Public Policy Detail
To: Chairman Mazza and Senate Committee on Transportation Committee
Re: S.350- Energy Independence and Economic Prosperity
Date: March 27, 2008
From: Andrea Cohen, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility
I see from your Committee calendar that you are taking testimony on S.350 on Friday. I am writing to let you know that VBSR supports the transportation related sections of the bill and we hope you support these forward thinking public policy initiatives.
VBSR is a non-profit statewide business association with approximately 550 members. These members employ approximately 10-12% of the state’s workforce and contribute approximately 4 billion dollars annually to the state’s economy.
VBSR has longstanding energy and transportation policy that highlights the economic benefit to be derived from public policy that emphasizes conservation, efficiency and the development and use of renewable energy sources. Benefits from these actions include cost savings for our businesses and our employees, job creation, and increased energy independence. Last summer VBSR convened a special energy and transportation committee and developed a priority list of energy legislative action for 2008 that we determined would be effective and feasible. Some of these actions include:
Increase the availability and use of public transportation by:
- Improving land-use planning and “smart growth” to facilitate biking, walking, and use of public transportation.
- Creating a Statewide Public Transportation Authority (or other proven delivery model) to ensure inter-modal efficiency and implementation of 50-year transportation plan.
- Requiring that energy use and climate change impact be evaluated as part of all VTrans planning activities.
- Increasing state employee use of public transportation by providing financial incentives such as bus pass reimbursement.
We truly appreciate your willingness to explore better solutions and your understanding that forward thinking transportation policy is critical to economic prosperity in Vermont.
