January 13, 2025 • 24 mins
In this episode, Justin Marsh speaks with Dan Fingas, the new executive director of Vermont Conservation Voters (VCV). They discuss Dan's background, his vision for VCV, and the challenges of advocating for progressive environmental policies in a changing political landscape. Dan emphasizes the importance of community engagement and the upcoming 2025 Environmental Common Agenda, which outlines the priorities for environmental policy in Vermont. The conversation highlights the need for collaboration across political lines and encourages Vermonters to actively participate in advocacy efforts.
A new segment, Champs and Chumps of the Week, is introduced.
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Episode Transcript
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Justin Marsh (00:01)Welcome back to the Democracy Dispatch podcast. I'm Justin Marsh, political director at Vermont Conservation Voters. This is your weekly scoop on legislative action as we work to push forward environmental policies for Vermont. Each Monday, I'll be joined by legislators, advocates, and other special guests on topics affecting our water, air, open space, quality of life, and beyond. A lot has changed since we wrapped up season two in the spring.
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legislators overrode the governor's veto on several bills, several pertaining to the climate and environment. Over the summer and fall, VCV's political action committees worked across the state attempting to elect the next wave of pro-environmental legislators. And then on election day, 75 % of our endorsed candidates won their election. But even so, we unfortunately enter this new biennium with a few champions, a few fewer champions.
than last session and the Democrats no longer hold veto proof supermajorities in both chambers. Instead, we enter this new session with increased minority party leadership in committees and legislators and advocates alike will need to work collaboratively to ensure that the legislation that we want to push forward receives the governor's signature into law. Another big change for us on this podcast is that Lauren Hierl has moved on.
to the helm of Vermont Natural Resources Council with VNRC and VCV housed under the same roof and in strategic partnership with one another. She's not far away and I'm sure we will hear from her again in this new season of the podcast. But in the meantime, we have new leadership at VCV.
Justin Marsh (01:42)On today's episode, I have a conversation with Vermont Conservation Voters new executive director Dan Fingas He will outline his priorities as the organization's leader, what interests him about this work, and his strategy for passing progressive policies in this political landscape.
Justin Marsh (02:00)With new changes at our organization and with a brand new biennium, we are also shaking up this podcast. So while we will continue to publish new episodes on Mondays during the legislative session, we are going to introduce a new segment, and that's the champs and chumps of the week. And this is where we're going to be holding our elected officials accountable, either applauding or disparaging their words or actions about climate and environmental policy.
Stay till the end of this episode to hear who our inaugural honor of those titles goes to. And we're also going to reconfigure our session shakedown and deep dive segments. If you are a long-time listener of the podcast, you would be familiar that we started with that. We start with a session shakedown where we kind of review what has happened during the week and what is going to happen next week. And then the deep dive kind of goes further into a specific policy.
So instead, we're gonna work those more into our longer form stories. We'll do a crossover report mid-session around town meeting day in March, and then a final session shakedown as we did to close season two that will wrap up the season and wrap up the year. But weekly updates on where our legislative policies and priorities are will be reported on our social media accounts and to our email subscribers.
And we're going to also try to just inject a little bit more fun into the podcast too. So as always, I'm all ears for any suggestions on how to improve the listening experience.
Justin Marsh (03:33)I'm joined now with Dan Fingas, VCV's new executive director.
Justin Marsh (03:38)Welcome to the podcast Dan and congrats on your new post.
Dan Fingas (03:42)Thanks so much, Justin. I'm so happy to be here.
Justin Marsh (03:44)So some listeners may not know you from your work over the past several years in the state house, many, many may not know you, but many may know you. But let's just pretend everyone has no idea who Dan Finca is. Can you tell us a bit about your background and what drew you to take on this role as executive?
Dan Fingas (04:00)Yeah, it's probably a good assumption that most people don't have any idea who I am, but I've made my career trying to organize other people to get in front of the microphone in a lot of ways. Yeah, so I have been an organizer, an advocate, and working at nonprofits to try to make positive change for the last 20 years or so. I'm actually a dual citizen, Canadian and US, but mostly from Michigan.
And I started my career there doing electoral politics and union work, bringing folks into both healthcare and construction worker unions. And then followed my wife on her PhD journey to Long Island, New York, where I was the organizing director at Long Island Progressive Coalition, an organization that worked on economic justice, democracy issues, and climate issues. And I did that for almost six years and then moved to Vermont.
and worked at Rights and Democracy as its first organizing director in Vermont and then also as its movement politics director, which is basically a lobbyist and doing elections work. this, about 15 months ago, I started working for Vermont Natural Resources Council, a partner organization to VCV, doing climate action work. And now here I am, executive director of the Vermont Conservation Voters. So.
I've held a lot of positions, but they've all had very similar ideas, which is getting people active, making sure that we're creating policies and electing people that are going to pass policies that help everyone and that make sure that we have the most kind of fair and level communities that we can and society that we can.
Justin Marsh (05:50)Awesome. And Vermont Conservation Voters, we have a really long history of advocating for environmental policy in Vermont. What excites you the most about leading this kind of organization at this moment in time?
Dan Fingas (06:04)Well, mean, it's been a really effective organization, especially over the last 10 years under the leadership of Lauren Hierl. So it's been able to really move the needle. if you think about all of the legislation that's been passed, especially since 2020, the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Environmental Justice Bill, Renewable Energy Standard Reform, Flood Safety Act. I there's just so many things that have passed and there's so much more.
It's really exciting to be part of an organization that's really figured out some of the best ways to really interact in the state house and also just like get the information of what's going on out into the community. I think in this moment, I don't know that anyone is like excited about the political moment that we're in, both on the national level with Trump and also with the loss of the super majorities and the shrinking of the majority in both the House and Senate in Vermont. But it is a really important inflection moment where
We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that everyone out there in Vermont is letting their legislators know what they want, letting them know what's important to them, and actually creating solutions that are based on how we can better their lives, how we can better our environment, and not just based on rhetoric and not easy answers. It's really easy to say something's unaffordable, and it's a lot harder to create policies to make life more affordable for Vermonters. I think we've been working on
at VCV, at RAD, other places I've worked have worked on issues that make life more affordable for people and we just have to keep continuing to do that.
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Justin Marsh (07:38)Yeah, so you kind of framed up the current biennium, what we're facing, and I talked a little bit about it in my introduction to the podcast, but how do you balance pushing for progressive environmental policies while maintaining relationships with those more conservative or centrist policy makers here in the state?
Dan Fingas (08:00)Yeah, I think, I mean, maybe we take the label progressive off of stuff, but I mean, it's not about progressive policies. It's about, you know, science based policies. It's about nature based solutions to the floods and the complete devastation we're seeing in this state and in this country. It's about figuring out ways to make sure that all of our monitors are part of the green transition, energy transition that's happening. That's actually making it a lot cheaper for people who have made the transition.
to heat their houses or to drive their cars than those who haven't done it. So I think it's figuring out what the solutions are and who the solutions benefit. And then we have to connect with those people and they have to talk to their legislators. And we also have to talk to legislators about who in their specific communities are benefiting from these policies and how it's not as simple if you're investing in the environment, you're spending too much money. It's if you're investing in these policies, you're actually gonna make life better for Vermont.
Justin Marsh (08:59)Yeah, mean, progressive in sort of the framing of like, you know, little p progressive. Yeah.
Dan Fingas (09:04)Yeah, yeah, you know, I know. I think in this
state, when you use the word, even if it's with a little p, I think there's like some some hackles get up or some people kind of get their backs up right away. And so I think it's just we just we just have to think about how we're framing things. And we want to have these solutions that we want to move forward in a positive way. And also, we know we're not going to get everybody. We still have majorities in the House and Senate, so we can still pass legislation with those folks.
The governor obviously has a veto, but we also know that there are moderates, independents, and progressives outside of the democratic majorities that we can work with. And it's going to be really about finding the right policies that do that. And we've done it, right? When it comes to the PFAS legislation, it was almost 100 % last year. We've seen huge numbers on some of our other legislation. Like, it's not impossible. We just have to figure out those pathways.
Justin Marsh (10:01)Yeah, we just don't want the opposite of that, which is regressive environmental policies.
Dan Fingas (10:07)Yeah,
and I think that's about really making sure that there is going to be a push to roll things backwards, the Move the Global Waring Solutions Act obligation dates backwards to maybe shrink the renewable energy standard reforms that we did last year, maybe change or add more exemptions to the Act 250 bills. And I think with all of that, it's again, it's good talking point to say move it backwards, but like,
to what end and how does that solve the actual problems of the state? And so if there's like a hugely good reason to move back a date by a year or two years, like let's debate that. Let's talk about the specifics of the reasoning and why it helps. Let's not just say, you know, the voters voted for, you know, 56 of the 150 houses are now Republicans. They voted for that many, let's roll things back. Like we need to actually talk about the issues.
and talk about what rolling things back means and why it would be either beneficial or harmful.
Justin Marsh (11:09)So taking sort of a more future looking approach here, what does success for VCP look like for you, like maybe in the next five years and what do you hope you're able to achieve under your leadership?
Dan Fingas (11:25)Yeah, I I think, you know, I imagine a VCV that's got a lot more active supporters and a lot more folks that are identifying themselves as VCV folks, folks that are taking action in the name of VCV. And because we're, you know, they're passionate about our issues, I see us actually being a recognizable brand in more communities in Vermont. So that way folks know that we're out there and that they can engage with us. And so that we're...
not just a Montpelier based organization, which we haven't been, but some people view us that way, and actually be in more communities and be able to interact with more folks. I see us recruiting more climate champions, which is a role that we've had in the past that's been really successful, and really doubling down on thinking about who we're recruiting, how we can help them. It's tough to be a state legislator because it pays so little and it's part-time.
And so it isn't economic, usually hit to almost everyone who does the job. And so we have to really think about how we can recruit people who are willing to take that on and longer term, hopefully five years from now, actually work on things like legislative pay and benefits to make sure that we can actually have more people that represent all of Vermont in the building.
Justin Marsh (12:41)This week we will unveil the 2025 Environmental Common Agenda. Can you frame up for newer listeners what that is exactly and how they can engage with us this week around that announcement?
Dan Fingas (12:54)Yeah, so the Vermont's environmental common agenda is like kind of the environmental communities vision for the policies that need to be passed and the work that we need to do this year. And so the 2020, excuse me, the 2025 environmental common agenda is being launched next Wednesday and Thursday. And we have quite a few great events to do the launch. We have a webinar happening Wednesday at noon that anybody's welcome to join us.
We'll have presenters from a number of the 19 organizations that have signed on to talk about in what ways we can look at climate resiliency, support housing and smart growth, continue to advance climate solutions, and obviously also look towards policies that help access to our democracy. so that's the webinar at noon on Wednesday.
And then on Thursday, we'll be in the state house at 11 a.m. We're having a press conference to launch the common agenda. Again, we'll have many of our allies from the 19 groups that signed on there speaking about the common agenda and the importance of the policies. And then we're going to have a little fun with the reception in the evening, featuring the chairs of the House Environment Committee, the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, and the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee speaking. And so...
should be a really good launch and really laying out our vision of the policies that need to move forward in 2025.
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Justin Marsh (14:27)Amazing, yes, and that is January 15th and January 16th for those who might be listening in further in the future than when our episode will debut. So what message would you like to leave for Vermonters who care about the environment but might feel uncertain about how they can actually make a difference?
Dan Fingas (14:46)I mean, my message is you definitely can make a difference. You definitely can make things change for the better in the state house and in the state. a very small state, which means that you have a lot more ready access to your state representatives and senators than most other states. And so I say, reach out to them, let them know what you care about.
join groups like VCV and others that are working on these things to find out where, when you can take action and when you can be effective. But you should be reaching out, whether you're a representative as a progressive, a Democrat, a Republican, an independent, they do want to hear what you care about. They do want to hear what you want them to do. And if enough of you tell them what you want to do, it will affect the way that they vote in that building.
Justin Marsh (15:35)Excellent. And so closing out, I'm going to start asking my guests this season to close out my interviews with by answering a couple of questions. So they're a little bit more fun, but this is a question that was asked of me when I was actually applying for the role that I'm in here at UCB. And I don't think I got a chance to ask this question for you necessarily, but when you were applying for ED. But the first question is, who is a Vermont political figure, past or present?
that you draw inspiration from or admire deeply.
Dan Fingas (16:08)Wow, that is a good question. I will say, I I've been in the state for five, almost six years, and so I don't have the deep history that a lot of other people do when it comes to, you know, Vermont history. so I'm having a little bit of a trouble answering this question. I will say that, and I'm not sure if I draw total inspiration, but the only Vermont politician other than Bernie Sanders who,
I even knew about before moving to Vermont was Howard Dean. And I know many folks, was, know, college age or just a little after college age when he ran for president. And his vision, his progressive vision, at least on the national scene, for what America could look like was something that was very inspiring at the time. So I'll say that for now. know that there's, you know, once you get, his record as governor is not as inspiring as maybe his run for president, but I'll stick with that.
Justin Marsh (17:04)That's a great answer. And then the second question, I know it might be hard to choose, but what is your favorite spot in Vermont? It can be a downtown, a mountain, body of water, a trail, a road even, really anything in the state that brings you some joy or some bliss.
Dan Fingas (17:22)You know, I live in Plainfield and I live up a hill, pretty steep hill and there's farm fields and then forest behind and I can, you know, go out my backyard into my neighbor's farm fields and straight into the woods. And so this time of year, especially snowshoeing out in those woods where I think I might be other than maybe one of the only people who ever, ever out there. So it's completely quiet. There's not anyone around. There's usually not even tracks. And so that's a place that brings me quite a bit of a joy and comfort.
Justin Marsh (17:51)Love it. Well, Dan, congrats on your new role and we will hear from you again throughout the season. We will have you on for the crossover report around town meeting day and the session shakedown, which will close our season. So thanks so much, Dan, and look forward to working with you this session.
Dan Fingas (18:08)Thanks so much, Justin. Good luck with another season of Democracy Dispatch.
Justin Marsh (18:11)Woohoo! Take care.
Dan Fingas (18:14)Take care.
Justin Marsh (18:16)And now to introduce our newest segment, the champs and chumps of the week.
first champ of the week is Republican Senator Pat Brennan of Colchester, who spoke on Vermont Public this week about his pledge to keep the waters of Lake Champlain clean. Here he is speaking to Vermont Public's Michaela LeFrac about it.
Senator Brennan, who has served in the House, has a lifetime environmental score of 21%. So while he is our first champ, we hope to see that score improve now that he is over to the Senate. And talking about clean water, it sounds great. Our first chump of the week is House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy of Poultney who...
Also spoke on Vermont Public this week about how she feels Vermont is doing enough to meet our emissions reductions. She and the entire House Republican caucus introduced a bill, H-19, that would repeal the Affordable Heat Act that was passed last biennium. Again, here she is speaking to Vermont Public's Meketla Frak.
Representative McCoy has a 28 % lifetime environmental score. And don't see that improving this year, but we'll see. All right. I want to thank my guest, Dan Fingas for joining me today. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and give us a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts and be sure to follow us on social media. You can subscribe to our emails, see our legislative environmental scorecard and learn more about our work and policies by visiting vermontconservationvoters.org.
Thanks for listening and you'll hear from me next week.
On today's episode, I have a conversation with Vermont Conservation Voters new executive director Dan Fingas He will outline his priorities as the organization's leader, what interests him about this work, and his strategy for passing progressive policies in this political landscape. I'm joined now with Dan Fingas, VCV's new executive director.
And now to introduce our newest segment, the champs and chumps of the week. Our first champ of the week is Republican Senator Pat Brennan of Colchester, who spoke on Vermont Public this week about his pledge to keep Lake Champlain's waters clean.
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first champ of the week is Republican Senator Pat Brennan of Colchester, who spoke on Vermont Public this week about his pledge to keep the waters of Lake Champlain clean. Here he is speaking to Vermont Public's Michaela LeFrac about it.
Senator Brennan, who has served in the House, has a lifetime environmental score of 21%. So while he is our first champ, we hope to see that score improve now that he is over to the Senate. And talking about clean water, it sounds great. Our first chump of the week is House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy of Poultney who...
Also spoke on Vermont Public this week about how she feels Vermont is doing enough to meet our emissions reductions. She and the entire House Republican caucus introduced a bill, H-19, that would repeal the Affordable Heat Act that was passed last biennium. Again, here she is speaking to Vermont Public's Meketla Frak.
Representative McCoy has a 28 % lifetime environmental score. And don't see that improving this year, but we'll see. All right. I want to thank my guest, Dan Fingas for joining me today. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and give us a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts and be sure to follow us on social media. You can subscribe to our emails, see our legislative environmental scorecard and learn more about our work and policies by visiting vermontconservationvoters.org.
Thanks for listening and you'll hear from me next week.
Justin Marsh (00:01)Welcome back to the Democracy Dispatch podcast. I'm Justin Marsh, political director at Vermont Conservation Voters. This is your weekly scoop on legislative action as we work to push forward environmental policies for Vermont. Each Monday, I'll be joined by legislators, advocates, and other special guests on topics affecting our water, air, open space, quality of life, and beyond. A lot has changed since we wrapped up season two in the spring.
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legislators overrode the governor's veto on several bills, several pertaining to the climate and environment. Over the summer and fall, VCV's political action committees worked across the state attempting to elect the next wave of pro-environmental legislators. And then on election day, 75 % of our endorsed candidates won their election. But even so, we unfortunately enter this new biennium with a few champions, a few fewer champions.
than last session and the Democrats no longer hold veto proof supermajorities in both chambers. Instead, we enter this new session with increased minority party leadership in committees and legislators and advocates alike will need to work collaboratively to ensure that the legislation that we want to push forward receives the governor's signature into law. Another big change for us on this podcast is that Lauren Hierl has moved on.
to the helm of Vermont Natural Resources Council with VNRC and VCV housed under the same roof and in strategic partnership with one another. She's not far away and I'm sure we will hear from her again in this new season of the podcast. But in the meantime, we have new leadership at VCV.
Justin Marsh (01:42)On today's episode, I have a conversation with Vermont Conservation Voters new executive director Dan Fingas He will outline his priorities as the organization's leader, what interests him about this work, and his strategy for passing progressive policies in this political landscape.
Justin Marsh (02:00)With new changes at our organization and with a brand new biennium, we are also shaking up this podcast. So while we will continue to publish new episodes on Mondays during the legislative session, we are going to introduce a new segment, and that's the champs and chumps of the week. And this is where we're going to be holding our elected officials accountable, either applauding or disparaging their words or actions about climate and environmental policy.
Stay till the end of this episode to hear who our inaugural honor of those titles goes to. And we're also going to reconfigure our session shakedown and deep dive segments. If you are a long-time listener of the podcast, you would be familiar that we started with that. We start with a session shakedown where we kind of review what has happened during the week and what is going to happen next week. And then the deep dive kind of goes further into a specific policy.
So instead, we're gonna work those more into our longer form stories. We'll do a crossover report mid-session around town meeting day in March, and then a final session shakedown as we did to close season two that will wrap up the season and wrap up the year. But weekly updates on where our legislative policies and priorities are will be reported on our social media accounts and to our email subscribers.
And we're going to also try to just inject a little bit more fun into the podcast too. So as always, I'm all ears for any suggestions on how to improve the listening experience.
Justin Marsh (03:33)I'm joined now with Dan Fingas, VCV's new executive director.
Justin Marsh (03:38)Welcome to the podcast Dan and congrats on your new post.
Dan Fingas (03:42)Thanks so much, Justin. I'm so happy to be here.
Justin Marsh (03:44)So some listeners may not know you from your work over the past several years in the state house, many, many may not know you, but many may know you. But let's just pretend everyone has no idea who Dan Finca is. Can you tell us a bit about your background and what drew you to take on this role as executive?
Dan Fingas (04:00)Yeah, it's probably a good assumption that most people don't have any idea who I am, but I've made my career trying to organize other people to get in front of the microphone in a lot of ways. Yeah, so I have been an organizer, an advocate, and working at nonprofits to try to make positive change for the last 20 years or so. I'm actually a dual citizen, Canadian and US, but mostly from Michigan.
And I started my career there doing electoral politics and union work, bringing folks into both healthcare and construction worker unions. And then followed my wife on her PhD journey to Long Island, New York, where I was the organizing director at Long Island Progressive Coalition, an organization that worked on economic justice, democracy issues, and climate issues. And I did that for almost six years and then moved to Vermont.
and worked at Rights and Democracy as its first organizing director in Vermont and then also as its movement politics director, which is basically a lobbyist and doing elections work. this, about 15 months ago, I started working for Vermont Natural Resources Council, a partner organization to VCV, doing climate action work. And now here I am, executive director of the Vermont Conservation Voters. So.
I've held a lot of positions, but they've all had very similar ideas, which is getting people active, making sure that we're creating policies and electing people that are going to pass policies that help everyone and that make sure that we have the most kind of fair and level communities that we can and society that we can.
Justin Marsh (05:50)Awesome. And Vermont Conservation Voters, we have a really long history of advocating for environmental policy in Vermont. What excites you the most about leading this kind of organization at this moment in time?
Dan Fingas (06:04)Well, mean, it's been a really effective organization, especially over the last 10 years under the leadership of Lauren Hierl. So it's been able to really move the needle. if you think about all of the legislation that's been passed, especially since 2020, the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Environmental Justice Bill, Renewable Energy Standard Reform, Flood Safety Act. I there's just so many things that have passed and there's so much more.
It's really exciting to be part of an organization that's really figured out some of the best ways to really interact in the state house and also just like get the information of what's going on out into the community. I think in this moment, I don't know that anyone is like excited about the political moment that we're in, both on the national level with Trump and also with the loss of the super majorities and the shrinking of the majority in both the House and Senate in Vermont. But it is a really important inflection moment where
We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that everyone out there in Vermont is letting their legislators know what they want, letting them know what's important to them, and actually creating solutions that are based on how we can better their lives, how we can better our environment, and not just based on rhetoric and not easy answers. It's really easy to say something's unaffordable, and it's a lot harder to create policies to make life more affordable for Vermonters. I think we've been working on
at VCV, at RAD, other places I've worked have worked on issues that make life more affordable for people and we just have to keep continuing to do that.
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Justin Marsh (07:38)Yeah, so you kind of framed up the current biennium, what we're facing, and I talked a little bit about it in my introduction to the podcast, but how do you balance pushing for progressive environmental policies while maintaining relationships with those more conservative or centrist policy makers here in the state?
Dan Fingas (08:00)Yeah, I think, I mean, maybe we take the label progressive off of stuff, but I mean, it's not about progressive policies. It's about, you know, science based policies. It's about nature based solutions to the floods and the complete devastation we're seeing in this state and in this country. It's about figuring out ways to make sure that all of our monitors are part of the green transition, energy transition that's happening. That's actually making it a lot cheaper for people who have made the transition.
to heat their houses or to drive their cars than those who haven't done it. So I think it's figuring out what the solutions are and who the solutions benefit. And then we have to connect with those people and they have to talk to their legislators. And we also have to talk to legislators about who in their specific communities are benefiting from these policies and how it's not as simple if you're investing in the environment, you're spending too much money. It's if you're investing in these policies, you're actually gonna make life better for Vermont.
Justin Marsh (08:59)Yeah, mean, progressive in sort of the framing of like, you know, little p progressive. Yeah.
Dan Fingas (09:04)Yeah, yeah, you know, I know. I think in this
state, when you use the word, even if it's with a little p, I think there's like some some hackles get up or some people kind of get their backs up right away. And so I think it's just we just we just have to think about how we're framing things. And we want to have these solutions that we want to move forward in a positive way. And also, we know we're not going to get everybody. We still have majorities in the House and Senate, so we can still pass legislation with those folks.
The governor obviously has a veto, but we also know that there are moderates, independents, and progressives outside of the democratic majorities that we can work with. And it's going to be really about finding the right policies that do that. And we've done it, right? When it comes to the PFAS legislation, it was almost 100 % last year. We've seen huge numbers on some of our other legislation. Like, it's not impossible. We just have to figure out those pathways.
Justin Marsh (10:01)Yeah, we just don't want the opposite of that, which is regressive environmental policies.
Dan Fingas (10:07)Yeah,
and I think that's about really making sure that there is going to be a push to roll things backwards, the Move the Global Waring Solutions Act obligation dates backwards to maybe shrink the renewable energy standard reforms that we did last year, maybe change or add more exemptions to the Act 250 bills. And I think with all of that, it's again, it's good talking point to say move it backwards, but like,
to what end and how does that solve the actual problems of the state? And so if there's like a hugely good reason to move back a date by a year or two years, like let's debate that. Let's talk about the specifics of the reasoning and why it helps. Let's not just say, you know, the voters voted for, you know, 56 of the 150 houses are now Republicans. They voted for that many, let's roll things back. Like we need to actually talk about the issues.
and talk about what rolling things back means and why it would be either beneficial or harmful.
Justin Marsh (11:09)So taking sort of a more future looking approach here, what does success for VCP look like for you, like maybe in the next five years and what do you hope you're able to achieve under your leadership?
Dan Fingas (11:25)Yeah, I I think, you know, I imagine a VCV that's got a lot more active supporters and a lot more folks that are identifying themselves as VCV folks, folks that are taking action in the name of VCV. And because we're, you know, they're passionate about our issues, I see us actually being a recognizable brand in more communities in Vermont. So that way folks know that we're out there and that they can engage with us. And so that we're...
not just a Montpelier based organization, which we haven't been, but some people view us that way, and actually be in more communities and be able to interact with more folks. I see us recruiting more climate champions, which is a role that we've had in the past that's been really successful, and really doubling down on thinking about who we're recruiting, how we can help them. It's tough to be a state legislator because it pays so little and it's part-time.
And so it isn't economic, usually hit to almost everyone who does the job. And so we have to really think about how we can recruit people who are willing to take that on and longer term, hopefully five years from now, actually work on things like legislative pay and benefits to make sure that we can actually have more people that represent all of Vermont in the building.
Justin Marsh (12:41)This week we will unveil the 2025 Environmental Common Agenda. Can you frame up for newer listeners what that is exactly and how they can engage with us this week around that announcement?
Dan Fingas (12:54)Yeah, so the Vermont's environmental common agenda is like kind of the environmental communities vision for the policies that need to be passed and the work that we need to do this year. And so the 2020, excuse me, the 2025 environmental common agenda is being launched next Wednesday and Thursday. And we have quite a few great events to do the launch. We have a webinar happening Wednesday at noon that anybody's welcome to join us.
We'll have presenters from a number of the 19 organizations that have signed on to talk about in what ways we can look at climate resiliency, support housing and smart growth, continue to advance climate solutions, and obviously also look towards policies that help access to our democracy. so that's the webinar at noon on Wednesday.
And then on Thursday, we'll be in the state house at 11 a.m. We're having a press conference to launch the common agenda. Again, we'll have many of our allies from the 19 groups that signed on there speaking about the common agenda and the importance of the policies. And then we're going to have a little fun with the reception in the evening, featuring the chairs of the House Environment Committee, the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, and the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee speaking. And so...
should be a really good launch and really laying out our vision of the policies that need to move forward in 2025.
(00:43):
Justin Marsh (14:27)Amazing, yes, and that is January 15th and January 16th for those who might be listening in further in the future than when our episode will debut. So what message would you like to leave for Vermonters who care about the environment but might feel uncertain about how they can actually make a difference?
Dan Fingas (14:46)I mean, my message is you definitely can make a difference. You definitely can make things change for the better in the state house and in the state. a very small state, which means that you have a lot more ready access to your state representatives and senators than most other states. And so I say, reach out to them, let them know what you care about.
join groups like VCV and others that are working on these things to find out where, when you can take action and when you can be effective. But you should be reaching out, whether you're a representative as a progressive, a Democrat, a Republican, an independent, they do want to hear what you care about. They do want to hear what you want them to do. And if enough of you tell them what you want to do, it will affect the way that they vote in that building.
Justin Marsh (15:35)Excellent. And so closing out, I'm going to start asking my guests this season to close out my interviews with by answering a couple of questions. So they're a little bit more fun, but this is a question that was asked of me when I was actually applying for the role that I'm in here at UCB. And I don't think I got a chance to ask this question for you necessarily, but when you were applying for ED. But the first question is, who is a Vermont political figure, past or present?
that you draw inspiration from or admire deeply.
Dan Fingas (16:08)Wow, that is a good question. I will say, I I've been in the state for five, almost six years, and so I don't have the deep history that a lot of other people do when it comes to, you know, Vermont history. so I'm having a little bit of a trouble answering this question. I will say that, and I'm not sure if I draw total inspiration, but the only Vermont politician other than Bernie Sanders who,
I even knew about before moving to Vermont was Howard Dean. And I know many folks, was, know, college age or just a little after college age when he ran for president. And his vision, his progressive vision, at least on the national scene, for what America could look like was something that was very inspiring at the time. So I'll say that for now. know that there's, you know, once you get, his record as governor is not as inspiring as maybe his run for president, but I'll stick with that.
Justin Marsh (17:04)That's a great answer. And then the second question, I know it might be hard to choose, but what is your favorite spot in Vermont? It can be a downtown, a mountain, body of water, a trail, a road even, really anything in the state that brings you some joy or some bliss.
Dan Fingas (17:22)You know, I live in Plainfield and I live up a hill, pretty steep hill and there's farm fields and then forest behind and I can, you know, go out my backyard into my neighbor's farm fields and straight into the woods. And so this time of year, especially snowshoeing out in those woods where I think I might be other than maybe one of the only people who ever, ever out there. So it's completely quiet. There's not anyone around. There's usually not even tracks. And so that's a place that brings me quite a bit of a joy and comfort.
Justin Marsh (17:51)Love it. Well, Dan, congrats on your new role and we will hear from you again throughout the season. We will have you on for the crossover report around town meeting day and the session shakedown, which will close our season. So thanks so much, Dan, and look forward to working with you this session.
Dan Fingas (18:08)Thanks so much, Justin. Good luck with another season of Democracy Dispatch.
Justin Marsh (18:11)Woohoo! Take care.
Dan Fingas (18:14)Take care.
Justin Marsh (18:16)And now to introduce our newest segment, the champs and chumps of the week.
first champ of the week is Republican Senator Pat Brennan of Colchester, who spoke on Vermont Public this week about his pledge to keep the waters of Lake Champlain clean. Here he is speaking to Vermont Public's Michaela LeFrac about it.
Senator Brennan, who has served in the House, has a lifetime environmental score of 21%. So while he is our first champ, we hope to see that score improve now that he is over to the Senate. And talking about clean water, it sounds great. Our first chump of the week is House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy of Poultney who...
Also spoke on Vermont Public this week about how she feels Vermont is doing enough to meet our emissions reductions. She and the entire House Republican caucus introduced a bill, H-19, that would repeal the Affordable Heat Act that was passed last biennium. Again, here she is speaking to Vermont Public's Meketla Frak.
Representative McCoy has a 28 % lifetime environmental score. And don't see that improving this year, but we'll see. All right. I want to thank my guest, Dan Fingas for joining me today. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and give us a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts and be sure to follow us on social media. You can subscribe to our emails, see our legislative environmental scorecard and learn more about our work and policies by visiting vermontconservationvoters.org.
Thanks for listening and you'll hear from me next week.
On today's episode, I have a conversation with Vermont Conservation Voters new executive director Dan Fingas He will outline his priorities as the organization's leader, what interests him about this work, and his strategy for passing progressive policies in this political landscape. I'm joined now with Dan Fingas, VCV's new executive director.
And now to introduce our newest segment, the champs and chumps of the week. Our first champ of the week is Republican Senator Pat Brennan of Colchester, who spoke on Vermont Public this week about his pledge to keep Lake Champlain's waters clean.
(01:04):
first champ of the week is Republican Senator Pat Brennan of Colchester, who spoke on Vermont Public this week about his pledge to keep the waters of Lake Champlain clean. Here he is speaking to Vermont Public's Michaela LeFrac about it.
Senator Brennan, who has served in the House, has a lifetime environmental score of 21%. So while he is our first champ, we hope to see that score improve now that he is over to the Senate. And talking about clean water, it sounds great. Our first chump of the week is House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy of Poultney who...
Also spoke on Vermont Public this week about how she feels Vermont is doing enough to meet our emissions reductions. She and the entire House Republican caucus introduced a bill, H-19, that would repeal the Affordable Heat Act that was passed last biennium. Again, here she is speaking to Vermont Public's Meketla Frak.
Representative McCoy has a 28 % lifetime environmental score. And don't see that improving this year, but we'll see. All right. I want to thank my guest, Dan Fingas for joining me today. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and give us a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts and be sure to follow us on social media. You can subscribe to our emails, see our legislative environmental scorecard and learn more about our work and policies by visiting vermontconservationvoters.org.
Thanks for listening and you'll hear from me next week.
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