Legislators passed nearly two dozen bills pertaining to energy and the environment this year, addressing issues from forestry to clean water to renewable-energy siting.
Of these, the bill most actively followed by advocates was S.230, the renewable-energy siting bill.
S.230 gives towns and regions the authority to write local energy plans that include preferred sites for renewable-energy projects, and that include sites where local leaders consider renewable-energy development inappropriate. Once certified as advancing state energy-policy goals by the Department of Public Service, these plans receive “substantial deference” before the Public Service Board, meaning that developers must typically place renewable-energy projects where local energy plans encourage them.
The bill also requires the Public Service Board to develop noise level standards for wind turbines.
Other energy and environment bills passed by the legislature this year include the following:
H.570: This bill covers a great deal of ground in the arena of hunting, fishing and trapping arcana. One provision repeals a ban on felt-soled waders.
The bill also protects habitat for species listed as threatened or endangered under state law. Conservationists hailed this as an important victory, though some foresters worried the law might be used to place large swaths of land off-limits for logging. Supporters of the bill say that won’t happen.
The state of Vermont is “listing more species than we’re recovering, so we feel this has been a long-standing gap, where the [Agency of Natural Resources] can protect the species itself but not the habitat: a species needs habitat to recover,” said Jamey Fidel, Vermont Natural Resources Council’s forest and wildlife program director. The bill takes effect July 1 of this year.
H.854 establishes criminal penalties for those who take timber unlawfully from Vermont lands. Witnesses told legislators this year that they’ve had timber stolen, and that prosecutors refuse to hold the wrongdoers accountable. This bill makes explicit that, even in the case of standing timber, theft is still a criminal offense.
The roughly 20,000 acres The Nature Conservancy owns around Vermont have experienced four timber theft incidents in the last eight years, said the group’s director of landscape conservation and policy, Phil Huffman. “It’s real — it does happen,” Huffman said of the purloined wood.
H.857: This measure seeks to improve local and regional planning, and in so doing to preserve local forests; it also creates incentives for landowners to donate acreage for conservation purposes. Most of the bill takes effect July 1 of this year.
S.123: The appeals process for Department of Environmental Conservation permits undergoes numerous revisions under this bill, and legislators say the bill will improve public participation in the permitting process. It also limits appeals to parties who have submitted public comment on a proposed permit.
Legislators said this bill will reduce the number of appeals, both by raising the bar to appeal a case, and by expanding the public’s role so that appeals become necessary less often. The bill goes into effect Jan. 1, 2018.
H.595: The legislation sets out standards by which homeowners might obtain permission from the state to use surface-water sources as a potable water supply. This bill takes effect upon passage.
H.355: Creates a licensing scheme for Vermont’s professional foresters. It sets out licensing requirements — a four-year degree in the subject, or ten years’ experience, or various combinations of education and experience. This bill takes effect upon passage.
H.518: This bill defines criteria for membership in the Clean Water Fund Board. It adds four people to the five-person board, two are House representatives, or people appointed in the place of representatives, two are senators or people appointed in place of senators. Each appointee must hail from separate watersheds, and they serve three-year terms. The bill takes effect on passage.
H.308: This legislation ensures that the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers — a state snowmobile advocacy group that maintains trails — doesn’t expose itself to negligence claims as a result of maintaining snowmobile trails.
The bill takes effect July 1.
H.861: Under this measure, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets the authority to regulate what are called “treated articles.” The Environmental Protection Agency uses this term to denote products treated with pesticides, such as utility poles, commercial crop seeds, and lumber.
The state’s agriculture agency currently regulates pesticide and herbicide use with the exception of treated articles. Federal law gives rulemaking authority over pesticides to states, but that authority doesn’t extend to products pretreated with pesticides. States are granted rulemaking authority only for pretreated materials manufactured in-state.
Most commercial-crop seeds come treated with a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids, which numerous studies have correlated with bee die-offs. Legislators have crafted another bill that will establish a committee to study the impact of the pesticides on bee populations.
H.674: This bill requires public notice of combined sewage overflows. Some sewage systems overflow during heavy rains, and under these circumstances effluent bypasses the sewage-treatment plant and flows directly into surface waters such as rivers and lakes. This bill would require sewage-treatment plant operators to notify the state in the event of an overflow, and the state is charged with notifying members of the public.
H.539 establishes a Pollinator Protection Committee, which is responsible for studying means by which the state can ensure the health of pollinators such as bats and bees.
Certain pesticides are believed to contribute to bee declines worldwide, and the legislature considered multiple bills aimed at preventing similar population declines in Vermont. One would have outlawed a suspected bee-killing pesticide called neonicotinoids. Instead, legislators chose to study the issue, and this bill
The committee will comprise academics, beekeepers, legislators and others, who will study potential pollinator threats within the state and deliver a report to several legislative committees by mid-January 2017.
H.248: This bill repeals a section of law that prevented the public from seeing data collected on air pollution when that information could cause a polluter economic harm. The state may not withhold information on pollutants industries emit, according to the bill, although it may still keep confidential certain trade secrets.
H.363: This bill provides financial assistance to owners of fuel storage tanks who wish to upgrade, replace or remove the tanks. The law used to provide such assistance only to owners of indoor tanks. This bill extends financial assistance to owners of outdoor tanks and underground tanks as well.
(Correction: A previous version of this story said H.595 required testing of new wells for chemicals. That provision was removed before passage.)