Democratic candidates for an open U.S. House seat talked through their proposed energy and climate policies Tuesday night in a forum held by Renewable Energy Vermont, a trade association that advocates for local renewable energy.
Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden, answered questions about their priorities in national climate policy and their commitment to advocating for local renewable energy.
The candidates are vying for a seat that will be vacated by U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. Welch is pursuing the seat now held by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who recently announced his retirement.
Rather than a debate-style format, the event gave individual candidates an opportunity to answer questions posed by Peter Sterling, interim executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont.
Goals for curbing climate emissions
Balint, who said she supports the Green New Deal, promised to make sure “we have huge investments in solar and in wind, not just here in Vermont, but across the country.” She’d also focus on building up the workforce, which would go hand-in-hand with renewable energy expansion, she said.
“We have to use all of our diplomacy within our power to rejoin protocols that every other thinking nation has agreed to, and we have to stop thinking about it as what is only good for us as a nation,” Balint said.
Gray called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and for investing in renewables and supporting the workforce.
“I think we have to really listen to and take in the data around the (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports when they come out, making sure that we’re constantly being guided by the science,” Gray said.
Ram Hinsdale said a priority this legislative session is passing an environmental justice bill, S.148, that would map statewide vulnerabilities and require the state to focus spending in those areas.
She also supports the Green New Deal, and said she’s taken the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, which asks candidates to reject donations from fossil fuel companies.
“We need to commit to keeping fossil fuels in the ground and decarbonizing our transportation and home heating sectors,” she said.
Accomplishments and goals in renewable policy
Asked about ideas for bolstering local renewable energy at the federal level, Ram Hinsdale said she would prioritize updates to the electric grid, which could be supported by federal infrastructure dollars.
“We can’t create the energy system of the future without having a state-of-the-art grid that’s ready to accept renewable energy,” she said.
Ram Hinsdale also called for creating equitable opportunities to obtain both renewable energy and the jobs an expansion of the sector would create.
“Workforce, workforce workforce,” she said. “I think we can look at investments both at the state level and the federal level that help us build a pipeline to the jobs of the future.”
Gray pointed to challenges with the Scott administration, which isn’t supportive of community solar, she said.
“I think one challenge nationally is figuring out how to create the incentives and create the national supporting framework to make it possible for Vermont to take those steps forward,” she said.
Asked how she would support local renewable energy at the federal level, Gray said the state should be aware of misinformation campaigns to discredit local expansions of renewable energy.
“I think there’s a role for the federal government there. Here in Vermont, again, I think it comes back to equitable participation,” she said.
Balint has introduced S.264, a bill that would amend Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard to require the state government to increase the renewable energy requirement for state utilities to 100% by 2030.
“One of the biggest problems that we have is that we don’t have a willing partner in this administration,” she said, pointing to problems with the Public Utility Commission, which regulates the siting of Vermont’s solar and wind projects.
She cited a commentary Sterling wrote in December, in which he pointed to several projects that have been denied in Vermont because of aesthetics, which she called “absolutely ridiculous.”
Balint also said Democrats have missed the mark with messaging about climate policies, particularly to conservative Vermonters and blue-collar workers, and she vowed to bridge that divide.
“It is not an either-or; it is not that you are either a tree-hugging liberal that wants to move forward on renewable energy — you can also be someone who is a socially, fiscally conservative who understands that the wave of the future for the economy and for the planet is renewable energy,” she said.
