[00:00:01] OK, sweet. We're live. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to our weekly webinar series that happens here every Friday at noon on Facebook. My name is Tegan. I'm an intern here at Sustainable Transportation Vermont. And today I'm super happy to be here with Becca Wyatt. She is a state legislature and she's part of the Transportation House Committee. So, yes, I won't waste any more time. I'm gonna bring her on. So let's get this thing going.

[00:00:31] We're.

[00:00:33] We have a countdown. Hey. How are you?

[00:00:38] Good. It's down away River Junction, not too muggy yet, but a rain is coming.

[00:00:47] I give a very, very brief introduction, but I thought you could introduce yourself or tell people a little bit about your work and what you're all about. Sure.

[00:00:57] Yeah. So thanks for having me. I am a state representative from Hartford, Vermont. My district is the Windsor for two district that I actually have a seat, mate. His name is represented Koch Christie. I'm the junior representative from Hartford, technically. And as you said, I'm a member of the House Transportation Committee. I've been serving for just about two years, so I only have been serving for one term and I'm up for reelection. We just ended the session for 20, 20. Normally we would end all the way back sometime in April or even at the very latest May. But because I've covered 19, we've actually been going until Friday. So I ended the session on Friday like nine p.m. yet so late night almost. I'm twenty five. So that's one fun. Fact is, I'm one of the youngest state reps, not the youngest, though. I'm beat out by like four years, I think, with someone who's younger. So it's nice. Have a good cohort of 20 somethings in the state house. And I have lived in Hartford my whole life. I actually went to UVM. So that's great to have some UVM connection again. And I'm excited to see that the University of Vermont is taking a look at sustainable transportation and encouraging students to be involved in this way. That's really exciting. And yeah, after I graduated, I came back to my hometown. I served on my select board for four years. So local government work. And then I ran for state rep. So I've been involved locally for a bit now. But on the state level, it feels like it's all a little bit new. It's kind of like going to college your first year. You're like, you know, you're meeting people. You're in your you stay. Like I say, about unpeel year. So I had like an apartment. So it does feel a little bit like that. Your first year. My main issue, like the thing that drove me to run for office was climate change and getting young folks involved in politics. I'm exceptionally concerned about climate change and the crisis that we're experiencing now and the potential for it to get exponentially worse as we continue to not act in appropriate ways. So being on the Transportation Committee was my first choice as a committee. When I came into the legislature and the reason being, as you may know and ideally whoever is watching a sustainable transportation Facebook Live knows our greenhouse gas emissions. The number one contributor in Vermont is treant, the transportation sector. So that's that's me in a nutshell.

[00:03:58] Thank you for that. I didn't realize that you were twenty five. I knew you were one of the youngest.

[00:04:03] Yeah, but I know that. Yeah. And just kind of how does it feel to be like a young woman, you know, in the state legislature? Do you feel like young people care more about climate change or what's your take on it? What's been your experience?

[00:04:18] Yeah, I've actually been overwhelmed by how incredible the youth movement has been in the last few years and not necessarily the 20 somethings, but like even younger than that, like I'm talking a middle school high school students. I had the privilege of speaking at the Youth Climate Congress, which actually met in the state House. Gosh, this is feels like a decade ago, but at the beginning of the legislative session this year. And they were very clear on what their demands were. And I think it actually took a back some of the legislators who might not be familiar with the impact that climate change is going to have and is having on our communities or just how how it colors the view of most folks who are under the age of 30. It's just it's a it's kind of like a present constant thought that impacts every decision you make in your life, at least for me. And that was really clearly voiced, I think, from the Youth Congress on climate. But what was overwhelming in a way, was just seeing how. Even with very clear, concise demands that were, I would say. So much. It was almost like a college level expression of the things that they wanted, like talk to you about the transfer data climate initiative, for example, came up and I was having like a little back and forth with, like an eighth grader about it. That is just profound. And I think it is exciting to see, but overwhelming because it shows me just how much we are experiencing the impacts of climate change as a generation. And I don't know if we've seen that with any other topic besides potentially racial justice in the last few months, especially with the generational divide right now.

[00:06:25] I think it's interesting because a lot of people admiring young activists, but I also think we shouldn't be concerned. Like, no young person should have to get on it to be fighting for our future.

[00:06:38] So definitely, I think you put it really well, too, because there is something about I think and I think in some ways, racial justice falls in the same way is if you get to a point where you feel guilty and that's where you stop. I experience that a lot with older Vermonters and particularly older legislators who might not be able to understand why it's so important to this generation. It's because I kind of stop at guilt, like, wow, I'm sorry that this is what you're experiencing or I'm sorry that I didn't do more when I was, you know, whatever. I'm sorry I didn't realize or know. And at the same time, my responses, like, you know, now like this is your shot, like this is your moment. And climate justice in particular is going to have such an impact on our generation, but also those who are most vulnerable in our society already. So any way that we can structure a response that actually. Is cognizant of that. I think that's we have to do that.

[00:07:48] Yeah, I agree with that. It's like you can't stop. I don't have to do something for. I don't.

[00:07:55] So, yeah, you've got to get humble yourself. A move on.

[00:07:59] Right. I agree. You mentioned remind me of the name of the Transportation Climate Initiative. Yeah. Yeah. So why don't you tell everyone about that and their involvement in it.

[00:08:12] Yeah. So the Transportation Climate Initiative also knows TCI. That's kind of there's a lot of acronyms. And I'll just stick to the acronym for this one. It's a cap and invest style regional plan to respond to transportation. Greenhouse gases or greenhouse gas emissions. It was it's been in the works for a few years. And what's interesting about TCI is it is very similar to a regional approach that was done many years ago around electricity. So Reggi or the at that at the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that was put into place with primarily New England states as a compact to respond to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in that sector. And it was exceptionally successful. It still is going in. PCI in many ways is framed in the same regional approach. I think one aspect of transportation that makes it so difficult to address just the weather be greenhouse gases or the inequality of our transportation system, is that it's No. One state's job. It's No. One towns job to respond. And we need to look at it as a systemic solution for systemic solutions. And I think TCI does that and has potential to respond in a really good way. And I had to look up what states were there, because it's if if you're looking at a map, it's almost all of New England is considering participation and the District of Columbia so that, you know, it's not Vermont going it alone, which I think if you know, one of the pieces I hear pushback on quite a bit is Vermont's always being first. And, you know, why should we cost Vermonters money to do environmental legislation or to move forward on some kind of climate justice work? And one thing about TCI that makes me happy and proud of is it's it's a very equitable plan. It's not meant to be affecting the most vulnerable populations. Hitting them the hardest would like a would like a gas tax that, you know, if you are spending the bulk of your income, if that percentage is high for gas purchase, you would be hit the hardest. It's meant to be equal and equitable across the board, both because it's a regional approach and it's meant to distribute in a way that doesn't just affect those folks who purchase or are burdened with having to purchase the most fossil fuel.

[00:11:08] Very cool. And yes, you can look at the comment section, so please post your questions. But also if you're wanting to learn more information about, you know, there's a link right there.

[00:11:19] And yeah, I can see oh, this is cool. I like this ab. What do we see? Jaquiss covered. We yeah. We had a comment where he was talking about like glorified credit. And it's true. Like it's a very. It's a very interesting moment and I think.

[00:11:39] Why, I'm exceptionally proud of a lot of the work that we've done. It is sad and it is saddening to see that the push has to come from the folks who are most going to be impacted by it.

[00:11:51] Yes. No, I totally agree. George D. Aiken, thanks for that comment. Jack comments. We could just go ahead. I'll read it. It says A lot of people are saying the new form of climate denial is not denying that it exists, but instead of denying that we need to take dramatic action or in order to address this. Not so true. OK, yes. Do you regret most Vermonters understand the degree to which we will need to reorganize society in order to address the climate crisis? Yes. For a dozen dramatic changes.

[00:12:27] It's such a good question. And you have to give a shout out to Jack for being an active player in the transportation debate management space, at the very least, sustainable transportation across the board. It's interesting because I think most Vermonters. No, the impacts of climate change and see what can happen to their community. I think Hurricane Irene was a giant wakeup call for a lot of Vermonters when they realized, oh, hurricanes are impacted by climate change and my community was either devastated or the neighboring town was devastated, or they can point to someone who is experiencing greater rates of flooding in their community. I think there is a cognitive dissonance with, OK, now that I know that information, what can I do as an individual? And what does the system need to do to change that? And it's interesting because I I do think there's a lot of overlap with kind of governments that don't conversation folks who get stuck in either. I as an individual need to do everything. And then you kind of go into your own. And I had that experience where, like, I've been trying to be waste zero, which is. Extract it for me. It's been difficult. I know it can be. There are many solutions and you can do it. But even as an individual, if my family were to completely go waste zero. That is not addressing the fact that the largest polluters in our country and our world are giant corporations who make lots of money. Trillions of dollars on telling us that there is not a problem. So it's like, OK, great. Like, I could beat myself up for, you know, drinking myself, sir, in out of my aluminum can. But the same time, I should be making sure that the corporations and the groups that I'm putting my dollar towards or I'm voting for are actually taking the steps that need to be taken. So I do think there is a bit of a cognitive dissidence where a lot of Vermonters at the place are at the place. If I as an individual need to respond, but haven't quite made the shift to like the systemic. Yeah. But I love that. It's a great question. I, I, I've got actually my immigration service, my, my monitor for my computer is actually slightly lifted up because I have the book, the draw down. So like the little like tick thing to like lift my screen up a bit and there's some really good resources out there where if you are a Vermonter who's experiencing that, where you're thinking, gosh, what do I do? How do I get involved? There's a lot of great organizations, 350, dawg. There are some great resources, books like Draw Down that is a good resource.

[00:15:31] I just want to plug it. They have a Web site. So check it out.

[00:15:34] Yes. And I. I luckily work for a place called Efficiency Vermont and something that has kind of blow me away that the drawdown pointed out, not transportation related, but like refrigeration.

[00:15:48] Yeah. I never. Isn't that mind blowing like the way you do that?

[00:15:56] Like those little things. Like what do you do with an old refrigerator or how do you address refrigeration is a thing you need in your life and reduce your energy use. Yeah, there's a lot to that. Right. Good question, Jack.

[00:16:11] No, I know what you're saying. I think a lot of people want to know, you know, isn't about individual action or collective action. Obviously, it's not collective. But, you know, as an individual, it's not just about changing like habits in your life, like composting and recycling. It's also about organizing, you know, emailing representatives and like really learning the climate action plan in your community and figuring out how can we push this on a bigger scale. So I think the calls to action.

[00:16:40] Yeah. And it's interesting because I think something that Kobe 19 has done that I'm always trying to find a silver lining in there. In my mind, few would call it 19. But what I think it has shown is in in times of crisis, you can respond quickly.

[00:17:02] And I think with Kobe 19 in particular, what I heard at the beginning of the session, it's it's a little mind boggling where telecommuting. We were having discussions about transportation demand management, which is to the idea of reducing single person single vehicle trips going to one place or whatever, just traveling to work, for example. I was hearing back from advocates and lobbyists that telecommuting is impossible for their sector of work or impossible for the businesses that they represent. And I'm understanding of that. It's a change. And then, you know, overnight, unfortunately, folks had to go to telecommuting quickly to make sure that they're both safe and keeping their coworkers safe. So the one silver lining I can see is that even in the transportation sector, we're seeing that if you recognize a crisis, you can respond quickly. And yeah, there's that there's some bumps in the roads. I've I've heard a lot of stories of Vermonters even in my town, village away reduction is not I would not consider a rural comparative to other parts of the state. I struggle with Internet access. My neighbors struggle with Internet access and to be able to telecommute appropriately. Most of us need very good access to Internet. So I do want to bring up because I think it kind of overlays this conversation is we did end the session on Friday and we received Kahrizak funding from the federal government to the tune of about one point to five billion dollars. And the legislature was able to move one billion of that in a relatively short period of time to go out to Vermonter's, the last two hundred and fifty million is being held to August. But of that money. What I was ecstatic to see was 43 million dollars going towards broadband inaccessibility. And I think when we talk about transportation, that is such a key piece is it's not just the road you're traveling on, it's whether or not you need to travel or use transportation.

[00:19:22] So for me, I took that as a transportation when I think now I think I would do. I mean, just going along with that. Do you think that talk a meaningful step? Like, I've just been wondering this. Like everyone's working from home now. Not everyone, but a lot of people. And I'm curious, you know. Well, this shift where more and more people work from home or work remotely.

[00:19:44] Yeah, I. Yeah. Crystal ball. I don't know. But I will say we when at the start of the session and you know, shout to folks who supported this, we did have some transportation demands, language in the transportation bill, which is the T bill, the big bill that our committee passes out every year. And we had had that language there. We'd actually passed the bill the Friday before Koban, 19, sent us all home to virtual session. We quickly realized coming back into legislative session, there was not going to be consensus around that language this time around. So when we edited the T bill, instead of having that transportation demand management language, we put in a study of telecommuting during the time of Koban 19. And in an attempt to create best practices for the agency of transportation. And to get to your question, which is, is this something that can stick? Does that work for Vermonters? How long term can we make it work for Vermonters if that's what people desire? And I think there is a big percentage of people who have wanted to work from home at whether or not the whole time, couple days a week have it be an option. Who now are saying, you know, this isn't terrible. I fought for a while to get it. And now I have it. And what can I do to actually be successful in my job and telecommute?

[00:21:14] Very cool. And then you do posting your questions if you have any one of mine. This is just really broad. What is the future of transportation in Vermont and what would you like to see? Because I think one of the big issues with Vermont is not have cities. Right. I know in Burlington, Vermont, billionaire's efforts to improve the bus system and, you know, get that going. But what does transportation look like in a rural setting?

[00:21:45] We definitely haven't figured it out in Vermont yet. I think we can take from especially like European countries, how it works in rural places, how you have this. You might not have the scale, but you could make public transportation work effectively. I think the future of transportation Vermont, if if I could have a dream scenario, would be a reduction in single person single trip. Just across the board, it would also be an electrification of the way that we transport ourselves. I think for a lot of Vermonters, they think I'll just say I'll give it a personal anecdote. My husband loved him. He started out.

[00:22:36] He had a great sense of he was a bit of a slow convert to electric vehicles.

[00:22:45] He had a Tacoma truck like a four by four. It was his baby. I loved that thing. And a lot of Vermonters loved their trucks. A lot of Vermonters loved their Subaru's. And it was hard for him to envision himself in an electric vehicle. He had fear of range anxiety, like, can I get where I need to go? Is this thing going to actually do what I needed to do? And we made the conscious choice as a household to become a one vehicle household or one owned vehicle household and to have that be an electric vehicle. And it was yeah, it was a change. We had to plan our trips differently than we used to. Not doing a lot of traveling now. But before we did. And he loves our Honda Cona for a home electric and go to every dime. He's like, this car is the best. So my future vision for Vermont transportation is that folks are be able to be creative in the way that they get around. They are if if they need a vehicle, they're using an electric form of transportation. So we can keep those dollars in state. I also think it has a lot to do with non vehicle transportation. Can you walk? Can you bike? Can you do those things safely? Are you in a downtown where you can get all the things you need in one go and you don't need to shoot over to the Dollar General? That's five miles out of town. You can buy those things locally and not need to do multiple trips. So that's kind of my big picture vision. And it. It's interesting how transportation as a as a sector kind of impacts every way of every part of life.

[00:24:40] Yeah. Yeah, I think that when transportation transforms the whole city, the whole place is transformed.

[00:24:49] All of a sudden is something else and that's really that's really exciting.

[00:24:58] Another question I had was just, you know, people watching this on the road, watch this are obviously dedicated to transportation. And how can they, like, influence legislation? You know, like what can I do? Can I. What emails can I sign? What calls can I make? Like, how can I get more involved in that process to really move things along?

[00:25:23] Yeah. The first thing I'll say is, and I say this to every person under the age of like 40 that is at all interested in getting involved. Consider running for office. Consider it. You can be involved on a local level with a planning commission that has a huge impact. You can be involved on a government body like your select board or city council. You can also support a committee like an energy committee. Or if you are thinking like, hey, I'm thinking statewide, consider running for state office. That's the first thing. I think most Vermonters count themselves out politically because they think I don't know if it's the right fit for me. I highly recommend if you're a young person or a person who feels like your views are not being represented, consider running for office. Meet folks who are considering running for office and find that niche. If that if you immediately go at no way in heck am I doing that. Not my not my bailiwick. I don't want to be involved in politics. The best thing you can do is connect up with groups that are supporting the values that you have that might be advocating for those issues and meeting the people who represent you. Something I love that has just been a joy and a privilege of being a state rep is because state reps have such a small, relatively small group of people that we serve. I've technically two thousand five hundred people, Max, five thousand people between my district mate and I. I do get to have conversations. The people I represent, they call me, they text me, they shoot me a Facebook message. And if I know that person, I want to hear them out and I want to grab coffee with them now in a socially distant way. I want to learn why they are considering this policy over that policy. So I would recommend, if you are comfortable shooting an email to your state rep and saying, like, hey, can we hop on the phone? Can we socially distance safe connect? And then once you've built that relationship, it's so much more powerful. When I get a call or I get an email from someone who says, hey, do you remember when we talked X, Y, Z ago, I heard that this is happening. Can you look into it? Can you make sure it happens or. I totally disagree. Don't vote that way. And that can make a huge difference in how I make my decisions as an individual. And I know that for every state rep I know, if they have a relationship with constituents, that relationship will influence how they vote or how they move forward with a piece of legislation. I was gonna say one other thing on that, which is we have a great Web site. So Vermont has a Vermont legislative Web site. And if you want to know what our committee is up to, you can look in House transportation, you can look in Senate transportation or any committee that you've got a policy interest in. And you can look at the agenda. You can look at the witnesses. You can read testimony in this time of Zoom, although we aren't meeting now when we come back in August. You can watch those committee meeting there on YouTube. And if you've got the time to do it and you hear something that you have questions on. Shooting a quick note. Has a huge impact, so well.

[00:29:14] Yeah, I've been tuning in to the city council meetings on Mondays and it's really great having it over Zoom because it's so easy to tune in and you could be making Dona. Tune in.

[00:29:24] So you I manage this time. Totally personal question. He said, let me try to show Adam's living room.

[00:29:34] I know. Fancy that. Do you see a future in New England with the revamped train slash Amtrak system?

[00:29:42] We do a term like working with Amtrak. So now what are your thoughts?

[00:29:48] Yeah. To be honest, I wish that this question doesn't even need to be asked. I wish that we had a very clear plan and we knew what we were doing with train travel. I'm as I've mentioned for I'm in White River Junction. We are a train town. We are the Vermonter line comes up. I've got many constituents who are very interested in train travel, both for pleasure and for getting where they need to go. And I do think that we will see a deeper investment in railroad over the next few years. I'll be intrigued to see what happens with the expansion of Blind's, something that I learned early on in my time at the Transportation Committee was that the joke is that the Vermonter line will be in Montpelier in about three to five years. And we say that every single year. And we have for the last decade, which is like. So there are, for example, some interesting ideas floating out there. I was very much in favor of the Budd cars, which was a commuter rail concept that was floated early on in the legislative session. We did not get a lot of positive. I would say, like we did get a big positive response from the agency of transportation. I think they want to dig in and understand the concept more and to really get a handle on if it was feasible for our state. But I would love to see a revamped look at ah ah how we travel via train. And if we can bring commuter rail to this day, I think that would be. Uncredible, I think if we could even just get that little distance from, like St. Orbit's to look into Canada like a mine. That would be great. The other piece I wanted to bring up was there was a pilot program and I'm getting the details in Massachusetts. That was a commuter rail style, like a short term pilot. And I think we could. I think we should look into those ideas. It seemed like there was a big uptick in customers on that line when they expanded it. So there's all good things for train travel.

[00:32:29] Yeah. All right. Cool. Wow. I don't see any more questions. I mean, did you have anything else that you wanted to speak about or.

[00:32:38] No. I mean, I would just say I'm excited to jump back in in August. And I think that we have a really clear opportunity with COBA 19 to reimagine how we as a state look at transportation. And I hope that we don't go back to doing business as usual when if this pandemic ends. And I think that if, for example, like having UVM students, having even younger folks be involved, that's such a catalyst for change. So if there's folks out there who are wondering, like, how do I get Bob's, I am my door is always wide open. If someone said even to shoot me a text message, sent me an e-mail, I'd love to connect with you because it can be really intimidating to try to get involved if you're not sure where to start. And I know that if you have a local rep that you're close where there would like to get close with their door is probably open to real debate.

[00:33:45] Yes. Well, thank you for tuning in. And next, we'll be in touch. And I'm just going to come over and quickly announce next week's top.

[00:33:58] OK, great. I'm still getting used to this interface room. We have.

[00:34:05] There you go. So official. OK. Yes. So thank you all for tuning in with black and white. I really enjoyed that. I just wanted to let you know that we do this every Friday at noon.

[00:34:17] So tune in next week or we are going to hear from Dave Cohen. He is the founder and director of Dubai, which is an advocacy group to really boost infrastructure.

[00:34:31] Oh, Jacobsen's. Thanks, Becca. So, yes, that's all I have to say. Thank you guys for tuning in. And we will see you next week.