Updated July 11 at 12:36 p.m.
Officials at the state’s Department of Public Service want to know: How do Vermonters think the state’s electric sector should meet its climate goals?
The director of the department’s Regulated Utility Planning Division, TJ Poor, said a flurry of climate-related energy policies are up for discussion. The department’s “request for input,” released earlier this week, marks the first of a multi-step process to seek out Vermonters’ opinions, according to Poor.
In light of recommendations set forth by the state’s Climate Action Plan and the 2022 Comprehensive Energy Plan, officials are asking the public how to move forward with policies related to the state’s renewable energy standard, which dictates the amount of renewable energy utilities need to include in their portfolios.
Both plans recommend bumping the standard from a 75% renewable energy requirement to a 100% renewable energy requirement by 2030, and the Comprehensive Energy Plan recommends including a parallel rule setting standards for how much of that energy should be low-carbon or carbon free.
Questions about the renewable energy standard are the main issues at play during the public engagement process, Poor said.
“And then there’s all kinds of different issues that could be addressed underneath that,” he said. “We actually want input on what’s important to people to address. Is it in-state versus out-of-state generation? Is it matching the time of generation with the time that people are actually using electricity? Is it improving the way people can engage with their own electricity usage, to self-generate electricity?”
State officials face a challenge, however, when considering this kind of outreach: What’s the best way to welcome new people to conversations about some of the weediest of energy policies?
“When you really look at it, at the end of the day, the people who tend to turn out to these kinds of events are people who’ve got a lot invested, like the business community, the utilities, certainly some REV members,” said Peter Sterling, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont, which advocates for the expansion of in-state renewable energy.
“It can be very hard to get your average person engaged in this conversation about what to do about the renewable energy standard,” he said. “It’s kind of an obscure topic.”
Looking to hear from new voices and reach people who haven’t traditionally been included in policy decisions, department officials are also asking Vermonters where and how the department should focus its outreach.
The department’s effort represents the latest in a trend of enhanced public engagement processes, largely coming from state agencies looking to include a broader swath of Vermonters in climate-related public policy decisions.
Last spring, Vermont lawmakers established the state’s first environmental justice policy, which, among other things, requires state agencies to further include and engage low-income and marginalized communities in policy decisions.
The effort also follows what was broadly seen as a stunted public engagement process by the Vermont Climate Council, which published the state’s first Climate Action Plan last December to dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions. If implemented, its proposed policies would affect most Vermonters.
“We’ve learned from the energy plan process and the Climate Action Plan process, where I think we did a decent job under tight timeframes, but we want to do better,” Poor said.
While a goal of the Climate Action Plan is to improve and expand access to cleaner energy options and contribute to a healthier environment, the costs of the transition could disproportionately impact low-income people and demographic groups that have been marginalized.
Engaging with communities on the ground is always important, said Bindu Panikkar, a researcher who studies environmental justice at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. But community engagement is often underfunded, she said, which limits successful outcomes.
“These efforts improve social cohesion, trust, and create meaningful impact in people’s lives and communities,” she wrote in an email. “Investing in community engagement and addressing issues on the ground should go hand in hand.”
Many of the energy policies at play affect Vermonters both directly and indirectly. For example, the Climate Action Plan recommends broad-scale electrification in the coming years. A pending rule is likely to block new gasoline-powered passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks from the market by 2035, and efforts are ongoing to transition Vermont’s thermal sector to electricity using heat pumps and other technology.
But the more electricity Vermonters use, the more it matters where utilities purchase it. Some of Vermont’s energy comes from the regional grid, which is mostly fueled by natural gas.
“As we ask Vermonters to electrify everything, including their cars and how they heat and cool their homes, where that electricity comes from is absolutely the foundational question,” Sterling said.
Other energy programs, such as net metering, have sparked lively debate among environmental advocates, those who work in the power and renewable energy businesses and those who participate in the program.
The Department of Public Service has continually recommended decreases to the amount of compensation provided to those who participate in net metering when they sell their energy back to the grid. Officials at the department have said net metering is one of the most expensive ways to expand in-state renewable energy, and that it increases electricity rates for the rest of the ratepayers. Renewable energy advocates say net metering is an important piece of the puzzle, and the department shouldn’t discourage efforts to go solar.
Still, others debate the amount of space Vermont has for renewable energy, and how much emphasis should be placed on utilities acquiring power from renewables in Vermont versus elsewhere.
To meet the renewable energy standard, many of the state’s utilities rely on renewable energy credits, which can be purchased from large-scale companies such as HydroQuebec, but some dispute the integrity of that system, too.
Comments on the first phase of the process are due to the Public Service Department on Aug. 5 via email at PSD.REPrograms@vermont.gov. To see the department’s full request for input, click here.
