A failed measure to reform Vermont’s heating sector and the soaring cost of home heating fuels have helped define local legislative races across Vermont this cycle. At the same time, unprecedented political contributions from the fuel industry and environmental groups have flowed into campaigns across the state.
Vermont’s heat sector is responsible for more than a third of the state’s emissions, second only to transportation. The clean heat standard, vetoed by Gov. Phil Scott in May, would have established a credit system to encourage Vermont’s fuel dealers to shift from fossil fuel heating sources to heat sources that produce fewer emissions.
Republicans, who voiced the strongest opposition to the measure, argued the legislation would increase the cost of heating homes and drive smaller fuel distributors out of business. Some Democrats and environmentalists also opposed the bill because it encouraged the use of biofuels, which, like heating oil, produce greenhouse gasses.
Legislators in the House failed to override the governor’s veto by a single vote.
Meanwhile, driven by international factors, fuel prices have skyrocketed. No. 2 fuel oil, typically used to heat buildings, rose in price by 66.8% between October 2021 and 2022, according to the Vermont Department of Public Service. During that same period, kerosene prices rose 78.2% and regular gasoline 18.1%.
The clean heat standard may be reintroduced next legislative session, and candidates across the state have used the measure as a way to set themselves apart from their opponents.
In the Orange Senate race between longtime incumbent Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, and Republican John Klar, many of Klar’s attacks against his opponent have highlighted MacDonald’s support for the clean heat standard and other climate legislation.
Vermont Republican Party chair Paul Dame, who labeled the Orange Senate seat “the big Senate race to watch,” has also latched onto the issue, contending that MacDonald “doesn’t really take into consideration the difficulty that Vermonters are having paying for things like their heating bill.”
Republicans nationwide have seized on the cost of home heating fuel this election cycle. In response, the Biden administration has tapped oil reserves in an effort to bring down prices before the midterms.
In Vermont’s local elections, much of that conversation has centered on the clean heat standard. Dueling incumbents Rep. Vicki Strong, R-Albany, and Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury — who are fighting for a single seat in the redrawn Orleans-4 district — have used the issue to differentiate themselves.
Similarly, in the Rutland-Bennington House district, where Rep. Sally Achey, R-Middletown Springs, is hoping to fend off the district’s former office holder, Robin Chesnut-Tangerman, climate legislation has separated the two candidates on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
As the clean heat standard has come to define races, a political action committee started by Matt Cota, the former executive director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, has spent more than $18,000 this cycle. That’s the most the Heat PAC has spent since at least 2014. The donations have largely helped fund vocal Republican opponents to the legislation, such as Strong, Achey and Castleton’s Jarrod Sammis.
Republican mega-donor Skip Vallee made his fortune from his Maplefields gas station and convenience store chain, as well as through his father’s home heating fuel and propane business. Vallee, his business and his family have donated more than $86,000 this election cycle, about $75,000 of which went to local candidates.
Vallee did not answer questions about whether climate legislation influences his donation decisions, instead writing in an email that it “should not be a surprise that Vermont’s former member of the Republican National Committee would be excited to help Republican candidates in Vermont and bring balance to our legislature and help our great Governor Phil Scott.”
Proponents of climate legislation haven’t been shy about donating to Democrats. Vermont Conservation Voters Action Fund has spent over $106,000 as of Nov. 4. Much of that money has purchased digital ads and mailers for Democratic candidates in competitive campaigns, including more than $35,000 total for the three Democrats running for Senate seats in Rutland County, and more than $25,000 supporting Franklin County Democratic Senate candidate Pam McCarthy.
The Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer and environmental protection organization, has spent nearly $96,000 this cycle on state elections through its VPIRG Votes PAC. That’s included donations to climate-minded Democrats in closely watched races like MacDonald’s and Sims’. By comparison, the PAC had spent only $18,000 by this point in the 2020 election cycle.
Whether or not the clean heat standard returns next session, climate legislation will. Vermont is not on track to meet its legally mandated climate emissions requirements for 2030. The measure was projected to account for a third of the state’s legally mandated emissions reductions by 2030, according to the Energy Action Network, a research and analysis nonprofit.
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story inaccurately described the Energy Action Network.