During his weekly briefing today, Governor Phil Scott warned that predicted costs to comply with climate and energy bills passed by the legislature will cause undue stress especially on lower income Vermonters.
The Republican began by noting he vetoed the Affordable Heat Act establishing a Clean Heat Standard during the last legislative session. But it was overturned by the Democratic supermajority. Scott said a consultant hired to study the potential impacts and costs of the new law recently presented its findings.
“The cost estimates for the Legislature’s Clean Heat Standard are alarming at almost $10 billion," Scott declared. "All along the way we asked the Legislature to fully consider the impacts of the Clean Heat Standard and be honest about the costs and complications. We’ve now spent more than a year working on a legislative mandated policy before we knew what it would cost, if it would work or if we could even do it. And it turns out we probably can’t.”
Vermont Department of Public Service Commissioner June Tierney noted that before the law was passed no study had been conducted to determine if the goals of the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act and subsequent Clean Heat Standard were achievable or affordable. The law required the department to conduct a so-called “Potential Study” which Tierney said was completed just over a week ago.
“The Potential Study indicates that some of the measures needed to meet the emissions reduction goals will not be cost effective. Second, it will be challenging to implement the Clean Heat Standard in a way that is equitable for the most vulnerable Vermonters. Third, workforce limitations may prevent Vermont from meeting the Global Warming Solutions Act targets," Tierney reported. "What we do know is that there will be a significant cost if the Legislature votes to implement this in January. It’s also important to note that the cost of the Clean Heat Standard will be additional to the costs created by the Legislature’s revision last session of the Renewable Energy Standard.”
Tierney noted that work is already being done in areas such as weatherization and heat pump installation as essential first steps in decarbonization and energy efficiency.
“The issue is does it have to be done using the Clean Heat Standard? Does it have to be done by creating a market that’s untested?" pondered Tierney. "There are budgets in the past where the Governor has proposed millions of dollars for weatherization and the like. That was then when we had the money available. He lost those fights and the money was spent on something else. That’s a lost opportunity that makes it harder for us to do what could have been done at the outset if there hadn’t been a fixation on an untested proposition that we should enact the Clean Heat Standard. Only three states in the nation are even thinking about this. Why does Vermont have to be first?”
The Public Utilities Commission must submit a report to the legislature in January that includes its estimates of the financial impact of the Clean Heat Standard on consumer rates and fuel bills.
