On Friday, members of the House Environment and Energy Committee voted 8-1 against an amendment that would have forced them to reveal their positions on home-heating energy policy mandates ahead of the 2024 general election.

The amendment, proposed by Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, put forth three initiatives concerning S.5, which deals with meeting mandated greenhouse gas reductions for the thermal sector through efficiency, weatherization measures, electrification, and decarbonization.

S.5 proposes to establish a clean heat standard to reduce Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions from the thermal sector. The standard will administered by the Public Utility Commission, with assistance from the Clean Heat Standard Technical Advisory Group and the Equity Advisory Group.

Putting candidates on the record

HOME HEATING – Lawmakers are working on numerous legislation to mandate that Vermonters switch their heating systems from carbon-based sources to electric or other new technologies.

The first part of Beck’s amendment sought to move the date for the final proposed solutions regarding efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the heating sector. If it had adopted, the deadline would have been changed from Jan. 15, 2025, to Sept. 15, 2024 — nearly two months before the November election for that year.

Beck said he hoped to put candidates on the record regarding an important issue.

“The reason I am making that change is to ensure that whoever is running in the next election for the legislative office or statewide office in the state of Vermont would be able to communicate their position on that issue to voters before they vote, instead of waiting until immediately after the election,” he said.

Beck added that this would allow candidates to “intelligently communicate with their voters and say, ‘Hey I support this’ or ‘I don’t support this’, or ‘I would support this with change,’ or whatever the case might be.”

Stop picking on natural gas?

The third part is it would modify the bill’s dealings with natural gas. According to Beck, its current language puts the relatively affordable heating source in a separate category to be taxed higher than the other more carbon-intensive fuel sources.

“It strikes out the renewable natural gas exemption and instead just tells the natural gas folks that as far as your carbon density you’ll play by the same rules oil, propane, and kerosine,” Beck told the committee. “And the people who have natural gas in Vermont, good for them, it’s a huge economic benefit, it’s a low-cost heat, I wish I had it on my side of the state but we don’t.”

He noted that the carbon intensity of natural gas is generally lower than other carbon-emitting fuels and the industry should not be penalized just because of where it comes from.

“It doesn’t have nearly the carbon intensity of heating oil or propane, so they already got a head start and I see no reason to give them special treatment because they put a drop of landfill gas in there,” he said. “They should get the same treatment as everybody else in Vermont.”

Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, who is vice chair of the committee, was the first to take issue with the proposals. She inquired if these efforts “are to reduce the amount of information that we have and to politicize the report going into the election?”

To which Beck responded, “We are not trying to eliminate anybody’s information here or work but just say hey the final proposed rules solutions are going to come in after the election, how can we communicate to our voters where we stand on these final proposed rules if we don’t know what the final proposed rules are.”

Home heating and energy policy have become a sensitive subject matter this legislative session as the Democrats/Progressives have pushed S.5 despite getting hundreds of calls/emails from constituents against it for every few contacts in support, according to at least one state senator.

Big Oil paying for ads?

Sibilia suggested that Big Oil might impact the election process.

“Do you think that big oil or whoever is paying for the misleading ads that are out right now will not be participating in the next election cycle?” she said.

To which Beck responded, “I haven’t seen a Big Oil ad, I don’t watch TV much but I think everybody gets to participate in the process, I think the last election it was reproductive rights, it’s the way the process works.”

The meeting can be viewed online here.

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.