Vermont regulators tell lawmakers grid will stay up if U.S. energy import tariff is imposed, but rate impacts remain uncertain

For the record, Department of Public Service Commissioner Carrick Joffin told the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure on Feb. 4, 2025, that a proposed U.S. energy-import tariff — currently described in public sources as a 10% levy — has provoked intense analysis but that key details are not yet available.

Joffin told the panel the most immediate, critical question was reliability: “the grid will remain reliable,” he said, adding that Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) and distribution utilities run frequent scenario analyses and were assuring the department that the lights would stay on even under constrained supplies. But he emphasized that the federal notice of the tariff had been published and withdrawn from the Federal Register and that the department still lacked the final tariff language needed to judge legal and rate impacts.

Why it matters: New federal trade measures affecting electricity imports could raise…