Vermont Climate Council members tell House committee Clean Heat and other recommendations show net benefits; warn against counting land sinks in near‑term goals

Members of the Vermont Climate Council said Tuesday that careful economic studies show the climate action pathways the council recommended are likely to deliver net societal savings, and they cautioned lawmakers against using ‘‘net’’ accounting that counts uncertain land‑based carbon sinks in near‑term targets.

Jared Duvall, an appointed member of the Vermont Climate Council and chair of its Science & Data Subcommittee, told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee that cost‑effectiveness is explicitly required by the Global Warming Solutions Act and that the council’s recommended pathways have not been shown to impose net costs on society. "For many consumers, adopting measures to reduce emissions will save money," Duvall said while citing analyses commissioned by the Agency of Natural Resources and the Public Utility Commission.

Duvall summarized key findings he said should be on the record: a 2021 economic analysis contracted by the Agency of Natural Resources estimated roughly $6.4 billion in net societal savings from modeled economy‑wide pollution‑reduction pathways tied to the Global Warming Solutions Act; a later 2023 ANR‑commissioned report on building thermal policies…