The Public Service Department will hold four public meetings in July to gather public input on Vermont’s comprehensive energy plan.
The department advocates for the public interest in front of the utility-regulating Public Service Board and is required by law to adopt an updated plan by the end of 2015, and another by the end of 2021.
The department has invited Vermonters to fill out two online surveys (1, 2) through July 24. Vermonters can also attend any of four meetings held from 6-8 p.m. in July.
- July 9 in Woodstock at the Billings Farm and Museum
- July 16 in Middlebury at the Town Hall Theater
- July 20 in Manchester at the Manchester Community Library
- July 23 in St. Albans at Bellows Free Academy
The department most recently adopted comprehensive energy plans in 1998 and 2011, according to Asa Hopkins, director of energy policy and planning at the Public Service Department.
The 2011 plan called for Vermont to get 90 percent of its energy through renewable sources by 2050, and the department expected that a portion of the remaining energy would come from methane-heavy natural gas.
“We have no plans for [the 90 percent goal] to change,” Hopkins said. “We’re thinking of supplementing that with shorter-term goals and figuring out what appropriate goals are and how to reach them.”
The Vermont Natural Resources Council also released a statement saying the Public Service Department “wants to hear from Vermonters about the kinds of solutions they’d like to see in a 2015 plan to achieve that [90 percent by 2050] goal and how the state should prioritize strategies and solutions around conservation, efficiency, transportation, land use, generation and more.”
