Law sets ‘untenable pace’ for ‘highly complex and technical program’
By Guy Page
The January, 2025 deadline imposed by the Clean Heat Standard AKA ‘Affordable Heating Act’ for the extensive regulations needed to transition Vermont from fossil fuel heat to electricity can’t be met, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) reported in the first ‘checkback’ required by the controversial 2023 law.
The Public Utilities Commission checkback report on the progress of developing the massive regulatory structure required by the law – was supported by Gov. Phil Scott and opposed by climate change advocates in the Legislature. In the end it was included in the bill passed by the Legislature.
The Clean Heat Standard law requires a new regulatory apparatus to levy fees on fossil fuel dealers and direct the revenue collected to energy efficiency and electricity-based heating systems. Virtually all heating fuel dealers and consumers would be affected.
Critics consistently maintained that poor, rural Vermonters reliant on fossil-fuel heat in older homes would pay more than affluent, urban residents living in newer homes. Supporters said the need to reduce climate emissions was paramount and that cost inequalities could be resolved in the regulatory planning.
The first checkback was issued yesterday, February 15 and sent to key legislative committees. Highlights:
Not Enough time. The January, 2025 deadline demands “an untenable pace” making “extremely challenging” the “sufficient public participation to design such a transformative, first-of-its-kind, highly complex, and technical program.”
Harm to frontline communities. The law’s Guiding Principles for a Just Transition require “moving at the speed of trust” to provide adequate time to incorporate all voices, especially those of impacted and frontline communities in the transition to a sustainable climate future. Under the current schedule, that just won’t happen, the PUC said.
Appearing below is a lengthy excerpt from the PUC Checkback Report to the Legislature:
As the Commission reflects on the work completed to date and the work necessary to deliver afinal rule to the Legislature by January 15, 2025, we must highlight a significant concern: As they have struggled to meet the series of deadlines in the draft comprehensive schedule that was designed specifically to meet that statutory deadline, most participants have expressed serious misgivings that the quality of the rule and the success of its implementation will suffer as a result of the aggressive schedule required by Act 18.
Comments reflect strong opinions that the schedule sets such an untenable pace that it will be extremely challenging for the Commission, the Equity Advisory Group, and the Technical Advisory Group to carry out their responsibilities in a manner that allows time for deliberative process, thoughtful input from all stakeholders, and sufficient public participation to design such a transformative, first-of-its-kind, highly complex, and technical program.
Such comments include: “VEIC believes the schedule reflected by the PUC drafted RULE, combined with the ordered INV schedule sets an untenable pace that would limit public participation and deeply constrain interested or affected parties from participating effectively,” and “[t]his intensity likely will lead to a poorer outcome from the proceedings than could be a achieved with a lesser intensity.”
Several parties advocated strongly for an extension from the Legislature, stating that the current schedule presents a significant barrier to engaging effectively and doing their best work.
The Commission shares stakeholders’ serious concerns that any draft rule presented to the Legislature in January 2025 will suffer from the haste demanded by Act 18, which – following the months required to hire the necessary personnel and appoint the necessary committees – allots mere months to the creation of an unprecedented, complex program with the potential for unintended consequences that impact the lives of all Vermonters. In addition, the expedited timeline necessary to deliver a proposed Clean Heat Standard rule by January 15, 2025, is in direct tension with Vermont’s commitments to climate equity. The State’s environmental justice policy, expressed in statute, is to “provide the opportunity for the meaningful participation of all individuals, with particular attention to environmental justice focus populations, in the development, implementation, or enforcement of any law, regulation, or policy.”
We are concerned that the streamlined process required to meet Act 18’s statutory deadlines will run afoul of at least two of the Guiding Principles for a Just Transition described in the Climate Action Plan: (1) ensuring “inclusive, transparent, and innovative engagement,” and ensuring that “all Vermonters are informed and able to participate” meaningfully in the development of the Clean Heat Standard rule, and (2) “moving at the speed of trust” to provide adequate time to incorporate all voices, especially those of impacted and frontline communities in the transition to a sustainable climate future.
Vermonters deserve a thoughtful, equitable, and achievable Clean Heat Standard, designed with enough time for the deliberative process that such an undertaking requires. This is a complex and unprecedented program that requires robust public engagement, technical analyses, iterative processes, and thoughtful consideration of all outcomes. The Clean Heat Standard is intended to have transformative effects; being careful and deliberate during the design phase will ensure that those transformations allow Vermont to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets while avoiding undue harm.