The Central VT Climate Action group invites you to sign this petition to Governor Scott to ban fossil fuel infrastructure in Vermont:

Dear Governor Phil Scott,

In this time of cause and effect, of action and reaction, of change and of fierce refusal to change, we are more proud than ever to be Vermonters. Vermonters stand together, we can weather a storm and come out stronger and more confident in what is right. We thank you for the steps you have been taking to ensure that Vermonters don’t lose what we’ve worked so hard to achieve.  

That’s the thing about Vermont: our state is a leader. We’re writing to you today because we wish to impart the direness of our planet’s situation and our concerns for our families, our neighbors, the poor and vulnerable, and the generations to come. We’re writing to tell you that we believe Vermont should stand boldly for climate justice by banning any and all new fossil fuel infrastructure.

As you know, Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy Plan calls for “achieving 90% of total energy needs from renewables by 2050.” New fossil fuel infrastructure has no place in this plan.

But still, as of this writing, residents of Hinesburg watch as contractors for Vermont Gas Systems prepare to drill horizontally under the wetlands of Geprags Park to complete a wildly unnecessary and fiscally irresponsible fracked gas pipeline. This work pushes forward despite the pending and yet unknown ruling of the Vermont Supreme Court on the legality of the company’s seizure of this parcel of land.

Too many Vermont homeowners and landowners have lost their property to eminent domain for the construction of a pipeline to transport Canadian fracked gas. Safety violations have stacked up alongside the ever rising cost of this outdated investment.

Governor Scott, we do not want to tell our grandchildren that we knew the threat and the consequences of global warming, but we did not rise to the challenge to bring about climate stability because we had a failure of creativity, a failure of imagination, a failure to evolve and to innovate. Let’s turn the tide, right here and now with the fracked gas pipeline in Addison County. Please take a stand with us against the completion of Phase 1 of this project, and against any further action on a Phase 2 or 3 project that would facilitate the transport of this dirty energy of yesteryear to other states or export terminals. When pipelines are built, they lock us in to another 40-50 years or more of burning fossil fuel. Scientists tell us that this cannot continue on a livable planet, economists tell us that this infrastructure is tomorrow’s stranded asset.

The City Council of Portland, OR, passed a resolution in 2015 opposing all projects that increase the transportation or storage of all fossil fuels in Portland or in its adjacent waterways. The legislation included strong language regarding a “just transition” for workers displaced by the switch to a clean energy economy. Today we look around at the many, many crises we face, and we ask you to set a clear path forward for Vermont—a path that other states’ leadership can follow.

We will influence our families and friends, they will influence the community, the community will influence the state, and the state will influence the nation and the world. As Bill McKibben says, the polluters are the radical ones. They are the ones changing our planet in radical ways. If we want to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees, we can’t open more coal mines, drill or frack for any more oil and gas, or build any more pipelines.

Stopping this pipeline literally means the world to us. Vermonters cannot and will not believe that asking for a livable planet is asking for too much. Governor Scott, you’ve shown extraordinary political will and have already shown the country that Vermont stands up for what is just, right, and true.  We ask for a ban on any new fossil fuel infrastructure. Be the one to draw that line in the sand.