Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPRIG)

Overview

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group is one of the oldest state-based affiliates of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US-PIRG), which was founded by former presidential candidate Ralph Nader in 1970. ⁵

In addition to the lobbying and advocacy arm VPIRG, the group operates a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit, the Vermont Public Interest Research and Education Fund. ⁶ In 2024, that fund reported receiving $1,490,729 in grants and donations.  ⁶

VPIRG has a close relationship with Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream and its associated Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. The ice cream manufacturer has supported VPIRG’s campaigns on topics such as genetically engineered food labeling, carbon taxes, weather-dependent energy mandates, and other topics. ^{7  8  9}

Activism

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group’s largest area of focus is environmental activism. In 2024, it reported spending $806,512, or roughly 58 percent of its program expenses, on environmental activism projects. ⁴

Other areas of policy focus include opposition to “corporate power,” loosening voting restrictions, passage of ranked-choice voting in Vermont, opposition to federal immigration law enforcement, banning artificial food colors and flavors, consumer data protection, and “right to repair” laws. ¹⁰

In 2026, VPIRG supported legislation that would prohibit law enforcement officers in Vermont, including federal immigration officers working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol, from wearing masks in public or otherwise concealing their identities. ¹¹

Weather-Dependent Energy

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group was a major supporter of the state legislature’s 2024 passage of a law over a veto by Governor Phil Scott (R) veto that requires most of the state’s utilities to purchase all their electric power from weather-dependent “renewable” wind, solar, and hydropower sources by 2030, with 20 percent of that power coming from Vermont-based generation. ¹² The legislation does not allow utilities to count nuclear power toward these quotas. VPIRG and other PIRG groups around the country oppose nuclear power, despite nuclear power’s status as the largest source of zero-carbon electricity in the United States. ^{13  14  15}

Governor Scott had vetoed the legislation over cost concerns, explaining in his veto message that “Factoring in all the other taxes, fees and higher costs the Legislature has passed over the last two years, I simply cannot allow this bill to go into law.” ¹²

Support for Climate Superfund Act

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group supported Vermont’s 2024 “Climate Superfund Act” that created a state-managed fund to pay for environmental projects in the state funded by fees the state intended to charge oil and gas companies.  ^{2  16} The fees charged to the companies were set according to the share of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to their operations between 1995 and 2024. ²

The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sued to overturn the law in 2025, arguing that interstate and international air pollution were inherently a matter of federal regulatory jurisdiction and that Vermont had no authority to retroactively fine companies for their actions around the world over the preceding three decades. ¹⁷

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute also filed a lawsuit against the law, which was joined by 24 fuel-producing states as intervening plaintiffs. ¹⁸ VPIRG filed an amicus brief in that lawsuit arguing that Vermont’s law was intended to “protect its residents from environmental harms” and was not a regulation of interstate or international commerce. ³

Opposition to Corporate Speech

The Vermont Public Interest Research Group supports legislation in Vermont based on the “Corporate Power Reset” concept created by the Center for American Progress that would use states’ power over corporate charters to prohibit corporations from engaging in political giving or activism as a condition of receiving a corporate charter. ^{19  10}

Its supporters claim this would “make Citizens United irrelevant,” referring to the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC finding that First Amendment free speech protections apply to businesses and social-welfare nonprofits. ²⁰

Funding

The Vermont Public Interest Resource Group has received grant funding from donors including the Rockefeller Family Fund, Unite America, Community Catalyst, Article IV, FairVote Action, RepresentUs, and Citizens Regeneration Lobby. ²¹