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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


2.19.2007

 

Changing climate

You don’t – or at least I don’t – think of Florida as a state on the cutting edge of environmental consciousness. If ever there was a state where suburban sprawl was considered a good thing, it’s Florida. Progress seems to be measured in number of traffic lights installed.

Nonetheless, there on the front page of my parents’ newspaper while I was visiting was a story titled "Legislators warm to energy, climate challenges." The Florida Legislature is talking wind and solar incentives, net metering, alternative energy research funds. The very same topics the Vermont Legislature is mulling.

Taking notice of their ample sunshine, Florida lawmakers are thinking they could become leaders in solar energy. That, perhaps, does not bode well for Vermont becoming a solar leader as some legislators have proposed, but the fact that Florida is thinking about global warming does suggest that Vermont would not be tilting alone like Don Quixote at windmills.

As the story acknowledges, Florida "sits in mediocre ranks nationally with its energy and climate policies," yet as the fourth largest state has the potential to wield some power.

Another un-Florida-like sign of change I saw: traffic circles along some new roads where there might otherwise have been traffic lights.

Now, that's climate change.

- Terri Hallenbeck

Comments:
Traffic circles rather than lights? Hasn't a renovated Route 2A with roundabouts been proposed instead of the Circ? If the Circ is built as planned, won't there be more suburban sprawl in Chittenden County? "Smart growth" like that going on now in downtown Winooski is far preferable to sprawl.
 
Climate change is all around us. Or am I the only one that noticed there was an extra mud season between fall and winter this year?

Rednalsi
 
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