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Campbell is wrong
Credit: Steven Gorelick · Jun 25, 2024 · caledonianrecord.com ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
To the Editor:
Rep. Scott Campbell misses the point in his response to criticism of the Legislature’s climate policies [“Climate Costs”, June 20, 2024]. Yes, public policy at the federal level has been heavily influenced by the fossil fuel industry (and the same can be said for Big Pharma, weapons manufacturers, Wall Street, and other powerful corporate and financial interests). These industries have a limited presence in Vermont and therefore exert less influence here. But what Vermont does have today are large-scale renewable energy corporations and developers. In our small state, these interests (along with Green Mountain Power, which stands to benefit from the push to electrify everything) have become, in Campbell’s words, “a behemoth cleverly manipulating the General Assembly to its advantage”. Campbell pretends otherwise, but those interests are behind most of the climate legislation he celebrates.
Campbell does admit that whatever we do in Vermont won’t stop global warming, but he adds that “we are in fact responsible for our pollution, both present and historical.” I would add “future” as well, and note that while Campbell focuses on the many environmental costs of fossil fuels, neither he nor the Legislature acknowledge the many environmental costs of renewable energy buildout, which include unconscionable damage from mining for copper, lithium, cobalt, and other metals critical to the so-called “clean energy transition”.
Climate change is not the only environmental problem we face, and a myopic focus on carbon can blind us to a whole range of other crises – dead zones in the ocean, species extinction, microplastics and toxic chemicals in our air, water, and soil, and much more. These environmental problems have their roots in an economic system that requires endless growth: we consume more every year, even though our quality of life is steadily diminishing. This is the “prosperity” Campbell wants us to embrace.
If Campbell is truly concerned about the environment, he would not be advocating further development – more industrial solar in place of forests and farmland, more industrial wind in place of healthy ecosystems and wildlife habitat on our ridgelines. This is not how you “honestly address all the costs, today and tomorrow”: it’s just more of the same development-at-any-cost mindset that created the social and environmental mess we find ourselves in today.
Steven Gorelick
East Hardwick, Vt.
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