Yesterday in Montpelier, Vermont’s governor and Deputy Natural Resources Secretary detailed a draft plan for how the state will use nearly $19 million dollars it will receive as part of a settlement with Volkswagen.
Two years ago, Volkswagen admitted installing software in over 500,000 diesel vehicles that allowed more nitrogen oxide emissions than permitted by vehicle emission standards. Vermont is receiving $18.7 million from the resulting settlement.
Republican Governor Phil Scott noted that Vermont received $4.2 million in a 10-state settlement announced in March. The state is now receiving $18.7 million from another settlement between the U.S. EPA and VW. Scott says the Agency of Natural Resources has been working with an interagency group to develop a draft plan. “Funds will go towards projects that reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by replacing or repowering diesel vehicles with cleaner innovative technologies. I’m very pleased with the collaborative work of the Attorney General’s office and the Agency of Natural Resources in delivering one of the largest environmental settlements in Vermont’s history.”
Vermont Natural Resources Deputy Secretary Peter Walke noted that the federal settlement reached with VW in June 2016 has three parts. One requires a buyback or retrofit at least 85 percent of affected vehicles. The second is a $2 billion commitment by VW to support electrification of the national transportation fleet. The third part establishes and funds a $2.7 billion environmental mitigation trust. Those are the funds announced Wednesday of which Vermont receives $18.7 million. “The purpose of that settlement is to, and the purpose of the trust is, to essentially reduce nox emissions in line with what the the the cheating vehicles emitted into the air.”
The state has 10 years to spend the money, but there are specific guidelines for how the funds can be spent. Actions must focus on replacement or repowering of heavy duty diesel equipment. Walke says the state can also spend up to 15 percent of the money on electric vehicle charging infrastructure. “Our plan has three goals: One to reduce nox emissions in a cost effective manner; two to demonstrate market viability of all electric and other nox emitting alternatively fueled heavy duty and transit vehicles and three to maximize public and private investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.”
The state must craft its plan under Environmental Mitigation Trust eligible project categories, according to Walke. “Every state was given a sort of here are the ten available actions to you and you can decide how you want to spend the money within those eligible actions. So it’s a relatively limited and fairly constrained set of criteria.”
Governor Scott says the funds could greatly help one area. “Our infrastructure, our charging infrastructure, is something that would benefit, specifically with our Canadian trade and tourism from across the border. They hope to have another 100,000 electric vehicles on the road. So we need a place for them to be able to charge. So I’d like to see some of the funding go towards that.”
State officials have known for some time that the settlement funds were coming to Vermont. Walke says their announcement is intended to alert the public about the need for their input on the draft Beneficiary Mitigation Plan. “The announcement today is really to say we’ve been telling you this was coming. Here it is. We really want to hear what you have to say to make sure that we get it right. ‘Cause we don’t get this money just deposited in the General Fund and we spend it out as we go. We have to have eligible projects so we need to make sure that we get that right.”
A 45-day public comment period is open until January 13. A public meeting will be held December 13th in Montpelier.
