A key committee has voted in favor of a bill that would increase the amount of renewable energy that Vermont utilities are required to purchase.
Lawmakers in the House Environment and Energy Committee voted to support the measure, H.289, by 9 to 1 on Tuesday afternoon. It heads to the House Ways and Means Committee next.
The bill would tighten a coming deadline for the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, a program that requires utilities to purchase more and more of their electricity from renewable sources over time. Right now, utilities are required to purchase 75% of their power from renewable sources by 2032. The bill would increase that amount to 100% by 2030.
It would also require utilities to purchase an increasing amount of energy from new renewable sources that came online after 2010.
While Vermont’s utilities can control the sources from which they purchase electricity, they do not control the electrons that course through New England’s grid. Rather, they purchase renewable energy credits from renewable projects to cover their fuel use.
On paper, Vermont’s electric grid is already mostly renewable, but in reality, Vermonters still receive much of their electricity from natural gas, for example, at night when solar panels are not generating electricity.
The push for the change comes from the idea that if utilities buy an increasing amount of power from new renewable sources, the money would fund new renewable projects in the region and reduce the grid’s dependence on natural gas.
By 2035, the bill would require utilities with 75,000 customers or more to purchase at least 20% of their power from those newer renewable sources, which must also be located within the region and capable of delivering power to New England’s grid.
Smaller utilities must purchase 10% of their power from those sources by 2035. Those that already have 100% renewable portfolios, including Washington Electric Cooperative, are exempt from this requirement but must purchase credits from new renewable projects by set amounts if their total electricity demand increases.
In addition to the regional requirements, most utilities must also purchase an increasing amount of renewable energy from in-state projects by either 2032 or 2035, depending on the size of the utility.
The bill also places restrictions on the types of hydroelectric and biomass facilities that would qualify as “new” renewables.
Overall, the new renewable energy spurred by the bill would be “the equivalent of taking 160,000 cars off the road by 2030,” said Peter Sterling, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont, an industry group that supports the deployment of more renewables.
Ben Edgerly Walsh, a lobbyist with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said the bill “represents an enormous step forward in getting new renewables built and cutting carbon pollution in our electric system.”
“It would quadruple the amount of new renewables that are going to get built in the coming decade,” he said.
The bill came out of a working group that included utilities, environmental and trade groups, and lawmakers. They largely agreed to support the framework included in H.289.
“Four years ago, (renewable energy standard) reform was attempted in the Legislature, and there was no way to get to consensus,” Sterling said. “But this time around, Vermont’s utilities and environmental groups were all able to come to a consensus about how to move forward.”
Gov. Phil Scott has not yet decided where he stands. At his weekly press briefing, Scott said that he did not know the details of the bill, but that he would oppose a measure that threatened to make electricity more expensive for Vermonters and businesses.
“If this can provide less expensive energy, less expensive electricity, then I’d be all for it,” he said.
While the bill has largely been celebrated as a success among climate-focused groups, some lawmakers expressed concern on Tuesday about one potential impact it could have on some lower-income Vermonters.
Broadly, many utility leaders hoped the bill would go further to change Vermont’s net metering program, in which Vermont residents and business owners install solar panels and sell the energy to the grid to offset their electricity use. But utilities pay a higher rate for this power than other commercially produced electricity, and the dynamic can increase electricity rate for everyone else.
“We still think ratepayers are overpaying their neighbors for net metering,” Louis Porter, general manager of Washington Electric Cooperative, told VTDigger.
While the bill did not make changes to individual net metering systems, it did phase out “group net metering,” also called “remote net metering,” where the solar array producing the power being sold to the utility is not located on the same property as the buildings that are benefitting from the system.
Under the bill’s current language, the state’s Public Utility Commission would not accept applications for group net metering after Dec. 31, 2024 — with one exception.
While many of the remote net metering systems are owned and used by large institutions and landowners, some of the energy from those systems benefits tenants of low-income housing developments.
Lawmakers created an extension for developers of low-income housing, who can apply for remote net metering until the end of 2025.
By 2025, the bill would require the state’s Department of Public Service to “develop a replacement program for group net metering” that would reduce resident energy burdens.
Lawmakers said they want to see utilities develop more community solar and renewable projects that can benefit low-income Vermonters, which are separate from the group net metering program.
“We have not done the work that we need to do to consider how we’re going to equitably distribute the economic benefits of a shift to 100% renewable energy,” said Rep. Kate Logan, P/D-Burlington.
Logan said she hoped the committee would take up H.668, a bill that would propose a protection program for low-income electric ratepayers.
Clarification: This article was updated to clarify that the bill would require utilities to purchase an increasing amount of renewable energy from both in-state and regional new projects.
