There is a lot I don’t know about the Affordable Heat Act, S.5, and from reading letters and opinion pieces on it, I see I am not alone. In fact, there is a lot the authors of the bill do not know or are having trouble communicating clearly.
S.5 has opened a much-needed citizen comment section that I hope will lead to some good changes. I have been impressed with the questions and critical analysis of which the bill, gives me hope that we have a lot of thoughtful people in the State. I also want to thank the legislators who took a stab at this and hope the questions and criticism will prove useful in meeting our carbon reduction goals.
I thought it would be helpful to put it all together in a summary.
Questions
1) How long will heat pumps last? Did the authors do a life-cycle carbon calculations on heat pumps and what was the assumed life span of the heat pump? I have anecdotal information that they conk out after 10 years of hard use and cannot be repaired. They work harder when a house is poorly insulated, and it is very cold outside. It is easy to see why some people think this bill will clean out their bank accounts before it cleans up our carbon emissions.
2) “Affordable Heat” is based on electricity, either from solar panels or the grid. How dirty is the grid now and when do “we” assume that it will be carbon-free? How long will it take to build out the capacity of the grid to handl, cars and heating. Did this information go into a cost-benefit analysis?
3) Do you have an analysis of how the S.5 financially benefits the different income brackets? This would go a long way to figuring out if the low- and middle-income Vermonters are being affected.
4) How did the decision to allocate 19 percent of the money to weatherization come about?
5) Who will determine how this weatherization money gets spent specifically?
Lacking more information, it is my opinion that moving our home heat demands to an electric grid that is not yet “clean” or upgraded to handle the demands of electric cars and heating is a big risk.
I am acutely aware of the current labor shortage for increasing grid capacity. It is a lot more complicated than just allocating money for expansion. In the meantime, we can weatherize and reduce our energy use today, right now, no gambling on the future of the grid or the reliability of some new product. The technology for weatherization is good and it could be much better and more affordable if we made it a priority and put more time and money into it. It also doesn’t raise the cost of living for
low-income Vermonters.
I don’t think too many Vermonters would complain about a bill that’s primary aim was to help them make their house tighter and warmer in the winter, and by the way 19% could go to incentivizing conversion to heat pumps for those who are interested.
Chris Pratt
East Montpelier
