[B]ARRE — Doug Blanchard says he can literally sit in his living room on a windy day and “feel the cold blow through.”
Blanchard, who was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome two years ago, says the drafts that penetrate his 19th century house significantly intensify his illness. “The amount of pain that I’m in will go to the point where I’m near bedridden,” 52-year-old homeowner said.
An energy auditor with Capstone Community Action, a low-income service agency, recently performed a routine test to determine how much heat is lost from Blanchard’s balloon-frame house. He mounted a fan on the front door to pull air out of the house and then measured how fast the air came in through leaks.
The draft was the equivalent of a 4-square-foot hole in the wall, according to Paul Zabriskie, program director for weatherization at Capstone Community Action.
“It’s now scientifically proven that they’re freezing,” Zabriskie said after reading the air pressure gauge. The air was leaving the house at 6,700 cubic feet per minute.
Capstone has weatherized 218 homes and apartments for eligible low-income residents. But the nonprofit group and four other service providers are losing funding, despite the state’s commitment to weatherizing more homes.
In July, funding for low-income weatherization will drop from about $10.5 million to $8 million, according to Geoff Wilcox, an administrator for the state program.
Wilcox said weatherization funding from the federal stimulus and the merger between CVPS and Green Mountain Power has been expended.
Residents who apply today for weatherization must wait one year before a contractor arrives. At Capstone, the waiting list is more than two years. Providers prioritize applicants among those who are disabled, who have children or receive fuel assistance.
“The major hurdle for low-income weatherization is funding. We don’t advertise. We make no effort to drive people into the program because we have a two-year waiting list,” Zabriskie said. “We are not really reaching out to the population who is eligible because there is no money.”
Advocates and others who want to button up Vermont homes say the loss of funding is alarming. Vermont has the nation’s second oldest housing stock.
“It’s going to be a shame to go down in funding. We take what we’re given and do the best we can,” Wilcox said. “We’re fixing life-threatening heating systems and carbon monoxide issues, as well as saving them energy and putting money into their pockets.”
Seventy percent of the funding for the state’s weatherization program comes from the gross receipts tax, a 0.5 percent excise tax on home-heating fuels and electricity. Another 20 percent comes from the U.S. Department of Energy. The remainder is from an energy efficiency charge on electric bills.
An effort is underway to increase the gross receipts tax from 0.5 percent to 2 percent over three years. But a bill to do just that, H.287, has been tabled in the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee.
Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, chair of the committee, said more money is needed for low-income weatherization. But this year the state is looking for nickels and dimes to close a $113 million budget gap.
“There’s no appetite because there is no guarantee that the money that we would look to raise from these areas where we think it should be raised from would be used to solve the problems in those areas,” Klein said.
Zabriskie said he supports raising the gross receipts tax, but says it is regressive. He prefers a tax on carbon emissions, which has been introduced in the Legislature, but is unlikely to gain support from lawmakers. In order to pay for the General Fund budget, health care and water quality improvements, the House is looking to approve $65 million in taxes already.
“Ultimately, we would like to see a carbon tax that has mechanisms built in to mitigate the regressive nature of consumption taxes,” he said.
Fuel dealers oppose both taxes.
Matt Cota, executive director of Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, said at $3 per gallon for heating fuel, a 2 percent gross receipts tax would raise fuel costs by 6 cents per gallon. He said dealers are required to pay this tax on quarterly forms, and the costs are passed onto consumers.
“We want the tax to be not a hidden tax, but to be out front on the bill,” Cota said.
Klein said his committee will discuss a carbon tax in about two weeks.
Weatherizing apartments
Rep. Curt McCormack, D-Burlington, who owns a four-unit apartment building, has proposed a bill, H.136, that would require the owners of existing apartments with four families or more to retrofit those properties to meet current building codes if the tenants pay for heat.
He said it aims to address a situation in which a tenant pays too much for heat because the apartment is poorly insulated.
“We’re just trying to get some basic energy efficiency for people who are paying their own heat but they don’t have an interest in making an investment in the property,” he said.
In this situation, the landlord would be required to make the energy conservation investments. Asked whether this would increase the cost of apartment buildings, McCormack said it might.
“But I don’t think it will,” he said. “I think most places are going to meet this already.”
