Editor’s note: This commentary is by Erhard Mahnke, who is the coordinator for the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition.
[C]limate change is, without doubt, the most important issue of our time. It is no longer a matter for informed debate that the future of our planet, our lives and those of our children and grandchildren are at stake.
That is why acting on this issue is of increased importance to members of the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, organizations that serve tens of thousands of low- and moderate-income Vermonters through affordable, energy-efficient housing, financial assistance and supportive services. VAHC is made up of over 80 organizations that include the state’s affordable housing developers, housing authorities, homeless service providers, low-income advocates, and anti-poverty agencies.
At the start of the 2019 legislative session, our coalition joined 24 other organizations – low-income, business, faith, public health, youth, environmental and others – in calling for a platform of strategies to take much-needed steps forward on the climate crisis. Specifically, we called on lawmakers and Gov. Phil Scott to support a six-point climate action plan to:
• Double Vermont’s weatherization efforts,
• Create a strong electric and potentially hybrid vehicle incentive program, in particular for Vermonters with lower incomes,
• Expand renewable power,
• Stop expanding fossil fuel infrastructure,
• Enact a Global Warming Solutions Act to ensure stepped progress towards our longstanding climate goals, and
• Thoroughly review and advance economy-wide approaches to cut carbon pollution, grow jobs and protect low income earners.
Housing and homelessness organizations support broad-based solutions to climate change because we understand that climate change is a housing issue. Climate change is a low-income issue. When we look at the impacts of climate change, low-income Vermonters are disproportionately impacted. Consider the fact that approximately 70,000 Vermonters live in poverty. Those who make the least money suffer the greatest consequences from our increasingly extreme weather. They live in the most risk-prone locations, the most vulnerable structures, and are the slowest to recover from climate events. We need only remember those Vermonters whose mobile homes were swept away by Tropical Storm Irene to know that this is true.
Unfortunately, despite the urgency and the tremendous job-creating, money-saving opportunity of taking action on climate, little has been done this legislative session on advancing any of these priorities – until recently.
Last week, the Vermont House voted to increase investment in the state’s successful and underserved low-income Weatherization Assistance Programs. The funding will come from a modest increase in the fuel tax and the gross receipts tax on natural gas and coal. The bill – H.439 – will exempt farmers and foresters and, in fact, provide them tax relief. It’s a much-needed infusion of dollars that will help the most vulnerable Vermonters access weatherization services that will reduce their energy bills and make their homes more comfortable and healthy.
It was an important vote and supportive House members deserve thanks for a program that will help more vulnerable Vermonters reduce their reliance on dirty, imported fossil fuels. As the Senate now digs into the weatherization conversation, it’s our hope that they build on strong progress by the House and go even further to strengthen energy efficiency investments ─ and on climate action more broadly.
In terms of housing, home energy costs are an unbearable burden for low-income Vermonters. The lower their income, the higher the percentage they pay to stay warm. One in five Vermonters is fuel poor, meaning they spend more than 10% of their income on fuel to heat their homes. This is a huge energy burden, one that money-saving weatherization alleviates.
The reality is that the status quo is expensive, inequitable and unsustainable. Expanding the low-income Weatherization Assistance Programs, as the House has done, is an important step forward. This is a successful program that helps lower income earners reduce their fuel burden, improve the health and safety of their homes, and enjoy proven, positive health care outcomes.
We are deepening our engagement in calls for climate action because we know that affordable housing is key to helping address our warming world. When our members build, they build to the highest energy efficiency standards. This not only helps lower our carbon footprint, it lowers the overall cost of the housing, making it more affordable for the low-income Vermonters they serve and more sustainable over the long term – all while creating good-paying jobs that boost our economy and keep our hard-earned dollars in state, instead of exporting them through the purchase of imported fossil fuels.
The reality is that there are tremendous economic, environmental and equity benefits of acting on climate change – and investing in weatherization in particular. It is my hope that we realize we must act on climate, collectively and quickly, to ensure all Vermonters can access more affordable, sustainable, healthy and local energy solutions.
Vermont may be a small state but we have long had a big impact on important social and environmental issues. We are both fiscally prudent and forward looking. And, we know that we must play our part in forestalling the disastrous effects of climate change. We can do so by keeping more energy dollars in state and putting Vermonters to work in the clean, 21st century economy. Let’s make sure that we live up to our vaunted environmental reputation by backing it up with policies and resources that will have a greater impact on one of the largest contributors to our state’s carbon footprint. As the last UN report warns, we only have 11 years to make a real difference.
