Student lobbyists advocate for change in Montpelier

February 8, 2026 | By Claire Pomer | Correspondent

In honor of the national action week to “Make Polluters Pay,” six Harwood students recently traveled to the State House to participate in a Youth Lobby press conference and testify to legislators.

Harwood student Cora Potts speaks at the Youth Lobby press conference. Photo by Rachael Potts

Juniors Harmony Devoe, Cora Potts, Jane Schaefer, Julia Wulff and Emily Hill, along with freshman Zoya Bianchi, are all members

of Harwood’s Sustainability Club. The club frequently works alongside Youth Lobby, a statewide organization working to amplify youth voices in the policymaking process. Devoe, Schaefer, and Wulff testified to legislators, and Potts spoke at the group’s press conference, held with State Treasurer Mike Pieciak.

The student focused their message on the Climate Superfund Act, the Global Warming Solutions Act, and the Renewable Energy Standard. The Superfund allows the state to seek and recover financial damages from fossil fuel companies for the impacts of climate change in Vermont. The Global Warming Solutions Act addresses the state’s emissions, creating legally binding emission benchmarks to meet by 2030 and 2050. The Renewable Energy Standard requires Vermont electric distributors to use renewable energy sources as a certain percentage of their energy supply, and this percentage increases each year until it reaches 100% in 2030.

Testifying & lobbying differently

Youth Lobby does testimony and lobbying “differently” than traditional lobbyists. The students aren’t part of an official lobbying organization and do not pay their members to lobby. While other organizations memorize facts to present about costs and effects of climate change, Youth Lobby members focus more on the personal effects. “While we do give facts, our main job is to bring emotions,” explained Potts, who testified last year with Schaefer in the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure.

The students say that testimony and press conferences are valuable tools to bring attention to their cause. “Both have impact, but they’re very different,” Potts said. “Both carry a lot of power.”

Testimony includes “speaking your opinion” directly to legislators. Press conferences are open to the public and include media outlets; they signal to the “outer world to see that this is still important to us,” she said.

Wulff testified to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources on Energy, chaired by Sen. Anne Watson, D-Washington. “When I was a kid, every Christmas was marked by a blanket of snow. Just a month ago, I was genuinely surprised when we had a snowy Christmas. We’ve reached a point where we can no longer deny that something has to be done: if not to protect the planet, then to protect Vermonters from losing their homes and livelihoods to unpredictable weather none of us are prepared for,” the Waterbury student said.

She encouraged committee members to continue their support of laws like the Global Warming Solutions Act, which “set up a starting framework” for the work that needs to occur. Vermont “may be small, but we can lead this country to a sustainable future,” she said. “You all can lead this country to a sustainable future.”

Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak talks with Youth Lobby. Courtesy photo

‘Not here to disturb’

Schaefer, who lives in Waitsfield, and Devoe, from Warren, both testified to the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure, where Rep. Dare Torre, D-Moretown, is a member. “We’re not here to disturb,” Schaefer said, but “simply to show up and be heard.” Rep. Bram Kleppner, D-Burlington, responded, “If someone is sleepwalking towards a cliff, it is your duty to disturb them.”

Devoe described her experiences witnessing the Mad River flood for the first time in 2023, the summer after her freshman year. “When I should have been able to enjoy my summer outside, I instead observed my town in a climate crisis. When we experienced similar floods in December of 2024, I had a similar sinking feeling as the rivers rose again,” she said.

Devoe urged committee members to invest in renewable energy. “People often ask how much it will cost to combat climate change. A question that is as important to ask is, what is the cost of inaction? The cost of doing nothing is too high, and my generation will inherit these costs,” she said.

Potts, a Warren resident, began Youth Lobby’s press conference with comments before introducing the student speakers. She described one of her first experiences with Youth Lobby, where she traveled to the State House on a similar lobby day and sat in the Senate chamber for the second reading of the Climate Superfund Act. “This drove my passion for climate advocacy,” she recalled. “Finally, the people that were causing damage to the state I love were being held accountable and Vermonters would reap the rewards of the work put into climate action.”

She emphasized the importance of local and state governments, especially as the federal government “runs further and further out of our grasp.” She thanked state legislators and State Treasurer Pieciak, who joined the Youth Lobby members for the press conference. Potts quoted a Youth Lobby member in saying, “We notice adults being motivated to move and support us, but beyond saying, ‘Thank you for fighting this fight. Thank you for being here. Thank you for coming to this meeting,’ — there’s nothing there. Praise is not why we’re here.”

Pieciak thanked the young advocates for coming to the State House. “Lawmakers need to be held accountable,” he said. “On the issue of climate, you all have so much more at stake than anybody else that’s working in this building. Your entire future is going to be determined by the choices that we make here and the policies that we implement right now.”

He expressed his office’s support for the Climate Superfund Act, acknowledging the young activists’ roles in its passing. “As we all learned in kindergarten, when you make the mess, you are the one that’s responsible for cleaning it up,” calling this sentiment the “core” of the Superfund. Vermont is among the top five states in the number of major disaster declarations made and per-capita federal post-disaster assistance after the state experienced flooding for three consecutive years. “It all comes down to who is going to pay for those critical investments that we need to make [in resiliency and infrastructure]—Vermont taxpayers or the folks responsible for causing it in the first instance?” Pieciak asked.

He listed three of the state’s advantages: its deeply held sense of community, its natural beauty, and its access to outdoor recreation. “If the climate continues to change in the way that it is, those advantages are at risk,” he said. “Our natural beauty is at risk. Our access to outdoor recreation is at risk. It’s an economic issue as much as it is a moral issue.”

Claire Pomer is a Harwood senior from Waterbury.