MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Is Vermont moving too fast to create a thermal energy program? A new report to lawmakers questions the pace at which the state is creating the Clean Heat Standard.
The Clean Heat Standard aims to ween Vermonters off fossil fuels by incentivizing fuel dealers to install eco-friendly forms of home heating and make it more expensive to heat with fossil fuels.
Energy regulators are working to create the program but say they need more time.
In a report to state lawmakers, the Public Utility Commission, which is designing the Clean Heat Standard, says they will likely miss a 2025 deadline. And they say they are concerned the tight timeline to create a complex program could have unintended consequences for how it will be implemented.
“The concern is that if you rush a program just to meet this arbitrary statutory deadline that you’re in danger of creating a program that does more harm than good,” said Matt Cota of Meadow Hill Consulting, who represents Vermont fuel dealers.
The PUC was not available for an interview, but in their report, they also say the tight timeline could conflict with a key tenet of Vermont’s climate action plan– a just transition where all Vermonters can weigh in.
“If we rush the process we’re in danger of harming our goals of climate equity and making sure it doesn’t do undue harm of those on moderate and low incomes,” Cota said.
Supporters of the Clean Heat Standard say the Legislature is working to address concerns of equity.
“When we consider the flooding over the summer or the increase of natural disasters due to human-created carbon emissions, we are looking at a tight timeline that we can’t control at this point,” said Sen. Becca White, D-Windsor County.
Supporters of the plan say work around climate change is urgent. White says it’s imperative Vermont move quickly to meet the Clean Heat Standard’s goal, of getting people off of volatile fossil fuels.
“We’re still independently experiencing the impacts of that system even if we’re not the main contributors of it,” White said.
The Conservation Law Foundation, a backer of the plan, says there’s more than one way to view equity, including breaking with the status quo of heating with fossil fuels which will help in the long run.
The Clean Heat Standard is the centerpiece of Vermont’s Climate Action Plan, legally mandated under the Global Warming Solutions Act which sets benchmarks for reducing carbon emissions up to 2030. But we’re still years out from the Clean Heat Standard– any proposal the PUC comes up with would need a final seal of approval from the Legislature in 2026.
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