By Paul Bean
Senator Anne Watson (D-Washington) on Wednesday introduced S.65, expanding on Efficiency Vermont’s authority to meet the mandated carbon emissions reduction goals.
Some of the bill’s measures were criticized by the chair of the Public Utilities Commission as unnecessary and “duplicative” of other state energy programs.
The bill is introduced as legislators struggle to adopt the Clean Heat Standard, enacted to implement carbon emissions goals. As noted by Behind the Lines columnist Rob Roper, lawmakers currently appear stalled on whether to hold an up-or-down vote to proceed with the GWSA.
“The money that we give to Efficiency Vermont has certain rules around it that can be used,” said Senator Anne Watson in an interview outside the Senate committee room. Efficiency Vermont was established in 2000 to help Vermonters reduce energy costs and environmental impact through electrification and weatherization.
“So particularly, hearing from the Governor’s budget address that he was interested in shifting Efficiency Vermont’s mission to being more climate oriented, it felt like a great opportunity, and bipartisan opportunity to take on the work of seeing if we could use the same of money and align it towards our climate goals,” continued Watson. “Also, use that money for more equitable purposes, particularly because everybody through their electric bills is paying into Efficiency Vermont. What we learned from the Energy Burden Report is that people with lower incomes have less of a chance really to get some of that benefit through rebates and what not.”
Efficiency Vermont is operated by the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC), a nonprofit, under contract with the Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC). It provides technical assistance, financial incentives, and education to households, businesses, and communities across the state.
Renewable-minded legislators are looking to battery storage as a way to provide electricity as needed from intermittent solar and wind power. Vermont currently has a small infrastructure of grid-level battery storage, deemed by critics as too expensive. S.65 would use Efficiency Vermont money to create more.
Under S.65, Efficiency Vermont would provide “for the development, implementation, and monitoring of gas and electric energy efficiency, and conservation, electrification, active demand management, and energy storage programs.”
Edward McNamara, chair of the PUC warns that getting Efficiency Vermont involved in energy storage, or creating a new organization that works towards similar goals would not be cost-effective or sustainable because there are existing programs currently working on this.
“I think in Vermont, we tend to see a program that works and then either double down on it regardless of whether it’s the same work, or we take something else and slap it on top because we don’t wanna get rid of the existing program, So we end up with duplicate programs,” said Edward McNamara, Chair of the PUC in testimony to the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday.
“That’s my concern. We have an existing program and slap something else down over here that affects the existing program, but we don’t look at the existing program,” McNamara continued.
“You have folks doing storage. I don’t know why storage is mentioned in S.65. I don’t think it’s necessary. Load control programs are also being implemented, especially on the electric vehicle level by the utilities. Leave that with the utilities largely because storage and load control in particular can have significant impacts on electric utility systems…The duplicative nature of some of this work is a significant concern because you’re paying twice for essentially the same service.”
“What S.65 is saying is okay now, some portion of that money that ratepayers are paying in, isn’t going towards electric efficiency, reducing electrical use. It’s going to go to reducing carbon fuel use,” Sen. Scott Beck told VDC outside the Senate committee room following McNamara’s testimony. “They’re basically saying, we should be using some of this money for thermal reduction, instead of 100% for electricity reduction.”
See all bills assigned to this committee here. Constituents may contact committee members (click link on name for bio, party affiliation, etc.) with comments, questions and information at the following email addresses:
Anne Watson, Washington County, Chair, awatson@leg.state.vt.us
Terry Williams, Rutland, Vice Chair, Twilliams@leg.state.vt.us
Ruth Hardy, Addison, rhardy@leg.state.vt.us
Seth Bongartz, Bennington, sbongartz@leg.state.vt.us
Scott Beck, Caledonia, sbeck@leg.state.vt.us
All committee transcripts are available at www.goldendomevt.com. Committee meeting video available at the committee’s YouTube channel. The committee meets in the morning in Room 8.