by John McCormick
We can get this right.
Vermont’s government is struggling to comply with the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020. It is not alone. 25 States are doing the same.
It mandated reductions by requiring “Vermont shall reduce emissions”.
- 25 percent from the 2005 level by January 1 2025
- 50 percent from the 1990 level by January 1, 2030
- 80 percent from the 1990 level by January 1, 2050
“Shall reduce” is enforceable through the Vermont courts. Citizens can file suit to make the reductions happen:
That is the conundrum: compliance is in the hands of us heating fuels customers. The General Assembly (G.A.) cannot enforce us to abandon our cars or oil heaters. Though, it did enact the “Affordable Heat Act (S. 5) with that in mind. The P.U.C. is now studying how to regulate heating fuel sales to increase costs and force compliance with the CO2 mandates. However, its overly aggressive plan will be hampered by a continuing shortage of trained weatherization and heat pump installers. And, quoting Senator Becca White’s May 11 Commentary regarding S. 5: “…people don’t have to do anything if they don’t want to.” So, that is the bottom line.
Fortunately, the legislature, in 2012, enacted the Home Weatherization Assistance Program (W.A.P.) introduced by Bennington County Republican Representative Oliver Olsen. W.A.P. hired installers to make homes of Low Income Heat Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) clients eliminate fuel waste and greenhouse gas emissions. It provides grants to retrofit, making the building safer and more comfortable.
Housed within the Department of Families and Children Office of Economic Opportunities, W.A.P. working with limited funds and limited workforce weatherized 1,033 households in 2022; reducing heating oil use by 28%, cutting CO2 emissions by nearly 1,400 tons. Its administrative cost is less than half a million dollars. Compare that to the S.5’s $1.6 million already appropriated to design the program.
We fund W.A.P. with a 2 cent fee added per gallon. Return on that investment includes reduced emergency room visits of chronic respiratory patients, fewer lost work and school days, lower cost of living for grantees. That fee is going to expire next June 30. To keep W.A.P. ongoing and growing the G.A. must reauthorize it. This is the moment to embrace President Kennedy’s words: increase the wages of the installation and technical crews.
Installers work in damp crawl spaces, drafty, sometimes bat-colony attics and outdoor repair, in all kinds of weather, at a $20.16/hour salary; $5 less than a bagel shop employee. That is a disservice given their challenging work and a reason new hires is a continuing challenge. The crews are on the front line of fighting drafts and colds in un-insulated homes of low income Vermonters — they improve housing comfort, improve health and save lives.
The 2 cent fee will not rescue every needy LIHEAP family. That requires doubling and eventually tripling the workforce while increasing their compensation. We can get this right by heeding President Kennedy. The G.A. can adjust their salary level gradually to $30 by increasing the fee to 4 or 6 cents. S.5 will certainly increase fuel costs many times more than 4 cents.
John McCormick is Director of the Bristol Chapter of the Louise Diamond Committee to Protect Next Generations.
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Categories: Commentary, Energy, Environment, Housing, Legislation, State Government
stop the increase costs on my light bill/// i will take care of my own house/// no help needed///
Vermont real estate greedheads are selling off Vermont to the highest bidders.
Wanna solve the housing crisis in vermont?
Outlaw airBnBs
Wanna solve it?
1.) Outlaw marijuana retailers as per federal law.
2.) Stop the flow of illegal drugs from the illegally open “border.”
3.) Force employment for the able-bodied & dramatically decrease social services & “entitlements.”
4.) Deport all illegal aliens.
5.) Re-open mental health institutions.
6.) Involuntarily place three-quarters of the current VT legislators into said mental health institutions until they are no longer clinically insane.
Why do you waste your – and everyone else’s time – with this drivel?
Wait…you mean to say green jobs are not good paying jobs as promised by Governor Empty Suit? I know the contractors plastering the fields with solar panels were using staffing agents, hiring illegals or permit carriers earning $25-$30 an hour with lodging to boot. The local white guys were paid $15-$18 an hour. Efficiency Vermont must be clearing some serious chump change off the top with all the subsidies and federal pork pouring into their coffers. Grifters gotta grift!
Uninsulated homes and buildings are a health hazard and wastes money. Installation crews are the only remedy for low income families eligible for Low Income Heat Energy Assistance and struggling to get through this winter. The O.E.O. Weatherization Assistance Program is the lifeline for those families.
Focus on that, for a moment.
We don’t need the darned Affordable Heat Act. We have a great Program already and needing to expand. Write to your legislators and tell them to shut down the PUC study.
The WAP completed weatherization services at 1,139 homes in state fiscal year (SFY) 2023. This was an increase of 106 units from the prior year. The Program made significant progress in filling vacant crew worker positions statewide.
Projected number of households to be weatherized during the current SFY 2024 with Home Weatherization Assistance Program Funds, ARPA State Fiscal Recovery (SFR) Funds, and Department of Energy (DOE) Funds will be1,565 households.
WAP’s SFY 2024 operating budget for salaries and fringe benefits is $388,445; 22% of the Affordable Heat Act’s appropriation of $1,725,000 for PUC to begin studying how to implement it.
With all due respect Mr. McCormick, I lived in a place that was “weatherized” back in the 1980’s. The absentee landlord got a freebie due to his “section-8” status. My family wasn’t section-8, but we got the treatment nonetheless. Why not do more to lift people out of “low income” status by creating opportunities to flourish rather than flounder under government taxpayer ponzi pork? The way the bureaucrats treat low income people reminds me the Dicken’s novels referring to the poor as “the unfortunates”. Clown world indeed!
While ther have been several programs in past decades, currently the Weatherization Assistance Program ( WAP) available to low and moderate income Vermonters is the only no cost option available. There is a program in place , the Weatherization Reimbursement Assistance Program (WRAP), serving Vemonters with a higher income , and as the name states, has to be paid back. In a decade before pandemic times WAP averaged the weatherization just under 180 occupied dwellings annually. In more recent years, the average has increased, however, the average grant to weatherize these home is around $10,000 , a drop in the bucket for home weatherization, but better than nothing. The application process is difficult and unwieldy, especially for potential applicants that have educational deficits.
Mr. McCormick has titled his commentary about the labor force available to do this type of work. It does not exist in the numbers or expertise to address the housing stock that most needs this work. %25 of the occupied homes in this State were built before 1939. There are over 19,000 ” seriously compromised” homes. In the decade of the 90’s there was roughly 18,000 total workers across all building trades in Vermont. In pre pandemic Vermont 15,000, and currently +/- 11,000. This is for ALL types of construction. The average age in all trades is 45, with over 30% of this force retiring by 2025. There are only two training programs instate to provide workers to replace this emigration. It is unknown how many workers entertain this type of work through apprenticeships, but the numbers are low. We cannot rely on workers from out of state relocating here as we are the 8th most expensive State to live in.
In order for programs like these to have the intended energy impact, the workforce would have to be trained and increased exponentially, Deep Energy Retrofits(DER)’s of the most needy dwellings would have to be properly subsidized instead of the current superficial approach, and an application process that should not be a challenge for the homeowner and resemble the IRS,
Yawn….weatherization is a bureaucratic joke. Houses need to breathe to last. Throwing another log or two in the woodstove and cracking a window
“The P.U.C. is now studying how to regulate heating fuel sales to increase costs and force compliance with the CO2 mandates.” This is disgusting and coercive intention to force compliance through economic warfare against their own citizens. Good luck with that on the eastern side of the state. NH suppliers are already making deliveries in VT because it’s cheaper. All the Gov’t will do is drive the VT dealers out of business without lowering the use of oil. I would imagine the state couldn’t do anything about it as it would run afoul of interstate commerce laws.
What bagel shop employee makes $25/hour? Maybe in some trendy shop in downtown Burlington but nowhere else.
Mr. McCormick’s mention of Senator and then President Kennedy’s work on the Fair Labor Standards Act brings back some good memories. I benefited from the increased minimum wage he worked so hard to increase. If I remember right, my hourly wage increased from .75 an hour to 1.10 an hour, and as a teenager, that enabled me to save for college.
Unfortunately, the cost of living has increased faster than any wage increases since then, especially for women, and that gap has had far reaching effects for many women, now retired. Inadequate wages led to low Social Security benefits and if I may suggest, led to the current impoverished conditions of the many retirees needing weatherization to help with the rise in heating costs which will only get worse. Social Security was meant to prevent poverty in old age and it might have if wages had been sufficient. My analysis may be simplistic, many folks have done well and were able to save, but that was the system we were locked into. Imagine earning $30.00/hr! That produces a higher weekly paycheck than many retirees monthly income! Is it any wonder why “Make America Great Again” holds so much appeal?
Now we’re locked in to the crazy system produced by S.5. I’m not optimistic. All workers deserve a living wage but in a socialist leaning state such as ours with so many depending on the state, who will pay the price?
you know/// that is what i do///throw another stick in the wood stove/// very good work out for an old man/// gets to hot open the back door/// you get fresh air in the house all winter///
beware/// vermont legislators/// to be placed involuntarily into mental health institutions/// that will create more tax payer funded jobs/// try another method that is not so expensive///
in a free country/// force employment for the able bodied///does this include people that are not on any government program/// is social security an entitlement/// help me under stand in ten words or less///
Enough of the whining about S. 5, the Affordable Heat Act. Do something like organizing a campaign among your fuel dealers.
Folks, this train is a way down the track. It threatens more than higher heating fuel cost. It can drive a lot of small deliverers to sellout to a new owner you don’t know and have no reason to want to switch from a dealer you trust. It will be very expensive to operate over the next 26 years. In this fiscal year, $1,725,000 was appropriated to hire the initial staff. Many more will be needed to control this bureaucracy on steroids.
Since the study will need funding in July, the House and Senate Appropriations Committee will decide how much to provide PUC and DPS. You can influence that vote by organizing a state-wide campaign to stop the funding until a serious State-level answer to the simple question: can it work as we learn more about it.
I mentioned working with your fuel dealer to broadcast a message to all of your neighbor fuel customers. The large dealers and the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association obviously have contact information and possibly email addresses; all of whom can receive well written notices of how much damage the AFA will do and how it can be stopped.
Get a few of you together and meet your fuel dealer. This campaign can only begin when you throw the pitch. The Appropriations Committee will be inundated with messages to put the AHA on hold during which a serious investigation can determine if S. 5 is even possible.
Do it now. It will be something you can control and suceed.
You’re right, the train is way down the track. You may remember Matt Cota, director of government affairs at the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, fought long and hard on behalf of fuel dealers, with most Vermonters backing him up, and we still lost. The PUC is supposed to be doing the investigation about its workability right now. I hate to say it’s inevitable, but if we couldn’t win with reason and cost estimates directed at our elected officials, why would unelected bureaucrats with no accountability bother to listen? How long can you tilt at windmills? We have more hope of the state printing money.
“Citizens can file suit to make the reductions happen:”
Just about every law they pass increases carbon emissions. Let’s get to suing. Let’s start off with the gun purchase waiting period.
Then all the electric vehicle subsidizes.
Then all of the malinvestment costs that force us to purchase from polluters and or to not produce, as costs are lower in pollution areas (aka China).
We can sue for now allowing parents to home school with that school money.
etc. etc. etc.
Governments are the biggest wasters and polluters on earth. This should be an easy win. How about that time they sent our national guard all the way to DC for no reason, how many carbons was that?
Vermonters, please think what you can do to block the AHA’s next year funding.
Enough of all the yelping and teeth gnashing about the government or how your voice failed to stop the train.
Focus on only 4 Senators on the Appropriations Committee that can actually stop or slow the funding.
VermontVermonter and Cathy, lets talk about the Senate Appropriations Committee and how you could affect the vote.
No pressure but we do need adults to do this because our children will be hurt more than we seniors.
Ok, what are your ideas?
I’m not an organizer so organizing a fuel truck convoy wouldn’t be up my alley. And unless I won the lottery I don’t have money to finance a lawsuit, nor do I have contacts in high places.
The members of the committee are:
Sen. Jane Kitchel, (D)Chair
Sen. Andrew Perchlik, (D/P)Vice Chair
Sen. Richard Westman, (R) Clerk
Sen. Robert Starr (D)
Sen. Dick Sears Jr. (D)
Sen. Philip Baruth (D/P)
Sen. Virginia “Ginny” Lyons (D)
Kitchel sold out on S.5 at the last minute.
Baruth is locked in, forget about him.
Perchlik, from Colorado, is Director of Vermont’s Clean Energy Development Fund,
Founding Executive Director of Vermont’s renewable energy trade association, Renewable Energy Vermont, Board Member of the Solar Rating Certification Corporation’s Board and the ICC’s Renewable Energy Advisory Council. (you can see where he stands)
Westman is on the Joint Carbon Emissions Reduction Committee.
Starr is involved in agriculture, president, Starr’s United, Inc., d/b/a Starr’s Transportation.
Lyons chaired the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy between 2003–2013, “guiding VT’s early response to climate change, renewable energy development, etc.”
Sears worked in residential programs for troubled youth for over 35 years.
Thank you Cathy for supplying the names we need to contact. So many key board thumpers just complain and never mention the people responsible, and relevant info. Again, thank you.
try getting off your lazy … and go to the state house early 7.30 on tuesday morning and go up in the cafeteria and confront these idiots/// in the past this has worked for me/// stop whining/// you key board thumpers will never get any thing done///
Cathy, thank you. I believe we are making some common ground.
No, there will not be a truck convoy. Instead, there will be mass emailings to fuel customers urging them to contact members of the Senate Appropriations Committee with a request they table funding to the PUC and DPS while the Administration takes a serious look at S.5 to determine if it can possibly be implemented and achieve the mandate of the GWSA.
Stay with this thread Cathy. I will provide more insight tomorrow morning.
Peace
“Wanna solve the housing crisis in vermont?
Outlaw airBnBs.”
Yup. I second the motion. Or at least, tax the crap out of it.
I see so many Progressives (mainly divorced and spinster ladies – can I say spinster on a free-speech platform?) running AirBnB’s while attending City Council meetings to argue against other homeowners who charge going prices for rentals in their multi-family houses. If you don’t like the cost of these rentals, then rent your home out to the low-income people you pretend to care about.
Sorry, not sorry. AirBnB is very lucrative. All while also removing space for those who really need housing.
No, I am not a Proggy, Lefty, Democrat, commie, socialist, or any of those types.
I am, however, thinking like a sane person without rationalizing easy profits (have you seen all the upcharges these AirBnB’s charge?) over human needs.
Do something about your politicians instead of sitting on your couch counting your money. This is how we got here to begin with.