By Rob Roper
At the end of the fifth week of the legislative session, the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee currently working on the Clean Heat Standard bill, S.5, decided to hear testimony from Vermont fuel dealers — the businesses that will be most negatively impacted by the law, should it pass. While activist groups such as the Energy Action Network, VPIRG, the Conservation Law Foundation enjoyed ample time to make lengthy, often duplicative, presentations — some appearing multiple times — 11 heating fuel dealers were allotted six minutes each to make their case.
If this wasn’t stacking the deck hard enough, the first fuel dealer on the list to testify was Brian Gray of the Energy Co-Op. Although neither Gray nor members of the committee mentioned this fact, it is important to know that Gray was the Speaker of the House’s hand-picked person to “represent” the fuel dealers on the Vermont Climate Council, despite his business model being very different from most if not all others in the industry. Gray served for one term on the council from its inception in 2020 until October 2022, and during his tenure the council wrote and recommended that the legislature adopt the Clean Heat Standard.
Even so, Gray presented a cautionary tale about the realities of what the Clean Heat Standard proposes to do in terms of strong-arming Vermonters into switching from fossil fuel heating to electric.
Gray explained that the upfront costs of installing a cold climate heat pump system run from $5,000 to $20,000, and the weatherization that often needs to accompany that installation can add another $5,500 to $15,000 to the bill. And, said Gray, “The payback periods are long. There’s no doubt there’s savings, but the paybacks are way out there,” and most Vermont households cannot afford these upfront costs.
Gray also noted that, “In today’s market we’ve seen a real slowdown in these services over the last few months because early adopters have already installed systems, leaving a smaller pool, disposable income has shrunk considerably due to significant cost of living increases, and the federal Inflation Reduction Act has caused a lot of buyers to delay purchasing until they understand what the rebates are and they’re in place.”
Ironically, a point raised by multiple witnesses, the popularity of heat pumps in Vermont, such as it is, is driven not by their ability to warm in the winter (something they are not yet very good at), but rather their ability to provide air conditioning in warmer months — a phenomenon likely to drive up electricity usage and electric bills.
Because cold climate heat pump technology is not yet at the point where it is effective and efficient in the coldest Vermont winter weather, none of the dealers recommend removing an existing fossil fuel heating system when installing heat pumps. The heat pumps require a backup. But this creates a situation raised by Dennis Percy of Fred’s Energy, who services over 15,000 customers in the Northeast Kingdom. Percy has many lower income customers who have trouble covering the cost of maintaining one heating system. The ongoing expense and complication of keeping two home heating systems in working order is another aspect of this scheme that will be financially out of reach for a lot of people.
Anthony James of James Plumbing & Heating raised the alarm about the harm a potential 70¢ to $1.00 per gallon tax on home heating fuel would cause to their customers, as well as the many small, family-owned businesses in the fuel delivery industry. “It’s not fair to make the fuel dealers shoulder the cost of funding this program,” with a price tag that will run into the billions of dollars, said James.
Senator Mark MacDonald asked James what the legislature should do to help with the high cost of fuel. James responded, “Not to add a tax.” MacDonald didn’t seem to like that answer so asked again. James said, “Try to get the prices down. … Adding a tax is not going to help [Vermonters].” What do we do? MacDonald asked one more time. “Definitely don’t add a tax,” said James. MacDonald threw up his hands in frustration.
Rob Stenger of Simple Energy had different answer for Senator MacDonald. “I have a litany of suggestions for you, unfortunately none of them are in support of S.5.” Stenger said the solution for lowering the cost of fossil fuel in Vermont is for the legislature to make it less expensive for businesses — not just fuel businesses, but all businesses — to operate here.
“As a business owner that operates in the state of Vermont, owns property in the state of Vermont, has storage assets in the state of Vermont, and owned a business in Vermont that we subsequently closed,” said Stenger, “you could help us by making it less expensive to business in the state of Vermont. And that’s a universal statement. I operate two companies in both Vermont and New Hampshire. I have experience running a company in the state of Maine. Vermont is by a wide margin more expensive for everything [emphasis in original] to run a small business.”
Stenger, Gray and James as well as others all echoed the point that the labor force does not exist in Vermont to do the work of weatherizing homes and installing new heating appliances on the scale that the Clean Heat Standard calls for. A lot of the installers of heat pumps are not well trained, said James, and service for maintaining the existing systems is already stretched. Gray and Stenger testified that they have had opportunities to grow their businesses, but couldn’t take advantage because the workers aren’t there to do the work.
Manny Fletcher of Fyles Brothers, who is also president of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, was blunt in his request that the legislature stop the attempt to pass S.5. Fletcher insisted S.5 “will do nothing but create hardship for rural Vermont residents. … It’s going to make you feel good about trying [to stop climate change], but it’s not going to make a difference.”
Fletcher warned that S.5 will put a lot of the smaller fuel dealers out of business, and when that happens there won’t be infrastructure in place to service the fossil fuel backup systems the electric systems need on cold winter days. “People are still going to have their propane generators, but you’re not going to have enough companies to service them.”
Going out of business is a very real fear for Judy Taranovich of Proctor Gas and Vickie Haskins of Haskins Gas Service. “This feels like discrimination toward the small dealers,” said Haskins, who worries about her 6,000 customers, many of whom are middle-income Vermonters having to choose between groceries and heating fuel these days. “I don’t know how we’re going to survive this.”
Taranovich said, “In my opinion this is the Unaffordable Heat Act. And it’s really the Unaffordable Heat Mandate. Adding a tax of 70 cents per gallon and reducing the CO2 emissions by a non-detectible global amount may make sense for you, but not for me. I won’t help you put me out of business. I have 12 employees. You will put me out of business with S.5.”
Fletcher concluded his remarks by telling the senators that he is hearing from his customers that they are not in favor of this bill, and that they can’t afford what’s coming at them if it passes. “We tell them to contact you,” said Fletcher, “but a lot of them don’t feel comfortable doing that. … Are you listening to the people [in your districts]? Because they are telling us that they are not for this.”
When the fuel dealers’ time was up the senators took a short break before Neale Lunderville, President, Vermont Gas Systems, which stands to rake in significant revenue from the clean heat credit system that would be established by S.5, took the witness stand for the second time during this process and was given another thirty minutes to have a leisurely conversation about why he thinks the Clean Heat Standard is a good idea.
Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. This article reprinted with permission from Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics, robertroper.substack.com
It’s blowing up in their faces. The more they spin it, the more the plan is spinning itself into exposing the lies and deception behind it all. The big money grab is coming to an end and the desperation and panic is obviously working against them now. Hallelujah!
Vote them out is the only answer.
Get control of the registered voter list, which is used to win elections by inserting fake ballots, not just in Vermont, but in many other states.
Every legal US citizen over 21 or 18 should vote only in their own state.
Out of staters have no business being voted in Vermont
Dead people have no business being voted in Vermont
People at illegal and fake addresses have no business being voted in Vermont
Sending mail out ballots to fake zip codes, so they become undeliverable, but will be handed, by the friendly USPS, to ballot harvesters for filling and distributing, as needed, should not happen in Vermont and in other states
I agree. However, I am watching the climate hoax playing out in Europe now. Particuarly, in Germany and Italy. The Germans are making deals for fuel as their populace is ready to tear their leadership to pieces and use them for fuel. The Nordstrom pipeline story and who blew it up (Biden is an eco-terrorist.) Russia is selling oil to an Arab nation, nations using Arab currency and the Chinese yuan to buy it, leaving the petro dollar and sanctions out of play. No matter what our legislature thinks it can do, the big players in the game are going to ice them out completely….climate change of the financial markets will deem it all null and void.
this quote explains much of th lunact of it:
“The truth is that whoever owns the culture in the end owns politics. The complacent assumption of many pundits is that politics revolves around the “economy, stupid.” But what truly animates politics is the culture that shapes voters. Whoever controls that culture usually wins….and the Left has dominated American culture for decades and thus enjoys a perpetual advantage in our politics. Democrats appeal to raw emotion; Republicans appeal to common sense. Democrats encourage voters to take the low road, whereas principled Republicans urge them to take the higher one. Needless to say, the latter pitch is a much harder sell in a corrupted democracy. It is easier to win in American politics as an advocate of self-indulgent wokeness, than as a proponent of the natural moral law
The climate hoax nazis are not only going to hurt every middle and low income person in the state their going to drive up property taxes as schools can’t heat on heat pumps and large buildings as in businesses can’t heat with inefficient pumps so their cost will have to be covered with price increase. The stuck on stupid legislators are simple minded and short sighted if they can’t see the monetary damage this will do to VT. Just more of the leftist culture of doom they wish to instill on VT’ers. You stupid sheep voters voted for this and their NOT saving the planet. All this expense and pain is for nothing as China will wipe out the savings in a day of new coal plants. Idiots.
At least one senator is quoted as saying that if you are cold, grab a blanket. Nice way to treat your constituents. Really stupid. Since the senator backs the Cold Heat Standard or whatever the latest name is, you can see he isn’t the brightest light on the street.
At minus 25F, each person in the house will need at least two wool blankets
How would that be for older people living in older houses?
Do they have to lug tons of firewood each year, until they drop?
Energy/resource-rich US is not energy/resource-starved Europe
Politicians, who never analyzed, designed, or operated any energy system, must stop screwing around with the energy systems of Vermonters, which have managed them for more than 250 years
Any political interference ends up costing 2 to 3 times as much, lowers our standard of living more and more, because businesses with good-paying jobs WILL SHUN AND LEAVE VERMONT.
THAT EXODUS IS HAPPENING AND ONGOING, COURTESY OF THE NUTTY-ZERO NINCOMPOOPS
I have no idea why there is such a push to get everyone to install Heat Pumps as they are not able to adequately heat homes here in Vermont without another source of back up heat. When I started looking into Heat Pumps to cool and heat our home, it was made clear to me by the company I hired to install 2 Heat Pump systems, that cooling would not be a problem, however heating throughout the cold Vermont winters would not be practical, nor cost effective to do so unless we had a back up system. Fortunately we have an excellent and more cost effective heating system powered by natural gas that is our main source of heating. We use the Heat Pumps for cooling when needed, and for heating only in the fall before winter sets in and in late winter heading into spring. For those Vermonters that do not have a back up heat source for their Heat Pump(s), I wonder how they get through the very cold months when Heat Pumps aren’t effective and extremely costly to operate!?
In my experience and opinion, Heat Pumps are just not ready for prime time, nor should they be forced down anyone’s throat as replacements for heating systems powered by oil, natural gas, propane, or wood.
And therein lies the issue. The climate evangelist is using fear, emotion and cash to sway out
legislators to enact diktats that are as of now- unattainable, unreasonable and deadly for some here in Vermont. The GWSA and it’s resulting standards, regulations and taxation furthers the legislators totalitarian, socialist and woke goals as well as infusing their campaign funds. Crony capitalism at it’s best, with a whole lot of low and middle income people being harmed. The result? A Vermont you nor I recognize, nor can afford to live in.
Based on my 40 years as an energy consultant, air source heat pumps WILL NEVER BE CAPABLE OF ECONOMICALLY HEATING A HOUSE AT LOW TEMPERATURES, BECAUSE YOU CANNOT DEFY THE LAWS OF PHYSICS AND THERMODYNAMICS.
You would need to have GROUND source heat pumps.
I have 3 years of operating experience with 3 air source HPs, with 6 heads, in my own well-insulated/sealed house.
All this is well known by well-educated/experienced engineers.
Self-serving politicians teaming up with self-serving special interest groups to deceive and lie to Vermonters, as if it is printed, should be an impeachable offense.
It’s time for lawsuits against the Legislature and individuals sponsoring this bill. I wonder what would happen if customers refused to include the upcharge in their invoices? I wonder what would happen if ALL the fuel dealers flatly refused to buy the credits? There’s power in numbers, and WE have the numbers!
I’m not sure our Reps and Senators live in the real world.
THEY want to remold the real world to their SOCIALIST liking
Too funny. The Statehouse itself is heated by fossil fuel, and I am sure all the legislators are warm and cozy…. But if they really “cared”….why not mandate a law that all their offices and meeting spaces must be kept at 60 degrees or less…so they can save the earth 🙂
Perhaps we could persuade the fossil fuel supplier for the Statehouse to stop delivering. Let MacDonald and his fellow idiots wear more sweaters.
They not only should lower the building temp. to 60, but every one of them in favor of EVs should be required to own one, paid for by them personally, and only allowed to drive it and no other vehicle to Mount Stupid.