This commentary is by Mary Sullivan, is a former two-time Vermont state representative from Burlington who chaired the House Natural Resources Committee and was co-chair of the Legislature’s Climate Solutions Caucus.
For Vermont to have any hope of meeting the targets of the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Legislature must pass and the governor must sign a well-designed Clean Heat Standard statute.
On Feb. 24, on a 7-2 vote, the House Energy and Technology Committee took the first fundamental step to advance this potentially transformative policy and moved a Clean Heat Standard bill — and this conversation — to the next level.
Getting this policy right — and getting it done — could have many climate, economic, equity and other benefits.
When it comes to climate action, a Clean Heat Standard built on full lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions accounting could be transformative. The fossil fuel we collectively combust to heat our buildings accounts for about a third of Vermont greenhouse gas emissions.
The Clean Heat Standard, proposed by experts and stakeholders around the state and supported by the Vermont Climate Council as key to complying with the Global Warming Solutions Act, sets up a sensible path forward to achieve the necessary reductions in the thermal sector. It’s a performance-based standard, not a prescriptive one, so different companies can figure out the approach that best suits them and their customers.
When it comes to the economy and people’s pocketbooks, a Clean Heat Standard will also have significant benefits. Vermont, on average, imports about $2 billion worth of fossil fuels each year, with about 70 percent of those dollars leaving the state. This is not good for our economy.
There are money-saving, job-creating solutions available now to help Vermonters access more efficient, local heating options and keep more dollars in state and in their pockets. The ramped delivery of those solutions, as annually required by the Clean Heat Standard, will make cleaner, more cost-effective heat available to more Vermonters and, importantly, help in achieving greater energy independence.
This last part is something that the recent, horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine reminds us is so important: We must not depend on unstable regions for our energy. Locally generated and clean power — and heat — is the way to go.
There are no perfect solutions, and no easy answers when it comes to transitioning away from fossil fuels and building a clean energy economy. But significant, stepped climate progress is required — and the participation and partnership of the fuel-provider sector is imperative.
We’ve been doing a good job moving the regulated electric sector away from fossil fuel usage. We’ve seen the economic benefits of doing this, along with air quality improvements and greenhouse gas reductions. But that didn’t just happen by itself. The Legislature took this seriously many years ago and obligated the electric power sector to clean up its resource portfolio.
There is more work to do there, but that requirement — analogous to what the Legislature will ask the fuel provider sector to do by means of the Clean Heat Standard — has reaped economic and environmental benefits to ratepayers and the planet. It is long overdue for the unregulated fossil fuel sector to step up and do its part to help the economy and to help its customers.
Thankfully, some fuel providers — now energy service providers — already are. The Legislature finally seems poised to require participation from all fuel providers, creating a more level playing field in our energy sectors and more certainty for fuel providers and our planet in a warming world.
Vermont has been a real leader in efficiency innovation and cleaning up the electric sector, and now we are reaping the economic and environmental benefits from those wise decisions made quite a while ago. We should have done the same for the home heating sector back then. But there is no time like the present.
So here’s hoping the Legislature successfully moves the Clean Heat Standard through the full body and onto the governor’s desk for his signature. Doing so will help ensure Vermont does its part in reducing the emissions that are warming our planet and wreaking costly consequences to people’s lives and communities.
For the sake of our children and all future Vermonters (along with the current population), I certainly hope that this legislation gets through. Both our economy and environment will benefit. And it’ll be better late than never.
