Senate Republican Leader outlines some agenda items for next year.

by Rob Roper

Speaking on WVMT’s Morning Drive, Republican Senate Leader, Scott Beck (R-Caledonia) outlined a few agenda items that his caucus would be pursuing when the legislature reconvenes in January. Another attempt to repeal the Clean Heat Standard (Act 18). Setting the stage for public safety initiative that would require a constitutional amendment process beginning in 2027. But most interestingly – and the one he went into the greatest detail about – was an effort to roll back the Renewable Energy Standard passed in 2024.

The Renewable Energy Standard (RES) requires Vermont utilities to purchase 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030, with an emphasis on in-state generated power. This will add somewhere between half a billion and a billion dollars to Vermonters’ electric bills over the next decade, depending upon which estimate you believe. Vermont already has some of the highest electric rates in the country, and the RES only promises to make that worse.

Here’s the exchange between Beck and show host Anthony Neri:

Sen. Beck: I think a sleeper – I don’t think it’s a sleeper anymore and it definitely gets into this affordability question – is for a lot of people the price of electricity. It is getting up there, and, as I think most of your listening audience knows, last biennium [(2024) the legislature] passed the Renewable Energy Standard, which was an acceleration of Vermont’s goals of getting electricity from non-carbon sources…. Most people I talk to are saying that they think having to buy that additional expensive electricity, not to mention with the additional demand for electricity expected in the next four to five years, they’re expecting electricity to go up 20 to 25 percent.

Host: We’ve been talking with some representatives of regional development corporations in the last few days, and I think it was Tim Smith of Franklin County, they’ve got this huge new [industrial] park, the old air strip up there, and they’re working hard on attracting somebody, and he said that our electric rates are so much higher than even New York State now it’s really hard to attract substantial employers just based on the electric rates. I don’t think it’s a sleeper issue anymore.

Sen. Beck: No, it’s woken up. Of course, RES, the Renewable Energy Standard, was a bill passed with no Republican votes in the legislature, the governor vetoed it, and then the [Democrat supermajority in the] legislature in 2024 voted to override the governor. I think you’re going to see this year Republicans make an effort to roll back RES. We’re 97 percent clean right now. 100 percent’s a great goal, but, boy, to get from 97 percent to 100 percent is really expensive.

Host: And what difference does it make? Let’s be honest!

For the environment? No difference. For affordable electric rates? A big difference!

And it’s not just the unreasonable cost to consumers and the difficulty unnecessarily high electric rates create when courting major employers and industries in the days of energy intensive AI. The mandates in the RES will have a negative impact on our environment and our communities, as exemplified by the recent approval by the Public Utilities Commission of a massive solar facility in Shaftsbury.

According to an article in Seven Days,

The Public Utilities Commission signed off on plans by Connecticut-based Freepoint Solar to construct an 80-acre solar farm on pastures and forest in the rural area along Route 7 north of Bennington. The 191-acre property is located on Holy Smoke Road, so called because of the stunning views from the hillside, locals say. Approximately 50,000 photovoltaic panels will cover an area equivalent to about 65 football fields…. More than 104 acres of agricultural fields will be used for the project, and 42 acres of trees — including nearly 35 acres of mature forest — will be removed.

The surrounding community, not surprisingly, is overwhelming opposed the project. The article notes that because Freepoint Solar isn’t even a Vermont-based company our local utilities would not be able to buy the power this monstrosity generates, and the renewable energy credits generated from the project would benefit entities outside of Vermont. “In other words,” to quote PUC commissioner Margret Cheney, “Vermont will bear the burdens of this facility but might not directly reap the environmental benefits that it provides.” Which are none, and she voted for it anyway.

Sounds like a crap deal all around for Vermonters! So why would the VERMONT Public Utilities Commission ever even consider signing off on something this destructive with no apparent benefit to the Vermont community it’s located in or even the state of Vermont?

Answer:

“Our review of this petition has forced us to consider aesthetic and environmental impacts affecting a specific Vermont community within the context of Vermont’s broader legislative and energy objectives,” wrote chair Edward McNamara and Commissioner Riley Allen. The two found that, on balance, the project merited a permit, called a certificate of public good, because it will help Vermont and New England meet renewable energy goals.

In other words, the Renewable Energy Standard – and the Democrat majority that passed this law — made us do it. If ever you needed a reminder that the policies of the far-left radicals in Montpelier are not designed to benefit you, here you go. Again.

So, very glad to hear that Republicans are going to try to “roll back” this awful law. Roll it all the way back to “repeal”! While I am quite certain the Democrat majorities in the House and Senate will block this attempt, as they did this year with a similar attempt to repeal the Clean Heat Standard, we in the public need to get behind the effort and make them pay a price in November 2026 for not listening.

Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com