By Rob Roper

As the House Environment and Energy Committee moves toward wrapping up its deliberation of S.5, the clean heat standard bill, there is still a serious misconception out there that the amendment added to the bill by the Senate Appropriations bill requiring a “check back” in 2025 effectively makes this a study bill. Even this far in the process, one member of the House committee asked Friday, “What are we voting on? This is just a study, right?”

The Office of Legislative Counsel, the Statehouse attorneys who actually craft bill language, had to correct the representative.

“You are voting on the full content of S.5, which authorizes the PUC to begin work on enacting the clean heat standard,” attorney Ellen Czajkowski told committee members. “However they are not able to enact final rules establishing the final details of the Clean Heat Program until 2025.

“When you [the General Assembly] vote in 2025 the bill could take a number of forms. It could be short saying the PUC shall submit its final rules for adoption. It can direct the PUC to make any number of changes to the rules before they are adopted. Or the statute establishing a CHS could be amended in any number of ways to say what should or shouldn’t be in the rules.”

It is important for Vermonters, as well as the legislators voting on whether or not to make this law, to understand what will happen immediately upon passage of S.5. The committee’s review of the timeline for the bill is helpful in this regard.

If S.5 passes:

• Retroactive to January 1, 2023 — Actions taken, such as heat pump installations, weatherization, etc., are eligible to be registered as clean heat credits.
• Sometime between May-July, 2023 — $825,000 is released to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to pay for three new full-time employees (FTEs), consultants, per diems for members of the two advisory groups, marketing and public outreach, and translation services; and $900,000 is released to the Department of Public Service to pay for three new FTEs, consultants, and funding to complete the potential study and economic modeling.
• July 1, 2023 — The PUC opens a proceeding to establish default delivery agent and credit costs. Separately the DPS embarks on its “potential study” of the Clean Heat Standard. And the Department of Taxes provides fuel data to PUC.
• August 31, 2023 — PUC commences to write CHS rules and embarks on a series of six public hearings and workshops on CHS rules.
• January 15, 2024 — PUC hires 3rd party consultant to establish clean heat credit registry.
• January 31, 2024 — Entities that sell heating fuel in VT must register with the PUC. (The House may move this date back to July.)
• February 15, 2024 — PUC reports to the legislature with status update on development of CHS rules including economic analysis, and formally recommends funding source for administering the CHS program. The PUC will hire a consultant to develop an emissions schedule for clean heat credits, and appoint the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) that will advise and oversee the Clean Heat Standard.
• June 1, 2024 — The PUC appoints and contracts with an entity that will serve as the Default Delivery Agent for retiring Carbon Credits, and presents a first draft of rules for the Clean Heat Standard for public review.
• January 1, 2025 — PUC establishes rate of decrease of the acceptable carbon intensity value of clean heat measures for the years 2025-2030.

All of this happens and is in place before the PUC submits its proposed final rules to Legislature for review and a vote on Jan. 15, 2025 — so any perception that S.5 is “just a study” bill is inaccurate.

Moreover, despite the talking point that no rules can be acted upon until the Legislature votes in 2025, the latest iteration of the bill actually says:

The [Public Utilities] Commission shall adopt rules and may issue orders to implement and enforce the Clean Heat Standard program. The requirements to adopt rules and any requirements regarding the need for legislative approval before any part of the Clean Heat Standard goes into effect do not in any way impair the Commission’s authority to issue orders or take any other actions, both before and after final rules take effect, to implement and enforce the Clean Heat Standard.

So, for those who were led to believe that the whole point of the Senate Appropriations “check back” amendment was specifically for the purpose of impairing the PUC’s authority to issue orders or take any other actions enacting a Clean Heat Standard before the Legislature votes in favor of those rules, you have been misled.

Rob Roper is a freelance writer who has been involved with Vermont politics and policy for over 20 years. © Copyright True North Reports 2023. All rights reserved.