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By Steven Heffernan
Most Vermonters were shocked by the Department of Public Service (DPS) providing the final report of the Clean Heat Standard by the consultant NV5 including a $9.8 billion cost. More will come of that as the Public Utility Commission presents its proposed rule to the legislature, in January.
I acknowledge Senator Bray’s pledge: “I think that’s actually part of my job, right, through the fall and into the session, to say, “Look, we are going to maximize the affordability of this program…”
He intends to: “build a more palatable Clean Heat Standard” and said he is not interested in building a program that adds $1.70 to a gallon of heating fuel. “That would be a real problem for many Vermonters.” He should have said that, in his Energy Committee, before reporting it to the Senate floor.
With all due respect to Senator Bray; 2 years, $2+ million on PUC’s defining Act 18, using 30 experts has produced this unaffordable, unworkable scheme.
There is a reasonable, affordable and reputable solution. Use what Vermont already has…the Vermont Weatherization Assistance Program (W.A.P.). Expand it to double the current 1,500 homes weatherized by end of this year or more by introducing my “Healthy Homes Act”.
It increases installer salaries from $20 to $30 over several years. Their job is difficult. They deserve a living wage and our respect and appreciation. It will certainly increase new hires.
Workforce shortages were cited by the NV5 study and T. J. Poor, DPS’ Director, Efficiency & Energy Resources pointed to workforce challenges highlighted in the study. Vermont has a lack of people to fill jobs needed for the program, with the largest gap in those available to complete weatherization projects, the study notes.
“Particularly when you think about the other challenges in the state, where would that workforce live?” Poor said. “It’s another thing that we’re going to work through.”
Vermont should allow W.A.P to expand its free retrofit service to low, median income homes with weatherization and heat pumps. This expensive retrofit is likely beyond their means without the benefit of a grant covering all the costs.
That will require addition funding, now set at 2 cents per gallon to 4 then 6 and possibly 8 cents, over several years, depending upon the availability of adequate workforce. Yes that will increase your fuel costs, but consider the alternative costs of Act 18 and Senator Bray’s reference to his $1.70/gallon ceiling.
W.A.P. is designed to weatherize homes of 26,000 Low Income Heat Energy Assistance Program clients. Federal LIHEAP funds are augmented by Vermont’s State budget. Those energy burdened households are required to allow W.A.P. to weatherize their homes but the waiting list could be several years or longer because of the worker shortfall.
Building out the W.A.P. program will provide comfort to those families and make the LIHEAP program more efficient by reducing the fuel purchases it will make throughout the cold winter months. In fact, Richard Giddings, Director of Vermont’s LIHEAP program cautioned the PUC study that raising heating fuel costs will diminish the amount of fuel assistance he can provide.
The heavy weight on Vermonters’ shoulder to comply with the Global Warming Solutions Act is the driving force behind the Legislature’s efforts to comply with it by raising fuel costs estimated to increase by $4 per gallon.
As if the CHS is not bad enough, the next General Assembly will be faced with legislation designed to increase pump prices for gasoline and diesel to further tax Vermonters, in our rural State without adequate mass transit alternatives.
The author is a candidate for State Senate in Addison County. The Chronicle welcomes news and commentary from all political candidates.
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“As if the CHS is bad enough, the next General Assembly will be faced with legislation designed to increase pump prices for gasoline and diesel to further tax Vermonters, in our rural State without adequate mass transit alternatives.” Here’s what Steve is talking about:
The first of two “public engagements” on this carbon tax scheme was held yesterday by Zoom meeting by the Climate Action Office of the Agency of Natural Resources. The second will be in December and the final program design is scheduled to be presented to the legislature in February 2025.
The program proposed is similar to RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative which caps emissions for fossil electricity generators in the ISO-NE service area. The most recent quartely auction price per ton of carbon emitted, was $25. This translates into roughly $.20 cents per gallon.
The program as presented yesterday would apply to all uses of fossil fuels, heating fuels, transportaton fuels, industrial process fuels in Vermont. Once the program is implemented the cost of a ton of carbon would be subject to a competitive market. It was suggested that the largest energy consumers in the state including Global Foundries, UVM, OMYA and two others not named, would be exempt from the program to protect them from the adverse effects and preserve the jobs supported by these large employers. The cost of the program will fall on everyone else.
The competitive market for the RGGI auctions has bid the price of a ton of carbon up from $4 in 2019 to over $25 today. Half of the bidders in recent auctions were private speculators, not the fossil fuel generators that are obligated to purchase the allowances for whatever the market determines, who then pass that cost on to their customers.
The RGGI program has been called a Black Box by its critics for lack of transparency about how the auction proceeds are distributed. Social justice warriors are increasingly seeking to have influence in the process.
Addison County needs to elect Steve Heffernan and Landel Cochran to the Senate if there is any hope of preventing this train wreck.
Mr. Heffernan’s commentary provides a logical next step when the CHS collapses with its multi-billion dollar credit costs and huge administrative costs. 70% of Vermonters will pay that credit cost on every gallon purchased until 2050; whether or not their home can be weatherized and a heat pump installed. Estimates have about 30% of Vermont’s dwellings cannot be weatherized because of structural deficiencies or vermiculite panels in the attic.
His intent to expand the State’s Weatherization Assistance Program is brilliant: use and expand what already works.
WAP weatherized 1,200 homes last year and projects another 1,500 this year. All those homes are receiving Low Income Heat Energy Assistance and owners are required to allow their homes retrofitted. And, he would allow WAP to expand into the low and median income homes providing the same free-of-cost retrofit provided to LIHEAP clients.
WAP could and should double the projected homes but workforce shortages now make that unlikely. However, Mr. Heffernan’s bill would increase their salaries to $30 over several years. That will attract new employees.
They provide a human benefit to energy burdened families. His “Healthy Homes Act” is the only recourse the legislature has to replace CHS when it is defeated or the Governor’s veto is sustained.
Yes, we need Steven Heffernan and other Republican Senate candidates to assure the veto will be sustained. As a Democrat and environmentalist, I am eagerly supporting him. We need more adults in the legislature.
The workforce shortage, better described as a shrinkage, is only one of several stumbling blocks. In 1990 there were roughly 18k workers in all the construction trades serving +/- 500 Vermont population. Post Covid, there is roughly 12K tradesman responsible for new construction, old remodel and renovation, including weatherization,serving 650,000. The markets currently place more pressure on newer construction, where certainly there is more profit for employers than in remods and weatherization. There is the remaining problem of training whatever workforce enters the weatherization sector, as the skill set for energy retrofitting is completely different in technology, materials and technique. This work needs different educational programming than what is currently offered by our 17 Career and Technical Centers, by Vermont Technical College, and the private sector is limited in training and apprenticeships not just by numbers entering their own programs, designed to feed their own business model, but even by geography.
Another Two problems with LIHEAP, WAP and WRAP, is 1, they have already created a sizeable,overly complicated, expensive beurocracy around weatherization. The umbrella agency is The Department and Children and Families. The only rational reason to place the weatherization programs under this agency is the financial eligibility requiements of middle and lower income families. There is a segment of this population that has historically had a strained relationship with this often disfunctional agency, and it’s predecessor, SRS. Many in this category would be leery of supplying any information to an organization that has been for them, adversarial. 2. The State has been divided into 5 sectors, all headed by different organizations. The paperwork surrounding all of these programs is onerous, detailed, confusing, and often intrusive, requiring a level of education or technical ability that often challenges the abilities of applicants ( please, go to any of the sites and examine the applications requirements) and All 5 reach out by electronic and print means, but rarely put boots on the ground to investigate and target which homes in the community should be prioritized and offered the services personally, rather than rely on voluntary entry and participation, placing all of the responsibility for entry into these programs on the talent and skill of the applicant.
The WAP program , on average, will provide+/- 10k in weatherization to a home that most likely represents a drop in the bucket in what is truly needed. The energy savings from this effort would be offset by higher fuel costs required under the Affordable Heat Act, and thus either a wash by paying more for using less, and not saving any money whatsoever to the homeowner, but certainly subsidizing someone else’s weatherization. Deep Energy Retrofits on houses that require substantially more materials, money, and specific expertise isn’t what the WAP program is designed to do, and WRAP, also not really designed towards DER’s, of course requires repayment and would be an ongoing budgetary concern. Lastly, Certified Energy Auditors are a real bottleneck.Only a handful of properly trained and educated are available, and problematically, most employed in the private sector and their loyalty is to their employer. Neutral, independent CEA’s should oversee all of the weatherization efforts. WRAP, as a pilot program, in our largest city, has a serious backlog ,with only a handful of projects completed, mostly for landlords. Chittenden County has the largest number of workers in the construction trades.
As you can see,the problems are current and urgent, but not insurmountable, given reorganization in the governmental and the Career and Technical Education sectors, money, but overall, time is needed. The abomination of irresponsible inefficient legislation that S.5 , act 18, and GWSA represent do nothing to help the workforce shortage, have already created a maybe permanently entrenched bloated beurocracy around direly needed weatherization efforts and if implemented in its current form, extremely regressive towards the population of our State that needs this help the most.
The previous owners weatherized my small, old (1870) house within an inch of its life, making it easy to heat. It has vinyl siding over clapboards, blown-in insulation and thermal windows. Oftentimes household chores such as cooking and baking, washing dishes or running the drier provide adequate heat on a chilly day. Plus I have a south-facing door and two south-facing sunny windows. Lack of an attic means my upstairs rooms get sunlight directly over them on the roof, so a sunny day will make it cozy in here. Oftentimes it’s too hot after a few minutes with the furnace on. So, I think weatherization is a good idea.
The charges on my three light bills from Green Mountain Power are paying into this system. Look at the number of fees on your bill. How much money were these experts paid for this fraud??????
Want a sensible remedy to the clean heat chaos, vote out the so-called ” Super Majority ” out, if not you’ll be paying and paying ……………….
It’s all a scam, follow the money and see whose pockets are getting padded !!
So at $1.70/gallon, I will get hit with an additional $2,550 in taxes because of this. Add the $2,880 for the year that was added to my mortgage. That alone is a tax increase of $4,830 on me just this year. That doesn’t include the new payroll tax. I’m a middle class working stiff and can’t afford this. Vote these people out!