Originally published on Vermont Digger in March 2016
Balance is a desirable objective, whether it’s within one’s personal life or under the Golden Dome in Montpelier. Balance in the public sphere is an awfully difficult thing to achieve, but achieve it we must, especially in the context of further becoming the kinds of stewards of our state and our planet that climate change requires. We are and will be faced with a multitude of challenges and addressing these challenges will strain our resources far more than they already do today. In short, we need to develop laser-like focus on what our priorities should be and develop some basic outline on how to organize them.
This commentary offers a basic framework which I hope will aid our leaders in thinking about and structuring each initiative we undertake for the sake of assessing whether there is balance across the policies we adopt. While other “frameworks” exist, the ones I have seen are just too complicated for our citizen-legislators to use in their decision making (but this should not stop agencies from getting into the nitty-gritty). The risk of not being focused is that we may spend too much time, energy and money on one thing and less on others. I think we also need to start letting go of imaging perfect outcomes and realize that being practical is our best hope. At end of the day, there is only so much we can do with limited resources. This is not a “glass half empty” approach, but rather a clear-eyed way at addressing our future needs. We can be hopeful and realistic at the same time. Continue reading “Balancing Vermont’s Climate Change Priorities”