Gov. Phil Scott has signed Vermont’s first environmental justice policy into law. The new policy is designed to ease the burden on communities that face disproportionate impacts from environmental stressors such as pollution, natural disasters and the impacts of climate change. “It is the policy of the State of Vermont that no segment of the population of the State should, because of its racial, cultural, or economic makeup, bear a disproportionate share of environmental burdens or be denied an equitable share of environmental benefits,” the new law states.
“When we think about what rural environmental injustice looks like, Vermont has classic examples of areas that are left behind,” she said. Those include areas “that experience greater flooding, where communities who don’t speak English don’t know how to get help, where people feel fairly distant from the environmental regulatory framework that’s supposed to make sure they’re healthy.”
Two new groups — an Advisory Council on Environmental Justice and an Interagency Environmental Justice Committee — will be charged with guiding state agencies toward investing more in impacted communities.