Senate amendment would bar Vermont from adopting California vehicle emissions rules and repeal citizen enforcement in climate law

A proposed budget amendment from Senator Beck would repeal several Vermont statutory and regulatory provisions related to vehicle-emissions standards and would eliminate the statutory cause of action in the Global Warming Solutions Act, committee counsel told the Senate Natural Resources & Energy committee on April 30.

LJ Cox, Oxford Legislative Council, told the committee the amendment "does 3 things." He said the first two instances repeal statutory references to the P&D standard and related tax-data-sharing language; the third instance "repeals the Global Warming Solutions Act cause of action." Cox said later in the discussion that "there is an ongoing lawsuit currently with the Secretary of Natural Resources under this provision."

Why it matters: removing the cause of action would prevent future citizen lawsuits under that statutory provision, while the other changes would limit Vermont's ability to adopt California's motor-vehicle emission rules and would repeal state rules that implement those California standards.

Committee counse…