Vermont State House. Photo Credit: Creative Commons/Jared C. Benedict
July 18, 2025 (Montpelier, VT) – A judge sided with Vermont’s government and dismissed a lawsuit filed by Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) to hold the Secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) accountable after she failed to ensure the state is on track to reduce climate-damaging emissions. The order found that the Agency has broad discretion to conduct its review of whether it is on track to meet mandatory climate pollution reduction requirements, and can only be held accountable for missing deadlines, not for using flawed modeling.
“Climate change isn’t waiting, so we’re disappointed that this ruling does not allow the case to move forward,” said CLF Vice President for Vermont Elena Mihaly. “The purpose of this lawsuit was to ensure we are clear-eyed about what we need to do to tackle the impacts from extreme storms, record heat, and our warming planet. Although the State made some corrections to its climate model as a result of the concerns CLF raised in this lawsuit, this decision means the public can’t legally challenge the Agency’s review. This lack of accountability is troubling.”
CLF filed its lawsuit in September after several months of requesting to meet with the State to discuss our concerns. Vermont asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit in November of 2024 and CLF opposed.
Passed in 2020, Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act is critical for keeping the state on track to reduce harmful emissions contributing to climate change. Under the law, Vermont must lower its polluting emissions over time, hitting critical science-based reduction requirements along the way to avert the worst impacts from extreme weather and our overheating planet. The first benchmark was on January 1, 2025.
But we can’t reach these requirements without knowing where we really are in our efforts to curb pollution. The Secretary of Natural Resources’ flawed accounting has led to an underrepresentation of our forecasted climate-damaging emissions. The State’s flawed modeling resulted in Vermonters being misinformed of progress to date. It has also wrongly allowed the Secretary to avoid taking necessary actions to ensure achievement of the 2025 emission reduction milestone, a benchmark that the State’s recent modeling shows it likely missed.
State leaders can’t cut corners on climate action. Vermont should be doing its part to reduce emissions, especially at a time when the federal government is reversing key policies that reduce climate pollution. CLF will continue to contribute our resources to help Vermont reduce its climate-damaging emissions to secure a safe and thriving environment today and into the future.
CLF experts are available for further comment.
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