Director says Clean Energy Development Fund near exhaustion; board scheduled to sunset absent new revenue

Andrew Pertschuk, director of the Clean Energy Development Fund, told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on March 27 that the fund’s historic revenue streams have largely dried up and the fund now contains only residual balances.

Pertschuk, who also serves as a Vermont state senator but said his remarks were given in his capacity as fund director, traced the fund’s revenue history to payments related to Vermont Yankee and subsequent settlement payments from Entergy. He said those payments—combined with repayments from an earlier loan program—supported several million dollars a year of grant and incentive activity for renewable generation and thermal projects through the 2000s and early 2010s.

“We were doing spending that 4 to $7,000,000 a year on all sorts of renewable energy generation,” Pertschuk said, describing prior program activity that supported solar, micro‑hydro, small wind and thermal projects. He told the committee the last large settlement payment occurred around fiscal 2015 and that the fund has since been spending down reserves; he estimated only a small balance remains.

Pertschuk said the fund’s governing board has recommended sunsetting the board at the end of fiscal 2027 if no durable funding source materializes. He described one potential but uncertain funding prospect—the TDI transmission project, which at one point included an agreement that would have provided $5 million per year to the fund—while noting that project outcomes are uncertain and the payments were not guaranteed.

The director explained that the Clean Energy Development Fund still has limited funds (including a recent ARPA allocation the board is managing) and some geographically restricted balances (for example, Windham County). He said the department has proposed a timeline that would preserve the statutory shell of the fund in case future revenue streams emerge, but that day‑to‑day oversight could return to Department of Public Service staff rather than a fully staffed board if money remains minimal.

Pertschuk also described operational constraints: the board previously had per diem arrangements but few members sought payment; with reduced funding the board’s staffing and grant‑making capacities have contracted. He said his role will shift toward supporting the Solar for All program as the fund winds down.

Ending: The board and department told the committee they will continue to seek opportunities to deploy the remaining balances and that the statutory framework will be retained through 2027 to allow time for potential future revenue sources to crystallize.