GREG DENNIS

Amid wildfire smoke, a recent drought and frequent flooding from global warming, climate change remains a huge challenge for Vermont.

So, climate is a huge election issue, right? Nope, wrong. The issue has received surprisingly little attention from candidates in the Aug. 11 primary.

On the Republican side, Gov. Phil Scott and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers have nothing to say on their websites about climate.

Gov. Scott has made a career out of vetoing any good piece of climate legislation that comes his way. It took legislative overrides to gain Vermont, among other laudable laws, the Global Warming Solutions Act and a stronger Renewable Energy Standard.

Voters may recall that John Rodgers, after 16 years as a Democratic legislator, jumped in 2024 to the Republicans. That was the same election cycle in which the GOP’s Donald Trump was loudly calling climate change a hoax.

With Scott and Rodgers facing no primary opponent, excitement in the statewide races this summer is in the Democratic primaries.

So, what are the Democratic candidates saying? A good way to rate how the candidates feel about an issue is to compare their websites. It’s a fair measure of what matters to the candidates because it’s their primary calling card for voters.

Not surprisingly, their websites mostly reflect voters’ economic concerns: housing costs, healthcare and education/taxes. Climate change is far down the candidates’ priority lists.

Indeed, Amanda Janoo, one of the two Democratic candidates for governor, doesn’t even mention the phrase “climate change” on her website.

Janoo, an economist whose professional experience has been focused outside Vermont, frames climate issues in different terms, calling for a “green industrial policy” to “protect the planet.”

The other Democratic candidate for governor, Aly Richards, does directly address climate change on her site and has substantially more experience in Vermont politics, though not on climate. Richards led the successful campaign to raise $125 million a year for Vermont to expand access to childcare — a key social-justice issue for working people.

“Vermont must achieve energy independence as a pathway to affordability: by transitioning to renewable, cheaper energy sources, we can drive down costs for families and businesses while building a more resilient state,”

“The path to energy independence is also the path to a stronger climate future,” Richards adds. “I’ll make energy independence a key goal of my administration and lead Vermont to become a national model for affordable, resilient, renewable energy.”

As for the Democrats’ primary candidates for lieutenant governor, most of the attention has focused on Ryan McLaren, a longtime aide to Sen. Peter Welch, and Molly Gray, who served one term as lieutenant governor and then ran unsuccessfully for Congress.

Together, McLaren and Gray have likely raised a record amount of money for the lieutenant governor race — perhaps foretelling a lively Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2028 or whenever Phil Scott finally retires. There’s a third candidate on the lieutenant governor ballot, Esther Charlestin, the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee in 2024 who lost badly to Phil Scott.

McLaren’s site notes that “increasing extreme weather events like the recent floods demonstrate to us all that climate change cannot be ignored, and that we must continue to invest in a sustainable and just future for all Vermonters.”

Taking it one step further than the other candidates, McLaren’s website proclaims his support for “a Green New Deal that would foster a just and sustainable transition [and] train the next generation of electricians, welders and technicians for good paying jobs” to build renewable energy projects and reduce emissions.

Molly Gray similarly devotes space to climate issues. “Advances in renewable energy technology have made clean energy more affordable and accessible than ever before,” her site states. “By accelerating the transition to clean, locally generated energy, Vermont can reduce costs for families, strengthen energy independence, and build a more resilient future for generations to come.”