LETTER: Everyone loses with suits challenging climate action

July 8, 2025

To the Community: 

Of all the brainless things the legislature did in recent years when there was a supermajority that freely overrode Governor Scott’s vetoes, perhaps the most senseless was the provision in the Global Warming Solutions Act that allows absolutely anybody to bring suit against the state, at state expense, for failure to attain the arbitrary and unattainable mandates established in the act.

It is no surprise, then, that the Conservation Law Foundation, which is proficient in bringing lawsuits, has taken the state up on its offer. The case is pending while lawyers on both sides run up their bills with discovery and motion practice. And once the lawyers have milked the case for whatever it’s worth, the result is clear: if it actually goes to trial, the state will lose, because it is clear that the state has not fulfilled its mandates as of this year; more likely, the parties will enter into a settlement in which the state agrees to “do better” and the Conservation Law Foundation walks away with a few million dollars of taxpayer money.

All this was apparent during the political campaigns last fall. It is one of the reasons why Republicans gained 19 seats in the House and six in the Senate. Clearly, the voters sent a message. Among other things, they wanted this expensive and needless provision repealed.  But did the legislature get the message? Did they even vote on repealing the provision in question?  Of course not! But why not?

The simple answer to that question lies in the fact that the chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee is Sen. Anne Watson of Washington County. She refuses to take up any bill that proposes to repeal the “sue us, please” provision. In fact, she has recently defended it as being useful “where you have a governor obstinate against climate goals.” So she blames the state’s failure to attain the pie-in-the-sky mandates on Governor Scott and suggests that the Conservation Law Foundation is actually helping us to save the world!

In November 2026, the voters need to give Sen. Watson a personalized message that reads “You’re fired!” Maybe she’ll understand that message.

Tom Koch

Barre Town