Rearranging One Deck Chair on the Sinking Clean Heat Standard
Committee ignores equity concerns, potential for unintended economic consequences.
With just a few days to go before crossover (the day the Senate has to pass its bills over to the House for consideration and vice versa), the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee finally took up discussion of the glaring defects – or, well, maybe one of them -- in Act 18, the Clean Heat Standard, which they passed last year over the Governor’s veto.
Following some testimony on March 12 and 14, it looks like a majority of the committee is now open to the idea of delaying the June 1, 2024, deadline currently in the law for hiring the Default Delivery Agent (DDA), the non-government entity that will be primarily responsible for performing the “clean heat measures” that are the primary function of the program. The logic behind the proposed delay was so incontrovertible it was able to penetrate even the skulls of, it appears, maybe four of the five committee members. As explained by Peter Walke of Efficiency Vermont (VEIC), a candidate to be the DDA, before the PUC can hire a DDA, the PUC has to answer,
“What is the DDA going to be responsible for? How many should there be? Should there be one statewide, should there be multiple across different geographies? What should those things look like? Those are complex processes in and of themselves, and they are components of the overall effort. So, the details really matter because at the end of the day you are not asking a state agency to be the DDA, you are asking private entities to come in and bid on being the DDA.”
And, to get those answers as well as what does a clean heat credit cost, who owns it, how is that ownership transferred and tracked, etc. – which the PUC has not even begun to seriously look into -- with time left over to get meaningful public feedback, put out a request for bids to be the DDA, evaluate those bids, and make a hiring decision just isn’t feasible between now and June 1. Or as frustrated Ed McNamara of the PUC put it even more bluntly,
“In my mind, the June 2024 date, the PUC should have testified that’s unrealistic. We should have done that last year. I wasn’t here last year, but it’s unrealistic…. It’s not going to work. Even if we’re able to slap together an RFP, we’re going to say, ‘Does anybody want to be the DDA of a – we have no idea what you’re going to do, but please submit your bid!’ So, we’re trying to develop something that will actually work for the Clean Heat Standard.”
It was kind of humorous to watch the progression of tone, manner and stridency of argument evolve throughout the hearing as the bureaucrats clearly did not want to call out the lawmakers’ Emperor-Has-No-Clothes status with an outright rebuke that they (the senators) had fundamentally screwed up the law in a very obvious way. But subtlety did not carry the day! The point ultimately had to be made, so the testimony moved from things like, “We’re just sharing concerns we’ve heard from others...” and, “We’re neutral on the date, but if you’re worried there might be a problem…” To, “It’s unrealistic…. It’s not going to work” (McNamara, PUC). And, “June 1 doesn’t seem realistic – at all” (TJ Poor, DPS).
So, despite Senator Mark MacDonlad (D-Orange) holding out and offering a rambling dissent -- something about Pearl Harbor, VJ Day, and wondering why if it only took the USA three and a half years to succeed in killing over 3 million Japanese and reducing their country to radioactive rubble Vermont can’t save the planet in eighteen months – it looks like there will be an interim date change for the DDA.
But there was no discussion of moving back the overall January 2026 implementation date of the program, and this is still a problem.
As the PUC’s February 15 report states,
“… the schedule sets such an untenable pace that it will be extremely challenging for the Commission, the Equity Advisory Group, and the Technical Advisory Group to carry out their responsibilities in a manner that allows time for deliberative process, thoughtful input from all stakeholders, and sufficient public participation to design such a transformative, first-of-its-kind, highly complex, and technical program.”
This isn’t in reference to just the hiring of the DDA, it is in reference to an unrealistic timeline for developing the entire program. It goes on,
The Commission shares stakeholders’ serious concerns that any draft rule presented to the Legislature in January 2025 will suffer from the haste demanded by Act 18, which – following the months required to hire the necessary personnel and appoint the necessary committees – allots mere months to the creation of an unprecedented, complex program with the potential for unintended consequences that impact the lives of all Vermonters. In addition, the expedited timeline necessary to deliver a proposed Clean Heat Standard rule by January 15, 2025, is in direct tension with Vermont’s commitments to climate equity.
And it is these points that were entirely ignored, dismissed, disregarded by the Natural Resources & Energy Committee. When the Global Warming Solutions Act was passed (also over the Governor’s veto), equity and a “just transition” were touted as major selling points and guiding principles for how policy would be crafted and implemented. They even wrote it into the law:
Just Transitions Subcommittee [of the Climate Council]… shall focus on ensuring that strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to build resilience to adapt to the effects of climate change benefit and support all residents of the State fairly and equitably. This subcommittee shall ensure that strategies consider the disproportionate impact of climate change on rural, low income, and marginalized communities and that programs and incentives for building resilience are designed to be accessible to all Vermonters and do not unfairly burden any locations groups, communities, geographic, or economic sectors. This subcommittee may adopt a measurement tool to assess the equitability of programs and strategies considered by the Council. [Emphasis added]
That was the sales pitch. Ensuring a just and equitable transition is precisely what the PUC is saying the current timeline for the Clean Heat Standard does not accommodate. But now Senators Bray, White, Watson, McCormack and MacDonald say, Meh. Who cares?
The Just Transitions Subcommittee met on February 29, two weeks after the PUC check back report came out calling attention to the threats to a just transition under the Clean Heat Standard. The committee didn’t mention let alone discuss the report. They will meet again next week on March 24. We’ll be watching to see if they are actually doing their job or just collecting their per diem checks.
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.
Media Notes: Rob Roper will be on Common Sense Radio with Bill Sayer on Friday, March 15, 11:00 am. Tune it at AM550, 96.1FM, 96.5FM, 98.3FM, 101.9FM, or streaming HERE.
If you missed Rob Roper on WVMT’s Morning Drive on Monday, March 11, you can find the replay HERE.
Big surprise...not.
They will continue to ignore all the inconvenient truths about forcing the installation of the UN Agenda 21/30/50 and now their latest, Vision 2045 detailing their central plan on clearing out their preferred areas so they can build-back-better their 15-minute cities.
Why? Because they can. They have super majority and can override the governor on any issue he might feign an attempt to block, adhering to his rino ways. People can be distracted easily enough by so many other more pressing and legitimate concerns and will forget the malfeasance of these fascists by the next election.
Our so-called representatives doing the dirty work of global megalomaniacs.
https://gregreese.substack.com/p/texas-wild-fires-and-directed-energy?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=j1wdo