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Vermont lawmaker pitches capped heating-fuel charge to fund clean-heat incentives
Summary
Representative Mike Borwicki told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Feb. 27 that short-form bills would let the Legislature test a capped charge on heating fuels to create funding for weatherization and heat-pump incentives; members questioned the cap, who would pay, and whether all homes could convert.
Montpelier — Representative Mike Borwicki on Feb. 27 told the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure he intends to introduce short-form bills that would place a capped charge on delivered heating fuels to raise money for incentives to install heat pumps, weatherization and related “clean heat” measures.
Borwicki said the proposal would cap the additional charge at 10 cents a gallon for the first five years and that revenues would be returned as incentives to Vermonters to reduce fuel use and improve air quality. “Efficiency Vermont has been saving Vermonters money for quite a long time,” Borwicki said during his pitch. “The reality is clean heat is cheaper heat.”
The bill is being offered as a short-form proposal to let the committee decide whether to ask staff counsel to draft a full bill. Borwicki described several examples from his district to illustrate the potential savings: one neighbor who paid roughly $1,500 a season for cordwood now spends about $900 a season on electricity after installing a heat pump; another household avoided a $22,000…
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