.
And that has a price tag of about $5.8 million. So you know, if we could access federal dollars to leverage that change, that would be significant.
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I think about the renting community that often does not have the power to make the decisions to switch their fuel source or to make energy efficiency improvements in their own homes.
So one of the things that we are hoping for from this bill is that there'll be money set aside or profit set aside, particularly to help those who have lower incomes or, you know, from communities that are otherwise usually disproportionately affected by climate change. Often those are communities of color.
As a high school teacher, let me ask you one more question about young people and climate change and climate action. You know, they're the ones who inherit these climate issues. Can you share your thoughts on, what are you hearing in a classroom setting about climate change? And then what sorts of actions can young people take?
What I've found from young people in the state is that they care a lot about climate change. This is, for many of them, this is the top issue on their radar, because this is their future. You know, this is their food security. This is the habitability of the planet.
That has a range of effects on students. Everything from students being really passionate and angry about it, all the way to being 鈥� honestly like it's a source of depression for a lot of students.
And so especially as a teacher, I have to be very conscious of how we talk about climate change, and try to make sure that there is a balance of information and opportunity to do something. Because that's an outlet for kids to deal with difficult information.
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