by Joe Gervais
The PUC presented its 18-month-in the making report to the legislature on Thursday, January 16, about the Clean Heat Standard. Their conclusion: the program would drive up the cost of home heating oil by 58 cents per gallon, would cause considerable harm to low-income and rural Vermonters, and, given its complexity and redundancy, “is not well suited to Vermont.”
Recently, I wrote to the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure, Kathleen James (D-Manchester), requesting her support for H.16, an act relating to the repeal of the Affordable Heat Act. Her non-answer to my question demonstrated the continued arrogance of the progressive left, who believe they know better than their constituents—even in the face of all evidence to the contrary.
Vermont Democrats passed Act 18 in 2023 by overriding Governor Scott’s veto, insisting since then on a number of talking points that we now know were and are unequivocally not true. How many times did we hear during the campaign, “Act 18 is just a study”? But the first point PUC Chairman Ed McNamara made in his testimony on Thursday was, “We were not asked to do a study of the Clean Heat Standard, we were given a design of the Clean Heat Standard and told to build it.”
We were told the Clean Heat Standard wasn’t a tax on carbon. So, what is the PUC recommending to replace it? A carbon tax on home heating fuels. Why? Because once you strip away all the bells, whistles, and unnecessary complexity of “clean heat credits” and “credit exchanges,” the Clean Heat Standard is and always was just a “Rube Goldberg” carbon tax on how we heat our homes.
How many times were we told this was a program designed to help low-income Vermonters? But the Equity Advisory Group final report to the PUC concluded, “[M]any disadvantaged communities, including Vermonters of color, low-income households, moderate-income households, renters, and residents of mobile homes, face significant challenges in accessing clean heat measures in their homes…. [T]hese households will struggle to experience the benefits available under the Clean Heat Standard while bearing a disproportionate share of the costs.”
It’s time to end this charade, which has cost Vermonters over $2 million and three years of wasted time studying and implementing a program that was never a good fit or an affordable one for our state. The voters spoke loudly last November, expressing that we do not want Act 18, or as it should have been more accurately named, The Unaffordable Heat Act. The 55 sponsors of H.16, an act relating to the repeal of the Affordable Heat Act (all Republicans), heard that message.
Please join me in reaching out to those Bennington County Representatives who have not yet signed onto H.16 and urge them to do so. They are Jonathan Cooper, Timothy Corcoran II, Will Greer, David Durfee, Robert Hunter, Kathleen James and Michael Nigro. Bennington’s two senators Seth Bongartz and Robert Plunkett will have the chance to vote on similar legislation. Legislator contact info can be found at https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/, or a message can be left with the Seargent at Arms at (802) 828-2228.
The author is an Arlington resident, 2024 candidate for state senate, and chair of the Bennington County Republican Party