Vermont | Peter Schulte

Vermont becomes first U.S. state to require oil companies to pay for climate change damages

Peter Schulte / June 1, 2024

Vermont has enacted a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. The funds could be used for upgrading stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants; and making energy-efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings.

Vermont governor signs 1st-in-nation shield bills that explicitly include medicated abortion

Peter Schulte / May 17, 2023

The bills protect providers from discipline for providing legally protected reproductive and gender affirming health care services.

Senate confirms Beth Robinson, the first out lesbian U.S. circuit court judge

Peter Schulte / November 3, 2021

Robinson has been an associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court for the past ten years, where she also made history as the state’s first out LGBTQ supreme court justice.

Vermont bans lawyers from using “panic” excuse for killing LGBTQ people

Peter Schulte / May 7, 2021

Vermont is the 14th state to ban the gay and trans “panic defense” that allowed defendants to justify murder by saying they were surprised to find out someone is an LGBTQ person.

Vermont becomes first U.S. state to ban throwing food waste in trash

Peter Schulte / July 8, 2020

Residents are now required to compost any unfinished food—including inedible scraps like peels, egg shells, and pits—in their yard or through a professional compost facility.

Maine and Vermont ban plastic bags

Peter Schulte / June 25, 2019

Governors in Vermont and Maine signed bills on the same day that will ban plastic bags in their states in 2020.

Christine Hallquist becomes first transgender candidate to be nominated for a governorship by a major party in the U.S.

Peter Schulte / August 15, 2018

Christine Hallquist, a Democrat, won Vermont’s Governor’s primary.

Vermont passes gender-neutral bathroom bill

Peter Schulte / May 24, 2018

Vermont lawmakers have passed a bill that will require all single-user bathrooms in public buildings or places of public accommodation to be marked as gender-neutral.

Thomas Davenport invents what is perhaps the world’s first electric vehicle

Peter Schulte / May 1, 1834

As early as 1834, he and his wife Emily Davenport developed a battery-powered electric motor. They used it to operate a small model car on a short section of track, paving the way for the later electrification of streetcars. It was the first-ever attempt to apply electrification to locomotion. With his wife Emily and colleague Orange Smalley, Davenport received the first American patent on an electric machine in 1837, U. S. Patent No. 132.