Sen. Anne Watson, D/P-Washington, center, presides over the biennium’s first meeting of the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday, January 10, 2025. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger“There’s going to be disagreements,” Sen. Anne Watson, D-Washington, chair of the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee, said Friday morning. Sitting at a table where she had sat many times, Watson was in the middle of giving opening remarks to her committee members — all of whom were new faces. She is the only member to return to the committee, which is poised to lead big conversations about climate action in the coming months, including whether and how the state will meet its mandatory emissions targets.Last session, the committee did not have a Republican in its ranks. Its members pushed to support progressive — and controversial — legislation, including the clean heat standard, updated renewable energy requirements for utilities, and one failed measure that would have reduced the power of the state’s Fish & Wildlife Board. Watson, who served as vice chair last year, supported the policies of former Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, who was ousted in an upset in November. Things feel a little different this year.Now, Sen. Terry Williams, R-Rutland, a veteran and former deputy state game warden, serves as the committee’s second-in-command. Another seat belongs to Sen. Scott Beck, R-Caledonia/Essex, the Senate minority leader. Beck has publicly called for lawmakers to repeal the Affordable Heat Act, a law related to the clean heat standard created by the very committee he now sits on. With the two other seats occupied by Democrats, the party still holds a slim majority on the panel, but they’ll likely need their Republican colleagues’ support to win Gov. Phil Scott’s endorsement.The makeup of Senate Natural Resources reflects the dynamics of a Statehouse in which Republicans vastly increased their ranks last November. While Watson’s opening remarks signaled that conflicts are likely on the horizon (“I, of course, expect us all to respect each other as people,” she said), the atmosphere in Senate Natural Resources on Friday was anything but tense. While introducing herself, Watson, a high school science teacher and the former Montpelier mayor, said she’s passionate about gardening. Williams, who spoke next, said he owned an organic vegetable farm until he contracted Lyme disease and couldn’t continue the work. “I have a passion for nature,” Williams said. As both a teacher and a veteran, Beck shares common ground with Watson and Williams. He’s owned a bookstore in St. Johnsbury for 20 years with his wife, and is passionate about alternative energy.“This was my first choice (for) the morning — my choice was anything but Judiciary,” he said with a laugh. “So I’m excited to be here.”— Emma CottonIn the knowAdam Greshin, the state commissioner of finance and management, gave House budget writers their first look on Friday afternoon at the administration’s proposed tweaks to state spending for the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year. In all, the proposal amounts to a change of just shy of $200 million, more than half of which would support government initiatives in the state’s general fund. The budget adjustment proposal has little in the way of new policy, Greshin told the House Appropriations Committee. “So with that in mind,” he continued, “some of you may wonder … how we managed to find over $100 million in general fund uses. And you know, the short answer to that … is that we’ve got a fair amount of cost pressures.” Greshin said the administration has means to address many of those pressures, such as rising health care costs, thanks to the roughly $185 million in additional state revenue that analysts projected last summer. House Approps is slated to hear more detail on the nuts and bolts of the budget adjustment proposal starting on Tuesday afternoon. — Shaun RobinsonGreen Mountain Care Board member Robin Lunge is stepping down in early April. She told VTDigger she wants to try something new after more than 20 years working in state government on health care policy, including as a lawyer for the Legislature from 2003 to 2011. For former Gov. Peter Shumlin’s single-payer health care push, the launch of the “all-payer model” and the creation of the board itself, she was very much in the room where it happened. Read more here.Also in December, the Green Mountain Care Board hired the recently former Addison County House member Diane Lanpher as its chief liaison to the Legislature. Don’t call her a lobbyist, though; she works for a “state instrumentality.” The year-long waiting period to get back to rubbing elbows in the building does not apply.— Kristen FountainNot so speedy trialThe Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs flagged a recent Vermont Supreme Court order that abrogated — new word for me — a more than 50-year-old directive on speedy trials. The gist? The state’s recommended timelines for moving through cases are unrealistically fast.  Tim Lueders-Dumont, who becomes executive director of the department at midnight when John Campbell retires, praised the high court for acknowledging the goals on the books are unreasonable. “We need to update these guidelines,” he said.—Ethan WeinsteinCause for alarmLawmakers briefly evacuated the Statehouse on Friday morning after someone attempted to microwave a plastic cup, producing smoke that set off an alarm, according to Agatha Kessler, Sergeant at Arms. Asked whether one of Vermont’s esteemed elected officials had caused the incident, Kessler said via text that she had “no idea.”— Emma Cotton Read the story on VTDigger here: Final Reading: There’s been a change in climate for the Senate’s environmental committee.