Lawmakers hear Vermont weatherization program update as ARPA, training plans continue and federal funds face uncertainty

House Energy and Digital Infrastructure members heard an update April 16 from the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) on Vermont's Weatherization Assistance Program, including recent growth in spending, the mix of federal and state funding used to pay for work, efforts to scale the workforce and plans for a new training center.

OEO Director Lily Sovern and Jeff Wilcox, OEO's weatherization director, told the committee the program aims to reduce energy costs for low-income households while ensuring health and safety and cutting carbon emissions. "The program's free for income eligible clients," Wilcox said, and the office reported an average of about $11,500 in energy-efficiency work per completed unit in the most recent program year.

The nut of the briefing was funding and capacity. Wilcox said the office awarded roughly $26,000,000 in grants to six local agencies for the current program year, a mix of federal and state sources. The biggest share is federal: Department of Energy weatherization funds, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money and funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). State revenue comes largely from a 2-cent-per-gallon tax on heating fuels (identified in testimony as the HVAP fund); Wilcox said that source produces about $10,000,000 a year but is declining as use of bulk fuels falls.

Wilcox described a longstanding constraint from the Department of Energy: a federal…