Affordable Heat Act cuts pollution, lowers costs for Vermonters

Feb. 25, 2023  |  By Jared Duval

I grew up in a lower-income family, moving from apartment to apartment. Our family experienced firsthand the challenge of paying for high-cost, fossil fuel-based heat, often in un-weatherized apartments. Today, my professional work includes conducting energy and data analysis. This work isn't just theoretical. I know the real-life impacts it has on everyday Vermonters.

The average price of fuel oil in Vermont last month was $4.40 per gallon.  That's over $2 per gallon higher than just two years ago ($2.37/gallon in January 2021). While propane prices have not gone up nearly as dramatically – increasing from an average of $2.60 per gallon in January 2021 to $3.03 per gallon last month – propane was already a very expensive fuel and remains even more expensive than fuel oil per unit of energy provided (a gallon of propane provides only two-thirds as much heating energy as a gallon of oil).

This is not sustainable. While especially bad now, the relatively high costs and the price volatility of fossil-based heating fuels have been persistent features of Vermont’s reliance on a 100% imported commodity fossil fuel market for decades. 

If we truly care about affordability and equity, we can’t continue to leave Vermonters – especially lower- and middle-income Vermonters – so exposed to and dependent on these high-cost and price-volatile fossil heating fuels. The only way to effectively and durably cut energy costs is to help Vermonters reduce fossil fuel exposure and dependence. 

In short, there can be no real energy affordability strategy without transitioning beyond fossil fuels. That is why it is time to pass the Affordable Heat Act and establish a Clean Heat Standard to help Vermonters access lower-cost, more price-stable, and more efficient clean heating options. 

Though it may be surprising to some, the truth is that the most affordable heating options are usually also the cleaner options: weatherization, heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and advanced wood heat, including both efficient stoves and boilers. All of these options usually cost much less over time than fossil fuels (and that’s just when it comes to our budgets, not even taking into account the social cost of climate pollution). 

To take just one example, combining the up-front cost of equipment with the annual fuel or electricity it uses, over a 12-year period it costs the average household less than $500 a year to use a heat pump water heater. The cost to use a propane water heater? More than twice as much, at about $1,000 a year.  

Significant cost savings like these are what Vermonters can achieve when we reduce fossil fuel dependence in favor of lower-cost, more price-stable, and cleaner alternatives. This is the main reason why a recent report commissioned by the Vermont Climate Council and the Agency of Natural Resources found that cleaning up our heating sector in line with Global Warming Solutions Act targets by 2030 could, conservatively estimated, achieve $2 billion in net savings for Vermont households and businesses. 

That’s $7,500 per household over the life of those cleaner, more affordable options. That’s what reducing dependence on high-cost, price-volatile fossil fuels can mean for Vermonters – real savings measured in dollars and cents, not just pollution reduction. 

Yes, there will be up-front costs to making this transition. And that’s why the Affordable Heat Act is so important – by utilizing the “polluter pays” principle, it will require fossil fuel companies to finally help pay for this transition by providing their customers with incentives to overcome up-front cost barriers to the cleaner alternatives. 

We have long set standards for electric utilities and required them to provide their customers with assistance and incentives to move to more efficient and renewable energy. It’s time to finally hold fossil fuel companies to similar standards and require them to take responsibility for the costs and harms of their product. 

To comply with the Affordable Heat Act, fossil fuel corporations will primarily have to provide (or pay others to provide) weatherization, heat pumps, and advanced wood heat, with most services required to go to lower- and middle-income Vermonters. These solutions will help Vermonters shift to lower-cost, more price-stable heat, while also cutting climate pollution in line with our scientific, moral, and legal obligations. There can also be a role for things like biodiesels (though only when they are truly lower-emitting than fuel oil on a lifecycle emissions basis) that can be a direct fuel replacement without requiring equipment changes. 

The Affordable Heat Act will not only help transform our heating sector in a more affordable direction. It will also do more to reduce climate pollution – and meet Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act obligations – than any other piece of energy legislation in Vermont, past or present. Alone it will ensure that we achieve more than a third of Vermont’s required climate pollution reduction by 2030, more than twice what any other recommendation in the Climate Action Plan would deliver. 

The intense debate over this policy reveals how much Vermonters care about this issue. As this public conversation continues, I hope we will draw on the best of our civic traditions, especially our commitment to fact-based, civil discourse. These are traditions that, as a ninth-generation Vermonter, I have deep love for and commitment to. Unfortunately, right now there is a lot of misinformation circulating about the Affordable Heat Act. For those who would like an accurate, fact-based understanding of the policy, I highly recommend reviewing the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) available at eanvt.org/affordable-heat-faq/ 

Any way you look at it, we have a pressing economic, moral, and legal obligation to act. It’s beyond time to begin a careful but serious transition to cleaner, more affordable heat. Because, whether speaking from personal or professional experience, I know Vermonters cannot afford the costs of continual delay and inaction.

Jared Duval is a member of the Vermont Climate Council appointed to provide expertise in energy and data analysis. He lives in Montpelier.