The Vermont Senate passed a bill 28-1 Tuesday that would, for the first time, legally define what environmental justice means in the state.

“We are among a handful of states left that have not passed an EJ bill because we long thought this is an urban issue or this is a Black and white issue,” Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, sponsor of the bill, said during a March 25 floor debate.

The bill (S.148) provides a framework to ensure Vermonters “don’t experience the rural isolation of poverty and pollution without also experiencing the political power needed to remedy their situation,” Hinsdale said.

Hinsdale first introduced an EJ bill for the state 14 years ago but has yet to see the policy make it to law. She introduced the current version last April, and it did not move out of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee before the end of the legislature’s first biennium session.

The bill received a significant boost of support in December with the release of the Vermont Climate Council’s Initial Climate Action Plan, which called for adoption of a statewide EJ policy to inform the work of state agencies and departments. And in February, a group of 33 advocacy organizations wrote to the Senate asking for passage of the bill.

Upon passage of the second reading of the bill in the Senate Friday, Vermont Lt. Gov. Molly Gray called the legislation an “important first step” in putting EJ into the workings of the government.

“We know from Hurricane Irene [in 2011] and other extreme weather events, that there are individuals and communities in Vermont who are disproportionately impacted by climate change,” Gray said in a statement. “If we are going to reach our climate goals and protect the environmental health and well-being of all communities, every Vermonter must be able to fully participate.”

With the bill’s passage in the Senate, it now moves to the House Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife Committee, which has already reviewed the bill and will consider it for recommendation to the full House, Hinsdale told NetZero Insider.

Bill Provisions

The bill would set an EJ policy that says environmental burdens and benefits must be distributed equitably among Vermont’s communities. In support of that policy, the state would review past investments to determine which communities have received environmental benefits associated with those investments. And starting in 2024, nine government entities, including the Public Utility Commission, would coordinate investments in a way that ensures EJ populations receive at least 55% of the benefits.

It also defines an EJ population as a census group in which:

• the annual median household income is less than 80% of the state median household income;
• Persons of Color and Indigenous Peoples represent 6% or more of the population; or
• 1% or more of households have limited English proficiency.

To help state agencies and departments collaborate on EJ efforts, the bill would establish a 12-member interagency EJ committee, comprising government officials and a diverse, 17-member advisory council consisting of community members. At least half of the advisory council members would have to reside in an EJ population.

In addition, the bill would allocate funds for the Agency of Natural Resources to create a state mapping tool that identifies EJ populations and measures environmental burdens “at the smallest geographic level” possible.

The Senate passed an amendment March 25 that reduced a $3 million appropriation for the bill to $700,000, of which $500,000 is allocated to the mapping tool. Sen. Richard Westman, in recommending the amendment, said that the Appropriations Committee sought to move “non-immediate spending” for later consideration in its work developing the full state budget.