The final bell has tolled for a 2023 law that was once heralded as the first clean heat standard in the nation. In January, the Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC) officially closed the case to develop this program, which was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Vermont’s heating sector through the implementation of “clean heat” measures.
Not everyone is shedding tears over this. While most of the major environmental groups in Vermont supported passage of the Affordable Heat Act, the law included troubling provisions, including allowing so-called “advanced wood heating” to count as a “clean heat” measure. It also encouraged biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels and, most irresponsibly, even allowed heat from biomass power plants to qualify as “clean heat” – a give-away to Burlington’s McNeil biomass power plant.
The law contained an unusual “checkback” component requiring the PUC to submit a status report and final proposed regulations implementing the new standard by January 15, 2025 to the Legislature for approval. After 18 months of advisory group meetings, feedback from the public and regulated entities, and state agency engagement, the PUC had a lot to say in its report about how problematic, complex, and costly the law would be to implement. Lacking the votes to override an expected veto by the Governor, the Legislature took no action on the rule.
While state politics played a key role in both the rise and fall of Vermont’s Clean Heat Standard, substance matters. The intent of the law was to meet the emissions reductions requirements in Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act. Hopefully any future efforts to reduce emissions from the heating sector will recognize that burning wood is neither “clean” nor a climate solution.
