Energy Related Legislative Activities
Thursday, January
25th newsflash and action request:
Members of the GEMPOG attended a gathering at the offices
of VPIRG last night to be involved in their effort to support H 127,
the Renewable Energy Standards bill (description and link
follows). VPIRG is asking as many as possible to call
their legislators in the House (at this time) expressing their support.
Bill: H.0127
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2008/bills/intro/H-127.htm
Title: REVISING THE RETAIL ELECTRIC PROVIDERS'
PORTFOLIO STANDARDS SO THAT AT LEAST FIVE PERCENT OF THE STATE'S TOTAL
ELECTRICAL ENERGY LOAD AS OF 2012 WILL BE MET BY RENEWABLE ENERGY
RESOURCES.
Vermont Legislature
- Week of January 21, 2007 - January 27, 2007
(prepared by Thomas Weiss, citizen
of Vermont, from information provided by the legislative council and from
personal observation.)
For further information contact your representative, call
the legislative council (828-2228), or look at
www.leg.state.vt.us. To
testify on a bill in person call the legislative council (828-2228).
You can send written testimony to the committee at the state house in
Montpelier (115 State Street, Montpelier 05633-5301).
NEW BILLS: (This gives the title and my brief summary. You
can get any bill in the bill corridor of the state house or on line at
www.leg.state.vt.us)
H.58 - Idling school bus engines on school property in House Education.
This would forbid idling of school buses. The engine may
not be started until leaving the school premises.
H.70 Establishing a streamlined process for
permitting small renewable energy facilities in House Fish, Wildlife
and Water Resources. Requires the public service board to develop
streamlined permitting for projects up to 5 MW owned by public
entities. It limits the streamlining of hydropower to existing
dams that meet certain criteria. It authorizes the Secretary of
Natural Resources to co-ordinate the state interest before the public
service board. And it requires the Secretary of Natural Resources
to revise the 1993 procedure for determining minimum low flow at
run-of-river projects.
H.71 - Residential electricity surcharges upon large new residential
units that are hooked up to the grid and upon large electricity users
in House Natural Resources and Energy. This will require payment
of $10 per square foot above 4,000 square feet for new homes. It
will require electric rates for those residences to reflect the costs
incurred at the time the electricity is obtained by the retail
provider. It adds a residential electricity consumption surcharge
for residences using more than 115% of the state's average annual
consumption rate per individual unit. The money will be deposited
in the clean energy fund that was established to receive the payment
from Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee in exchange for its authorization
to increase electricity production.
H.75 - Registration and inspection of dams in House Fish, Wildlife and
Water Resources. It requires owners of dams to register them with
the secretary of natural resources and then to have them inspected
annually by a civil engineer. The definition of a dam depends on
its height, volume of storage, and use.
H.77 - Act 250 notice for holders of easements in House Natural
Resources and Energy. This will require holders of easements on
adjoining properties to be notified under the same conditions as the
owners of the adjoining properties.
H.90 - Fund for the national Christmas tree. Printed but not read
for the first time. This gives $25,000 to the Bennington Chamber
of Commerce to defray costs of the national Christmas tree in December
2007.
S.40 - Prohibiting municipalities from regulating home prices in Senate
Government Operations, which held a joint hearing on 1/19/7. The
way the bill is written, large-lot zoning and requirements for
affordable housing regulate home prices.
S.44 - Common assets trust in Senate Economic Development, Housing, and
General Affairs. This establishes a Vermont Common Assets Trust
Corporation managed by a board of six trustees, all of whom must have
competence and experience in finance, investments, or business
management. The corporation shall manage the fund, which comes
from appropriations and other revenues established by law (at the
moment none). The fund shall be used to enhance the common
assets; to provide direct benefits to all of the citizens of the State
(health care, Social Security enhancements, start-up grants for
18-year-olds) and otherwise as the trustees determine in the interests
of the beneficiaries. At least 25% of the disbursements are to be
pro rata dividends to each citizen of the state. The bill
establishes an advisory committee (four legislators and five members of
the public) to hold public meetings and report to the legislature
annually on the status of Vermont's common
assets and suggestions on how to better manage them, including sources
of funds and ways to disburse them.
S.48 - No Act 250 in an industrial district. Printed but not read
for the first time. This bill will allow a municipality to take
an established industrial district out of Act 250 review and be subject
to
local zoning instead.
S.49 - Health insurance for farmers. Printed but not read for the
first time. This declares farmers and farm employees to be
uninsured people for purposes of Vermont eligibility in the Vermont
Health Assistance Program; subsidies for employer-sponsored insurance;
Catamount Health Assistance Program; and Catamount Health Plan.
COMMITTEE HEARINGS: (Hearings are subject to change: addition or
deletion; if you are really interested, contact the committee to find
out (828-2228). Check
www.leg.state.vt.us
for the latest schedule. To testify on a bill in person call the
legislative council (828-2228). Send written comments to the
committee at the state house in Montpelier (05633). Recordings of
all committee hearings can be ordered on compact disc from the
legislative council at a nominal fee.
Joint Climate Change Hearings: - Specific Opportunities for Vermont to
Build a Sustainable Economy by Addressing Climate Change.
These are the last of the major joint hearings with eight committees on
climate change:
Wednesday, January 24, 9 - 11, room
11. Richards Cowart and Sedano (Regulatory Assistance Program);
Michael Dworkin (Institute for Energy and Environment); Robert Costanza
(UVM's Gund Institute for Ecological Economies); Richard Watts (UVM's
Transportation Research Center).
Thursday January 25, 9 - 11, Room 11.
Jeffrey Wolfe (gro Solar); Lawrence Mott (wind developer); David
Blittersdorf (NRG Systems); Scott Johnstone (Chittenden County
Metropolitan Planning Organization); Robert Mulcahy (smugglers' Notch
Ski Area); possibly another businessman,
Tuesday January 23: John Hasen of the Natural
Resources Board on growth centers at House Natural Resources and
Energy, (11 - 12 )
Also on Tuesday: H.28
(Dairy support program) at House Agriculture (3:30 - 4:30)
Wednesday January 24: Report of the In-ground
septic systems technical advisory committee at House Fish, Wildlife
& Water Resources. (11 - 12)
Also on Wednesday: Andrew
Perchlick and Lee Seddon (Renewable Energy Vermont) at House Natural
Resources and Energy. (1 - 3)
Thursday, January 25, 2007 H.28 (Dairy support
program) at House Agriculture (3 p.m.)
Friday, January 26, 2007 S.44 (Common Assets
Trust) at Senate Economic Development, Housing & General Affairs
(9:30)
Also on Friday: H.49
(Limiting home prices) at House General, Housing and Military Affairs
(10 a.m.)
Also on Friday:
Introductions of Center for Sustainable Agriculture and NOFA at
House Agriculture. (10 - 12)
Monday, February 5, 2006, 4:15-5:45 p.m. The
House and Senate Appropriations Committees will hold a joint public
hearing on Vermont Interactive Television (V.I.T.) to give Vermonters
throughout the state an opportunity to express their views about the
State budget for fiscal year 2008. All V.I.T. sites will be
available for the hearing: Bennington, Brattleboro, Castleton,
Johnson, Lyndonville, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport, Randolph
Center, Rutland, Springfield, St. Albans, Waterbury, White River
Junction and Williston. V.I.T.’s web site has an up-to-date
location listing, including driving directions, addresses and telephone
numbers.
LAST WEEK:
Actions on Previous Bills:
S.32 - Appointments and terms for energy co-ordinators. This
passed the Senate on January 17 and was sent to House Government
Operations on January 19. (The Senate did not have a Saturday
session on the 13th; the Legislative Council's site inadvertently had
listed a Senate calendar for Saturday instead of the following Tuesday.)
H.28 - Dairy assistance program in House Agriculture. Hearing
1/18/7.
H.49 - Will forbid municipalities from placing a cap on the selling
price of a house. In House General, Housing, and Military Affairs
committee, which held a hearing jointly on this and S.40 on 1/19/7.
Hearings on Climate Change: The articles in the Burlington Free
Press that I have read seem to be covering the hearings accurately,
although I have not read all of their articles.
Peter Barnes of Working Assets presented his plan to cap carbon imports
by requiring an annual permit to import carbon into Vermont. The
permit fees would go into a fund to pay dividends to Vermont
residents. He said that voluntary efforts and incentives will be
insufficient to achieve the 80% reduction in carbon emissions that we
need. Regulation of carbon can be based on emissions or
supplies. Because of Vermont's diffuse emissions, it will be
easier to control carbon supplies. He believes that a carbon
permits should be auctioned by the State with the proceeds benefitting
residents as opposed to issuing the permits for free which gives a
windfall to the people receiving the permits. Many western states
have some kind of permanent fund that benefits the residents. The
funds come from taxes and fees on coal, oil, or other resources
extracted from the state. Vermont's fund would be based on the
State's capacity to absorb carbon.
The Governor's Commission on Climate Change (established by executive
order in 2005) and required by the legislature last year to help
develop a statewide climate change action plan, presented a status
report to the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee on
Wednesday. Jeffrey Wennberg (Commissioner of the Department of
Environmental Conservation) reviewed the recent history of State
actions (Executive Order 14-03, Climate Change Action Plan for State
Government Buildings and Operations; Executive Order 7-05, Governor's
Commission on Climate Change; and laws last year for Vermont to join
the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and broadening the climate
change goals. Vermont's short terms goals in the executive order
and the statute (10 VSA 578) are very ambitious: a 25% reduction in
greenhouse gases from the 1990 baseline by 2012 (five short years
away). Most other states have goals of a 10% reduction by the
year 2020. Ernie Pomerleau (chair and with Vermont Real Estate)
explained that the commission is composed of 30 some people bringing
together Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Conservation Law
Foundation, the Associated Industries of Vermont, and more.
Members represent energy, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, tourism
and recreation, heath care, non-governmental organizations, academia,
and state and local government. (Their internet site is
www.vtclimatechange.us.)
They had come to the legislature to give a status report and to take
back to the commission what the committee would like to see from the
commission. He pointed out that one can now argue the degree of
climate change but not the existence of climate change. Ken
Colburn (facilitator from Center for Climate Strategies) described the
commission (6 members), the plenary group (31 members, plus six from
the Department of Environmental Conservation), and its four work
groups. The commission was scheduled to have a plenary session
the next day to whittle down the more than 300 original items from the
catalog of possible greenhouse gas reductions to a smaller number
acceptable to the commission to evaluate in more detail for inclusion
in its report, due September 1, 2007. Vermont's greenhouse gas
emissions are significantly different from the nationwide averages:
transportation 46% vs. 26%; electricity 1% vs. 32%;
residential/commercial fuel 28% vs. 9%. That means that Vermont
has different opportunities than the nation as a whole. The
committee gave the commission the message that the committee is ready
to take action now and finds the September 1 report date (even though
agreed by the legislature last year) to be too slow for them. {On
Thursday, the Commission did have its third plenary meeting with some
reports in the news that day and the next.}
The Farm Energy Handbook was introduced at a milk and cookies reception
in the state house cafeteria on January 17. It is a collaborative
effort of Vermont Environmental Consortium, the Vermont Dairy Task
Force, and Ben & Jerry's. "This handbook provides an overview
of the ways that farmers may be able to develop greater energy security
and increase farm profitability by making use of farm resources."
Contact Diane Bothfeld (828-3835) at the Agency of Agriculture.
There were displays by Efficiency Vermont, Native Energy (carbon
dioxide credits and cool tags) and two groups promoting wood pellets
and grass pellets. Ben & Jerry's, Monument Farms, and Cabot Cheese
provided refreshments.
Vernon Grubinger (UVM extension service) made a presentation to eight
committees on Thursday, January 18th. He noted that climate
change is already happening; the questions are now how much will the
change be and how fast will it occur. He talked about the effects
of climate change in Vermont, to date and projected into the
future. We already have longer growing seasons, less snow cover
in winter, and precipitation that is more irregular. He is
pushing renewable energy on the farm and ties between agriculture and
peak oil. Pluses of climate change: more photosynthesis, longer
growing season, less winter stress, more rain, benefits to some crops
like grapes. Minuses of climate change: more floods, more
droughts, new insect pests, new plant and animal diseases, new weeds,
new invasive species, more heat stress in livestock, and more stress on
cool-climate crops such as apples. More carbon dioxide in the air
reduces the effectiveness of glyphosate herbicides. Grass pellets
can be used for fuel, but they have calcium and phosphorus ash and
deposits that are not found in wood pellets. Corn is a good
rotation crop on a vegetable farm. One farm in western
Massachusetts heats its greenhouse with fuel corn grown on the
farm. There are pilot projects in Vermont for growing oilseeds
(canola, soy, mustard, and sunflowers). More information is at
www.climateandfarming.org.
{The site is by a collaboration of the University of Vermont, Cornell
University, and Clean Air-Cool Planet. "We encourage you to
download PowerPoints, factsheets and other resources from this site and
use them in your educational programs. Please credit
climateandfarming.org."
Michael Stoddard and Samuel Krasnow (Environment Northeast) presented
their Climate Change Road Map for New England and Eastern Canada.
This is a broad report for the geographical region of the New England
Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers. The report is about
solutions to a 75% reduction in greenhouse gases to date. They
presented a number of broad goals. They presented 10 broad areas
for Vermont to work on to limit greenhouse gases, but Vermont had moved
ahead of them in some areas, which they acknowledged. Their
report was designed for the six states and five provinces and was not
specific to Vermont. Many legislators left before the
presentation was finished.
Statehouse expansion plans were presented to the House Institutions
committee by Trishia Harper (architect with Finegold Alexander, who is
developing plans for the Department of Buildings and General Services
for the legislature). The current proposal is add an additional
floor above the cafeteria building, which is behind the State
House. Costs go up, additional electrical work will be needed in
the main building to support this expansion. During the first
part of the presentation, no mention was made of the relation between
the expansion and Vermont's greenhouse gas reduction goals (already in
Vermont statutes at 10 VSA 578). The committee seemed frustrated
at continuing rise in cost for a smaller and smaller project over the
years. The committee seemed not to
consider whether the expansion will help or hinder the state in meeting
its greenhouse gas reduction goals. But I did not stay for the
whole hearing.
Elliott Eisenberg and Debbie Bassert (National Association of
Homebuilders) talked about the economics of inclusionary zoning in a
joint hearing on bills H.49 and S.40 on 1/18/7. Those bills will
prevent a municipality from "directly or indirectly regulating the
price for any privately developed housing unit on a residential
building lot." Inclusionary zoning is jargon for requiring that a
builder provide a certain amount of affordable housing in any
project. They said that such requirements have the effect of
raising all housing prices in the area and reducing the amount of
construction. They also depress the price of land and pushes
construction of new housing outside the area with the inclusionary
zoning. The burden of inclusionary zoning ultimately falls on
buyers and the current landowners. To be done properly, they
said, that a municipality must carefully consider many questions about
goals, purposes, and effects and then to carefully create an ordinance
that meets those goals, purposes, and effects. They also claimed
that the lack of affordable housing is based on a failure to
co-ordinate job growth with housing growth; on outdated ordinances
limiting the mix of housing; on restrictions on available land; and on
the complexity and cost of regulations. Burlington has
inclusionary zoning and was used as an example from one study: it had
6% growth of housing units while the surroundings (implied not to have
inclusionary zoning) had 32% growth.
______________________________________________________________
NOTICE TO OUR READERS: Weiss'
reports are being archived in a new area of the website. Details
and links to follow. - ed.
