This commentary is by Chad Farrell of Burlington, founder and CEO of Encore Renewable Energy. He was appointed by the Vermont Senate to represent the clean energy sector on the Vermont Climate Council, and is on the boards of the Vermont Natural Resources Council and Renewable Energy Vermont.
Recent geopolitical events underscore the importance of stable, secure and cost-efficient energy, and the current surge in oil prices, a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have increased the focus on the energy security afforded by locally generated power.
Additionally, the threat of widespread blackouts from wildfires, hurricanes and heavy snow and ice storms remains high.
In response, the deployment of solar and storage solutions is increasingly being used to prevent power outages and provide reliable energy to an increasingly technological and energy-dependent world.
At the same time, scientific evidence further emphasizes the urgency of transitioning away from fossil fuels to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change. This reality means Vermonters must accelerate the deployment of renewable energy projects large and small across our state.
With Congress politically divided and distracted by other time-sensitive issues — the ongoing war in Ukraine, the recent Supreme Court confirmation process, gun violence, inflation and entering year three of the Covid pandemic — we cannot afford to continue to wait for broad federal climate legislation that supports the renewable energy industry and the energy transition.
The good news is that Vermont does not need to wait for federal action to be a clean energy leader. We can take the first step by increasing Vermont’s renewable energy standard to provide the market signals required to address our increasing need for energy security and carbon-free renewable energy resources.
Adopting a 100% renewable energy commitment, as recommended by the Vermont Climate Council’s recent Climate Action Plan, will improve our local clean energy economy and put us on track to meet our climate goals.
However, a 100% renewable energy commitment for Vermont is only part of the solution. To adequately reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and make our grid more stable and secure, it is critical to develop additional, new renewable energy generation inside Vermont’s borders rather than relying on greater amounts of out-of-state sources of energy.
Increasing the amount of clean, renewable energy generated locally within Vermont will provide Vermonters with clean, affordable and secure energy long term while creating thousands of jobs, a true win-win-win.
- More local, in-state renewable energy means energy security.
Getting 100% of our energy from renewable sources and increasing our commitment to build more of these projects locally creates climate resilience and delivers energy security to our local communities.
The crisis in Ukraine has only underscored the critical need for democracies to move away from highly volatile energy sources such as oil and gas originating from petrostates like Russia. The U.S. has had a troubling past with other petrostates, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela, and the war in Ukraine is another clear signal that we will never have true energy independence as long as we rely on products from countries that are hostile toward our democracy.
- Renewable energy is affordable.
Locally generated renewable energy like wind and solar allows us access to fuel without the price volatility we see from oil and gas, as they are already zero-cost resources. As the overhead costs related to renewables continue to decline, they are increasingly cost-competitive. When paired with energy storage, renewables can more closely match traditional baseload generation such as coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants and do so more inexpensively.
Coal-fired power is stagnant because it is not cost-competitive, and in many parts of the country, renewable energy paired with storage is more cost-competitive than natural gas generation.
These economic realities are creating an increased number of stranded coal and natural gas assets in the marketplace and a subsequent drop in investment into new oil and gas infrastructure projects. Vermont needs to be a leader today in order to reap the benefits of a future where locally generated renewable electricity is the cheapest form of energy production.
- Locally sourced renewable energy means good-paying jobs.
Transitioning to a clean energy economy will result in the creation of tens of millions of new jobs in the U.S. These jobs include engineering design, installation, transportation, construction, maintenance and other good-paying jobs that will be distributed geographically and that cannot be outsourced overseas.
The transition to a clean energy economy will also allow for the creation of thousands of domestic manufacturing jobs to support the clean energy buildout here in the states. Committing to 100% renewable energy with at least 20% coming from local projects will position Vermont to attract and retain this future workforce.
Vermont-based clean energy businesses such as iSun in Williston, Dynapower in South Burlington and SunCommon and Northern Reliability in Waterbury are already building out their local workforces and this is only the beginning.
With all this upside from an economic perspective, a job-creation perspective and an energy-security perspective, inaction is not an option. We look forward to working with legislative leaders in Montpelier to advance a pathway toward increased amounts of locally generated renewable energy, a critical element of Vermont’s current and future economy.
