The Vermont Senate has voted to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of S.5, a bill that would set up, but not implement, a clean heat standard.
The body needed a two-thirds majority to overcome Scott’s veto, and senators cleared that threshold with a 20-10 vote Tuesday morning. The measure now returns to the House, which is scheduled to hold its own override vote Thursday. If Democratic leaders of the House are also able to summon a two-thirds majority, the bill would become law over the Republican governor’s objections.
Conor Kennedy, chief of staff to House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said he’s confident the House also has the votes to override Scott’s veto.
Last May, when the governor vetoed a similar bill that would have established a clean heat standard, the House failed to override it by a single vote. This session, Democrats and Progressives have a larger majority in the House, controlling 109 of 150 seats.
The basic goal of S.5 is to require businesses that bring heating-related fossil fuels into the state to help fund the transition to new heating systems that pollute less. It’s expected to significantly curb emissions that come from heating and cooling Vermont’s buildings — one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the state.
Supporters of the bill say it would reduce emissions by creating a credit marketplace in which many of the state’s fuel dealers would owe credits to offset the carbon footprint associated with fossil fuels they brought into the state. S.5 would require the state’s Public Utility Commission to design and study the impacts of a clean heat standard, then present their findings to the Legislature two years from now.
A clean heat standard would allow homeowners, plumbers, fuel dealers and others to earn credits by installing certain “clean heat” measures. Those include improving a home’s energy efficiency by adding insulation or sealing windows; installing cold-climate electric heat pumps, advanced wood heat or solar hot water systems; and using some biofuels, among other measures.
Fuel dealers who don’t offset the credits they owe with clean heat measures would be required to pay a fee, which could be passed on to the consumer. Within the marketplace, that money would be used to fund clean heat measures.
This session, the debate has focused on two arguments. The first is over whether a clean heat standard is an affordable way to reduce emissions in Vermont. The second focuses on whether the bill at hand puts the clean heat standard in motion, or establishes a blueprint that gives a future Legislature more information about the potential impacts of the program.
The latter argument concerns an amendment added specifically to satisfy the governor’s request that the program be approved again by the Legislature in 2025. It says that the clean heat standard cannot move forward without the passage of another bill in two years, but Scott and others have expressed concerns that the amendment won’t hold and doesn’t go far enough.
In his veto message, Scott criticized the “check-back” amendment for being “confusing, easily misconstrued, and contradictory to multiple portions of the bill.”
The measure is considered the Legislature’s highest-priority climate bill this session. Without it, the state would almost surely miss the legally binding requirements in the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act.
Scott vetoed the bill last week, citing concerns about unclear language and a concern that it could irrevocably set the clean heat standard in motion without enough knowledge about its impacts.
“The risk to Vermonters and our economy throughout the state is too great; the confusion around the language and the unknowns are too numerous; and we are making real and measurable progress reducing emissions with a more thoughtful, strategic approach that is already in motion,” he wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
On Tuesday morning, Scott issued a statement calling the Senate’s override “unfortunate.”
“I also want to thank the many thousands of Vermonters who have reached out to their legislators advocating against this bill,” he said. “The House will take its final vote later this week. Please continue to make your voice heard, and I will continue to work to make it at the center of this debate.”
Several lawmakers explained their votes Tuesday morning on the Senate floor. Sen. Irene Wrenner, D-Chittenden North, voted against the override.
“If this bill were truly about greenhouse gas reduction, biomass, biofuels and fracked gas wouldn’t get a pass,” she said.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, who has been apprehensive about the bill, nevertheless voted in favor of overriding the governor’s veto.
“I truly believe that climate change is real, and that even little Vermont has to pay its part,” he said. “I’ve given a lot of thought and done a lot of research on S.5. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s truly a feasibility study, and nothing can move forward until the Legislature and the governor have supported it.”
Sears added that hundreds of people have reached out to him expressing concerns about the bill.
“It will be our jobs to help alleviate those fears. And finally, we may see the same results as we did with single payer,” he said, referring to Democrats’ attempt to overhaul the state’s health care system during Gov. Peter Shumlin’s administration — an initiative that eventually fell apart when Shumlin determined that the cost to the state would be too great.
Meanwhile, Matt Cota, a lobbyist who represents Vermont’s fuel dealers, many of whom would be regulated by the program, said he wasn’t surprised by Tuesday’s vote and said he expects the same outcome in the House.
For fuel dealers, the rubber will meet the road in the next two years when the Public Utility Commission and a technical advisory group determine the specifics of the credit market. Though he noted that the market is already moving away from fossil fuel-based heating systems, he said a fully implemented clean heat standard, if it passes in 2025, would likely put some fuel dealers at risk of closing shop and accelerate consolidation in the industry.
Ben Edgerly Walsh, a climate and energy lobbyist for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said polls show that “the significant majority of the public is actually in favor of Vermont hitting its climate requirements and doing what is necessary to get there.”