Climate Action Plan Demands Spend, Spend, Spend!
But no clue where will the money comes from?
I’ve spent a lot of time discussing the Clean Heat Standard and Cap & Invest proposals to meet the mandates of the Global Warming Solutions Act, and have noted often but perhaps too obscurely in passing that even these monumentally expensive and disruptive programs won’t, on their own, do the job. Other programs, each with its own price tag, will be necessary as well. What might they be?
The Climate Council just passed its update to the so-called Climate Action Plan (it’s not a plan), and released its twenty page draft of policy recommendations. Here are their top spending proposals in order of appearance. You can make the cash register “cha-ching” sound effect in your head as we go along.
Page 1:
Expand and maintain a permanent Flood Resilience Communities Fund.
Invest in municipal infrastructure to support compact development.
Increase funding and adapt existing Vermont programs that achieve climate goals.
Weatherize homes, focusing on low- and moderate-income households.
Take preparatory steps now and join a cap-and-invest program.
Support utility programs that ensure the electric grid supports customer electrification and resilience.
Page 2:
Identify funding and also support the needed workforce.
Page 3:
Ensure that a significant portion of cap-and-invest revenues are used to provide direct payments or rebates in as close to real time as possible to Vermonters with low- and middle-incomes. [Note: this means that the tax on fossil fuels will have to be significantly higher than the estimated 80 cents per gallon to cover the cost of this social safety net program.]
Page 4:
Continuing to monitor and maintain Vermont’s adoption of the California Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) and Advanced Clean Trucks….
Supporting vehicle electrification ensuring long-term, consistent funding for EV incentives…
Supporting vehicle electrification investment for the equitable deployment of fast charging and Level 2 charging options….
Invest in public, active, shared, and multimodal transportation, such as transit, micro transit, biking and walking.
Page 5:
Support existing programs and expand as needed to ensure the electric grid supports customer electrification necessary to meet Global Warming Solutions Act goals, including service drops, transformers, smart panels, EV chargers, storage, etc.
Page 6:
Sustain and expand funding for comprehensive weatherization focused on low- and moderate income households… ensure that the current scope of weatherization being conducted is sustained, while aggressively working to ensure that 79,000 additional homes are comprehensively weatherized as soon as practicable… Current programs (funding and workforce) are able to weatherize approximately 4,000 homes per year at an average cost of $11,000 per unit. Much of the recent funding has come from federal sources, which are unlikely to be renewed. [So, Vermonters will have to pick up the tab!]
Through legislation or administrative action, ensure additional commercial, industrial, municipal, and non-residential buildings, as modeled to be necessary, are comprehensively weatherized by 2030, and secure the funding needed to achieve the target.
Secure funding for electrification of space & water heating for low-and moderate-income households.
Page 7:
Analyze options for a performance-based Clean Fuels Standard that implements a declining carbon intensity (CI) score eligibility requirement for residential, commercial, and industrial (RCI) fuels and can be implemented gradually alongside other complementary policies that would be necessary.
Page 8:
Amend the Vermont State Board of Education's Education Quality Standards to incorporate environmental and climate change education at all grade levels. [Yes, let’s propagandize the children in our public schools! Could this be why math and reading scores are declining and mental health issues are on the rise?]
Compile an open source, accessible, and interdisciplinary climate change curriculum for Vermont educators that builds off existing resources and programs to enable teaching across subject areas.
Page 9:
… the State should identify, authorize, and appropriate revenue from existing or new sources that will immediately support the creation or expansion of certain priority actions.
Support the implementation of the Climate Superfund (Act 122).
…explore opportunities to further leverage public and private capital to make needed clean energy, resilience and adaptation investments… (such as on-bill utility financing, bonding and insurance markets).
Page 11:
Establish permanent, dedicated funding for Regional Planning Commissions to hire and retain staff….
Secure sustainable, long-term funding to expand and maintain a permanent Flood Resilient Communities Fund….
Expand the Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program (BEGAP) to provide financial support and one-on-one coaching to businesses and nonprofits….
Page 12:
Create a transportation flood resilience funding program….
Replace or harden electric and communication infrastructure….
Page 13:
Increase investment in municipalities to harden, improve, expand and build new drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, and other infrastructure to support compact development…
… increasing investment in walkable and livable communities.
Provide funding for equipment, supplies, and services that improve resilience and reduce the health impact of climate-related hazards for income-qualifying households needing extra assistance.
Page 14:
Provide state-contracted community mental health services partners more capacity to address anxiety, depression, distress, and trauma caused by climate change….
Page 15:
Increase funding, enhance, and adapt existing State of Vermont programs that support greenhouse gas emissions reductions, soil carbon sequestration, and/or climate adaptation and resiliency on working lands, including through manure management.
Fund and implement Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs for lands to encourage landowners and land and water caretakers to implement practices that improve soil health, crop and forest resilience, increase carbon storage, increase stormwater storage capacity, and reduce runoff.
Page 16:
Create a dedicated climate impact emergency recovery fund for farms and forestry operations….
Dedicate robust funding for farm and forest supply chain resilience and state food security, including significant investment in storage, processing, and distribution infrastructure.
Page 17:
Improve funding opportunities and create equitable access for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farm, food, and forest organizations and businesses.
Page 19:
Fund and undertake as soon as possible the study previously requested by the Vermont Climate Council on the use of woody biomass for utility-scale electric energy facilities.
And these are just their TOP top recommendations. So, buckle up, VT taxpayers!
Now, of course, you may have recognized a theme throughout this letter to Santa: nowhere does the Council make mention of where all these funds are supposed to come from – they are dumping that responsibility back into laps the legislature – nor do they tally how much revenue will be necessary to adequately pay for these things, nor do they go into much or any detail about how these programs should be structured, staffed, and operated.
In fairness, it is the responsibility of the lawmakers to identify the ultimate revenue sources, but it is on the Council charged with formulating a plan to set a detailed budget and timeline. This is a task that they have assiduously ignored for five years.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the climate warriors on the House Energy & Digital Infrastructure and Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committees tackling the challenge next year of answering how to pay for all this. Certainly, chairs Senator Anne Watson (D/P Washington) and Representative Kathleen James (D-Manchester) care so much about saving our planet for the next generation, and with the next critical GWSA target less than four years away, they’d never duck the issue and punt. Want to bet?
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 20 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.
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