Three Things: This week, we’re sharing the application for our 2025 legislative internship, promoting Rep. Bongartz’s recent Affordable Heat Act op-ed, and sharing details about Vermont Conservation Voters’ upcoming Into the Thaw book event.
Stay informed, connected, and engaged—three things.
Are you interested in learning more about the legislative process and tracking key issues like climate change, land use, and environmental justice?
We’re seeking a Legislative Intern, in partnership with Vermont Conservation Voters (VCV) and the Vermont Planners Association (VPA), who will help track forward-looking environmental legislation moving through the State House during the 2025 legislative session.
This position will involve monitoring relevant State House hearings and reporting to staff on results of those hearings; tracking changes made to specific bills that VNRC, VCV and VPA are following; and additional tasks, which could include conducting basic research, drafting bill summaries, and developing talking points or other documents for VNRC, VCV and VPA staff to use to advance our issues in the Legislature.
The ideal candidate will have a demonstrated interest in state-level policies and policy-making, strong oral and written communication skills, and be diplomatic, curious, and able to take initiative. Compensation is $17.50 per hour, paid biweekly. The internship starts on January 6, 2025 and ends in mid-May.
The Affordable Heat Act (S.5) is a policy designed to help ensure that every Vermonter can access cleaner, more affordable heat — not just those who already have the resources to do so. In advance of the upcoming legislative session when Vermont lawmakers will receive an assessment of the costs, savings, and economic impact of the program, opponents of this policy have been vocal and persistent in spreading misleading data about what this policy would do, and where we are in the process.
We were excited to see Rep Seth Bongartz (D, Manchester) pen an op-ed in the Bennington Banner in light of Big Oil’s disinformation campaign:
Correcting falsehoods about the Affordable Heat Act
“Over the course of the last few weeks state Senate candidates Joe Gervais and Spike Whitmere have, through various means, distributed fliers replete with falsehoods about both the costs and the status of the Affordable Heat Act (Act 18). As Vermont tries to move away from fossil fuels, opponents of Act 18 are being assisted by Americans for Prosperity, a national “dark money” SuperPac founded by the libertarian Koch brothers and funded by Big Oil. It is concerning to see candidates for the state Senate jumping on the Koch Brothers bandwagon to perpetuate the destructive impacts of fossil fuels. The deep dishonesty of the messaging is not the Vermont way and is, frankly, manipulative of the people they seek to serve.”
Join Vermont Conservation Voters on Friday, October 18th at 6:30pm at Patagonia in Burlington for an evening of storytelling and discussion with author Jon Waterman. Jon will present his new book, Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis, which attendees will have early access to purchase.
About the book: More than 40 years ago, Jon Waterman worked as a mountaineering ranger at Alaska’s Denali National Park. His 1983 patrol to the Noatak River in Gates of the Arctic National Park sparked a lifetime fascination with the wild, remote regions of the North. Waterman has since embarked on scores of expeditions to the North, often traveling solo by boat and on foot to document the natural wonders and cultural heritage across Arctic North America.
After a long hiatus from the Noatak headwaters, he returned with his son in 2021, witnessing firsthand the effects of climate change that he chronicled in a New York Times story, “36 Years Later, the Climate Changes at This National Park Stunned Me.” Amid a river now flooded, overgrown with brush, and bereft of once-abundant caribou, he was deeply disheartened by the many transformations.
In 2022, Waterman took a final, extended expedition “into the thaw” with the professional kayaker and photographer Chris Korbulic to carefully document the environmental and cultural changes precipitated by the climate crisis. They covered more than 500 miles on foot and by packraft down the entire river, then up the coast, passing through three different National Park Service managed lands to meet with scientists, interview Iñupiat (the Alaskan Inuit), investigate the many impacts of the Arctic climate crisis, and celebrate the enduring wonder of this special place. This book will be available in bookstores on November 12th. Join us at the upcoming event on October 18th to hear more!