OPINION: For affordability, equity and climate, the Affordable Heat Act is essential

April 14, 2023  |  By Johanna Miller

When it comes to home heating, we simply cannot afford the status quo.
In Vermont, nearly all of the energy used to heat our buildings comes from fossil fuels, and every bit of that energy is imported into the state. Consequently, 75% of the money we collectively spend to stay warm with fossil heat leaves Vermont.
S.5, the Affordable Heat Act, gives us an opportunity to do things differently. This policy is intended to help Vermonters access lower-cost, less-polluting, local heat and move away from expensive, price-volatile fossil fuels like oil, which recently rose by $2 per gallon in about a year.
The Affordable Heat Act creates a blueprint for a sector-wide transition to a clean energy economy for current fossil fuel heating providers. It requires them to do more of what many are already doing; helping their customers access cleaner, renewable energy sources, and phasing down the use of fossil fuels over time. It creates a pathway for them to diversify their business model, as they have done many times before.
In 2011, commenting on VPIRG’s Clean Heat: A Vision for Vermont’s Renewable Heating Future report, Vermont Fuel Dealers Association Executive Director Matt Cota underscored the industry’s evolution over time in this VTDigger story:

“We’re not ideologues we’re businessmen,” Cota explain(ed), saying his association is in the delivery business, not the fossil fuel business. “We’re looking to sell you BTUs.”
“My grandfather used to sell ice and coal, that’s how he made a living,” Cota note(d). “Then along came refrigeration and oil. The industry has always had to adapt, and if deliveries switch to more biofuel and heating pellets, dealers will adjust and perhaps benefit.”
That is the goal of this policy. Help fuel providers adapt to a heating sector no longer dominated by fossil fuels. Help Vermonters adapt and access cleaner, local heat. And make that adaptation happen intentionally, thoughtfully and on a timeline in line with what the climate scientists say is required of all us – as quickly as humanly possible.
Which is what this policy would do, and why we see it as a program that can deliver for people, their pocketbooks and the planet.
Projections indicate the policy would, if enacted, result in a reduction of Vermonters’ overall heating costs by $2 billion, or an average of $7,500 per household over the life of the installed measures, just from actions taken by 2030. It is time to help Vermonters save money by switching to more local, affordable and cleaner heating options, like cold climate heat pumps, advanced wood heat and home weatherization projects and limiting strategies, like biofuels, based on important sustainability, cost and climate considerations.
This is an important policy and pivotal direction.
The status quo is deeply inequitable, unaffordable, and unsustainable. Most Vermonters cannot afford the additional costs they have had to pay – to the tune of thousands of dollars for some – to stay warm these past couple of winters.
The Senate voted 19-10 to advance this critical climate policy, with a significant amendment that requires the Legislature to approve and potentially amend the program again in 2025, after the Public Utility Commission has designed it and provided more details on projected costs and benefits. This affirmative legislative approval must occur before it could be implemented in 2026.
S.5 is now being considered in the House, and policymakers are feeling the heat from a well-coordinated, fossil-fuel-funded opposition campaign that is hoping fear, misinformation and inertia will continue to keep Vermonters tethered to the high-cost status quo.
The Vermont we know and love is at risk due to our changing climate, and it’s our collective responsibility to do our part to curb the negative impacts and ensure all Vermonters have the ability to benefit from less polluting, lower-cost ways to stay warm.
Legislators are being besieged by opposition from the fossil fuel industry, as well as constituents who are legitimately concerned by the unverified, inaccurate costs the fossil fuel companies are using to stoke people’s fears.
S.5 is a good bill and a needed path forward. It is also a better bill than the policy the Legislature passed last year, in particular because of the work of many lawmakers and stakeholders who, over the past year, really focused on putting more parameters around program design to help ensure it is affordable, accessible and environmentally sustainable. 

There is a strong coalition of organizations supporting this bill, including the Conservation Law Foundation, Rights & Democracy, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Vermont Sierra Club, Vermont Public Interest Research Group, and Vermont Conservation Voters, among others. And that’s because the status quo is not serving people – or the planet – well.
Vermonters simply cannot afford the recent $2 per gallon price spike in heating costs. We have cleaner, less costly solutions at our fingertips. We have unprecedented federal funds to tap into to make those solutions more affordable for Vermonters and Vermont fuel providers. And we have an obligation to young people and future generations to do our part on the intensifying climate crisis.
Vermont must move off this deeply inequitable, high-cost, roller coaster of reliance on dirty, imported fossil fuels and ensure cleaner heat is accessible to everyone – not just those who can already afford it. And S.5 is pivotal to actually making that possible.

Johanna Miller is the Energy and Climate Program Director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council and a member of the Vermont Climate Council.