Vermont Governor Phil Scott’s weekly briefing today focused on climate resiliency to better prepare for the impacts of increasingly severe storms.
Governor Scott began his meeting acknowledging the heartache and empathy Vermonters are feeling in the wake of what he described as heinous acts of terror committed against innocent civilians over the weekend in Israel.
“What we’re seeing is barbaric,” Scott said. “The senseless killing of women, babies and the elderly by Hamas. We watch in horror and the violence is unspeakable. I reached out to Rabbi Tobie Weisman and asked her to share with our fellow Jewish faith leaders to give our support, unwavering support, to them through what is an incredibly difficult time.”
The Republican then moved to the primary theme of the briefing: enhancing climate resiliency projects that began after Tropical Storm Irene.
“That clearly needs to be prioritized in the years ahead as we adapt to a changing climate,” the governor said. “When it comes to responding to climate change, my team’s philosophy has been to work on efforts to lower emissions while also preparing us for impacts of more powerful and severe storm events. To be clear, even if we were to fully eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont, the impacts of climate change will continue. So only focusing on emissions without also addressing resiliency isn’t enough. We have to do both.”
Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore says Vermont is taking steps to better cope with, and effectively recover from, a wider range of environmental extremes occurring due to climate change.
“In the coming years it’ll be imperative to continue to implement the programs and projects both to build back better and make proactive investments that enhance resilience,” Moore said. “To my mind this work can be organized into four broad categories: investing in nature-based solutions; flood proofing and hardening existing infrastructure that needs to remain in vulnerable locations; designing and maintaining reliable infrastructure not only in current conditions but in light of future climate conditions and being ready with fast, effective response and recovery.”
FEMA Coordinating Officer Will Roy noted that the application deadline for individual assistance for those impacted by July flooding in Vermont had originally been scheduled for Thursday, but the date has been changed.
“We were getting a number of eligible applicants day after day after day,” Roy said. “The state did an analysis. So at the state’s request, FEMA has approved the expansion of the Individual Assistance registration period to the end of the month, the 31st of October.”
