Recently, an opinion piece authored by backers of the Clean Heat legislation (Representatives Bongartz and James) appeared in the Addison Independent. The bill was enacted when the majority party overrode Governor Scott’s veto last year. Perhaps the one saving grace is that the next legislature will need to vote to approve or disapprove the final regulations for the plan to move forward in 2025.

After receiving multiple studies, the Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC) has delivered a draft regulation for the legislature to consider in January. The final draft will likely recommend a Clean Heat Fee of more than $1 per gallon to get this program up and running. Once the legislature reviews the draft regulation, they can accept it, reject it, or amend it. This is the “check back” that was initially opposed by Democratic leadership but was eventually included in the law.

Even though the PUC is required by law to produce a regulation for consideration, they aren’t recommending that lawmakers pass it into law.

According to the PUC:

• “The Clean Heat Standard, as currently conceived, requires substantial additional costs and regulatory complexity above the funding needed to accomplish Vermont’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

• “The Clean Heat Standard would require establishing a credit marketplace managed by what is likely to be a costly credit platform, the potential for fraud and market manipulation”

• “Our work over the past year and a half on the Clean Heat Standard demonstrates that it does not make sense for Vermont, as a lone small state, to develop a clean heat credit market and the associated clean heat credit trading system to register, sell, transfer, and trade credits.”

This program will cost upward of $10 billion over the next 25 years. The money to pay for it will come from those that heat their homes with oil and gas. Anyone that asserts that there is “no cost” associated with the complicated and complex program … is in denial.

I strongly urge readers to consider the dramatic cost impacts of the Clean Heat bill when they vote for State House candidates this fall. The consultant’s study, paid for by our tax dollars, has calculated that the Clean Heat bill could add from over a dollar all the way up to $4.00 per gallon onto heating fuels.

Clearly that is unaffordable, and it should be no surprise why the Governor vetoed the original measure. We need legislators who will work with Governor Scott to avoid new fees onto our heating bills.

Rep. Jim Harrison

North Chittenden