House Transportation committee signals support to authorize remaining Electrify Your Fleet funds for Drive Electric Vermont

The House Transportation Committee on March 18 signaled support for language that would authorize remaining Electrify Your Fleet funds to be used to continue the state’s partnership with Drive Electric Vermont, a program that provides technical assistance, consumer education and stakeholder coordination for fleet electrification.

Committee members said the change would not move or reappropriate annual funding but would allow the existing appropriation for Electrify Your Fleet to be spent to support Drive Electric Vermont’s work. The authorization was discussed as part of draft 7.1 of the committee’s transportation bill; committee staff said the language would be placed in section 14 of that draft and carried forward to the T‑bill for further review in appropriations.

The measure traces back to Act 62 of 2023, which reappropriated $500,000 to start the Electrify Your Fleet program. Patrick Murphy of the Vermont Agency of Transportation, who presented the item to the committee, said the program originally offered a $2,500 per‑vehicle incentive that was intended to be paired with the federal Inflation Reduction Act…