House committee: Clean Heat Standard dormant; members push weatherization funding and targeted incentives

Members of the Vermont House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee discussed the status of the state's Clean Heat Standard and options to aid Vermonters in weatherizing homes and managing electrification costs during a committee meeting.

"It's the opposite of that, actually. The check back provision that we wrote into the bill required the PUC to... and the clean heat standard very specifically cannot go into effect without affirmative action by the legislature," Rep. Kathleen James (Bennington-4) said, describing the statute's requirement that the Legislature must enact any implementing bill before the standard could take effect.

The exchange, which included members across the committee, centered on two linked questions: what parts of the Clean Heat Standard remain active and how the state should fund measures such as weatherization, electrical panel upgrades and incentives to make heat pumps and other low-carbon options…