MIDDLEBURY — Two state lawmakers are urging Addison County folks not to ease up on efforts to battle climate change.

The Legislature in recent years has passed several climate-related bills, from laws aimed at protecting the state’s biodiversity to legislation focused on transitioning the state away from the use of fossil fuels. 

On Monday, Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison County, and Rep. Amy Sheldon, D-Middlebury, spoke with community members about some of those climate bills, as well as areas where they said the state could be doing more to address climate change and their priorities for the upcoming legislative session.  

“We shouldn’t be lulled into thinking that we’re in such great shape that we don’t have to press on. There’s a great deal more left to do,” Bray said, referencing a recent Energy Action Network report on how the state is doing at meeting its climate and energy goals. “Vermont is improving, but we’ve certainly got more work to do.” 

Around 70 people tuned into the Monday Zoom discussion, which was hosted by the Addison County Democratic Party. Bray kicked off the conversation, sharing with those in attendance some of the key findings from the Energy Action Network’s 2023 Annual Progress Report for Vermont. 

The report found that Vermont is not on track to meet the legal obligations for statewide greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions established by the Global Warming Solutions Act, passed in 2020. 

“Right now, we’re making progress in reducing, but we’re not on track to meet those targets that we set for ourselves,” Bray said. 

Other findings from the report include that lower-income Vermonters are disproportionately burdened by energy costs, and that meeting Vermont’s climate commitments will require a larger climate workforce. 

“The challenge there is we don’t have enough people necessarily trained in weatherizing, insulating, putting in heat pumps and solar panels,” Bray said. “On the other hand, it’s also a job opportunity. Wages are good in the industry, so we’re working in the workforce area with career technical centers to help get younger Vermonters interested and aware of the fact that there’s a clean energy economy that they can participate in.” 

ENERGY

Bray, who chairs the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee, also spoke about some of the climate bills the Legislature has passed in recent years, including the Affordable Heat Act that was passed earlier this year. 

The act establishes a “Clean Heat Standard,” to reduce the state’s GHG emissions in the thermal sector. That standard will be overseen by the state’s Public Utility Commission and require obligated parties to demonstrate annual reductions in GHG emissions through a credit system.

“(The act) starts the modeling and pathway for a program that will take fees related to the use of fossil fuels and then distribute them back out to help people make the transition off of fossil fuels,” Bray explained. “It’s sort of paying our own way to make the transition that we know we need to make in order to reduce emissions.” 

Bray noted that work to develop that program is underway. 

“It’s a complicated and multi-part process and program. That work will happen in 2024 to get ready,” he said. “(In 2025), we’ll then have the opportunity to, I hope, press on and implement the program. They may well make changes to the design that we passed this past year, because I’m sure we will learn a lot in the next 18 months, but then the opportunity and the need is to make that plan for reducing fossil fuel emissions related to heating a reality for more Vermonters.” 

Bray also spoke about the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES), which was passed in 2015 and requires Vermont electric distribution utilities to get 75% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2032.

That state senator said he and other lawmakers are looking to pass a revised RES that would move the state’s goal to 100% renewable energy by 2030. 

“That means when we help and encourage people to stop heating with fossil fuels and move over to a cold-climate heat pump, which runs on electricity, that the electricity that pump is running from is clean power,” Bray said. “If we don’t have a clean grid, then the beneficial electrification that we like to talk about for heating and transportation, may well not be so truly beneficial.” 

RES REVISIONS

Attendees weighed in on revisions to the RES during the question and answer period of Monday’s discussion. 

Rep. Caleb Elder, D-Starksboro, raised a couple of questions related to the RES, including what the state considers renewable energy and how much more electric energy the state will require as it moves toward electrification in the heating and transportation sectors. 

“Sometimes we kind of benchmark the past or just the present when really we need to think about how ‘is the 100% of the electric grid 20 years from now actually 300% of what it is today,’ and therefore, we need more than we think we do, because I tend to be in that camp,” Elder said. 

David Blittersdorf, CEO of the solar company AllEarth Renewables, advocated for a greater focus on the development of in-state renewable energy sources like wind and solar. 

“The idea that we’re going to buy wind and solar from out of state is absolutely absurd, it’s not going to happen. We must build a tremendous amount of in-state renewables,” Blittersdorf said. 

Vermonters in another part of the state were also advocating for revisions to the Renewable Energy Standard this week. On Tuesday, grassroots climate justice organization 350Vermont held a press conference at the statehouse in Montpelier, urging lawmakers to approve a revised RES that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and prioritizes new solar and wind energy sources. 

Among those to speak at the event was Ripton resident and environmentalist Bill McKibben. 

“Vermont is poised to play a really important role if we can get this right. We have to work really fast to produce more clean energy here in Vermont,” McKibben said in a video for the press conference. 

LAND USE AND WILDLIFE

During Monday’s discussion, Sheldon shared some of the work lawmakers have done to address climate and environmental issues during recent legislative sessions. Sheldon chairs the House Environment & Energy Committee. 

The state representative noted that in 2022, the Legislature passed one of the “strongest wanton waste bills in the country.” Bill H. 411 establishes requirements for the retrieval and use of certain wild animals, including moose, bears and wild turkeys. 

“It is a climate bill. We need intact, function ecosystems, and we need wildlife in those ecosystems in order to address the challenges of climate change,” Sheldon said. 

Sheldon also discussed Act 146, which was passed by the Legislature in 2022 and amended the state’s Current Use program to create a sub-category of Reserve Forestland in the Managed Forestland use category. 

“That’s a program that opens a door, a little bit, for property owners who are involved in the current use program, whose properties meet certain criteria, to allow their entire parcel to grow into old forests,” Sheldon explained. “My committee has spent a lot of time learning about the important role of mature forests in addressing carbon storage and sequestration, in addition to mitigating the effects of flooding and drought and providing habitat for biodiversity.” 

Local lawmakers on Monday also shared with attendees some of their priorities for the upcoming legislative session. Bray said some of the work ahead includes supporting the transition to electric vehicles and updating Efficiency Vermont programs aimed at helping residents save on energy costs and reduce carbon emissions.  

“Between the RES being revised, the Affordable Heat Act moving forward, revising the Efficiency Vermont program to help it become more effective at greenhouse gas reduction, helping partner with our colleagues in transportation committees to try and do more in the transportation sector and on district energy, I think we have a really solid agenda for the coming session,” he said.