Committee debates new heating‑fuel seller registry, tax reporting and data-sharing in S.65 draft

The Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee on March 13 reviewed new registry and reporting language in draft 4.3 of S.65 that would require entities that sell heating fuel for bulk delivery in Vermont to register annually with the Public Utility Commission and would ask the Tax Department and the PUC to produce two separate reports on fuel volumes and data collection methods.

Ellen, legislative counsel, summarized the new registry language: "starting on line 13 on page 19, each entity that sells heating fuel in Vermont shall register annually by June 30 of each year with the commission," and she described required registration fields including legal name, doing-business-as name, municipality and state, types of heating fuel sold, and the gallons of each type of heating fuel sold in the calendar year.

Rebecca Samaroff, deputy commissioner of the Tax Department, described the Tax Department’s fuel tax form and the monthly/annual aggregates the department can provide from existing returns. She said the department began collecting volume information by fuel type in July 2023 and can provide aggregated monthly tables of filers and gallons delivered by fuel type; she also said small categories (natural gas, coal) may be excluded from public tables to comply with confidentiality rules. "We were happy to do" the added breakout of fields, she told the committee, and said that the department typically shares aggregate information with other government agencies subject to confidentiality protections.

Industry witnesses warned the registry and the tax-derived dataset capture different measures and may not match. An industry witness representing fuel dealers told the committee the tax forms measure gallons sold to end users while the existing PUC registry historically counts volume as reported on transfers and resale events; "the registry is broken. It's collecting the wrong dataset," the witness said, cautioning the committee that the two datasets "are not going to match up" unless statute is aligned to require bulk, end-user delivery reporting.

Committee counsel and members discussed an exemption that had appeared in earlier drafts for sales of under five gallons. Counsel said the committee intended to change that exemption to focus the requirement on bulk deliveries rather than small packaged sales. The draft also includes language that would allow the tax commissioner "in the commissioner's discretion" to disclose return information to the PUC and the Department of Public Service "for the purposes of automatic compliance with the heating fuel seller registry," subject to confidentiality requirements.

Senators asked about whether it would be appropriate to publish names of dealers. Samaroff said publishing names of taxpayers would be "pretty unprecedented" and that disclosure of names is typically done only when the legislature compels such publication; she emphasized that when the department shares granular data with another agency it does so under a data‑sharing agreement that references the department’s confidentiality provisions and penalties for unauthorized disclosure.

Committee members and witnesses agreed the registry could serve multiple purposes — compliance and planning — but they differed on which agency is the correct home for registration and data collection. Several committee members asked industry to provide red-line language proposing statutory wording that would ensure the registry captures bulk end-user deliveries (citing Title 33 chapter language currently used for fuel-tax definitions) and noted the committee would continue editing the bill before a potential vote the next day.

Ending: The committee did not vote. Lawmakers requested additional red-line edits from industry and planned follow-up with the Tax Department and PUC about confidentiality and the precise fields and exemptions to include in a registry and the two required reports; the outcome of those edits will determine how the two datasets can be reconciled for planning and compliance purposes.