Energy Action Network brief to House panel: Vermont pays $2.2 billion for fossil fuels, transition raises equity concerns

Energy Action Network told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Thursday that Vermonters collectively spent about $2.2 billion on fossil fuels in 2022 and just under $1 billion on electricity, and that the state’s energy transition raises affordability and economic‑transition risks for lower‑income and rural households.

Jared Duvall, executive director of the Energy Action Network, said the group is “an independent nonprofit organization … based in Montpelier” and described EAN’s role as data tracking and neutral convening. “Energy Action Network as a nonprofit organization does not take positions on bills before the legislature,” he told the panel.

The presentation laid out three linked points: where Vermont’s energy comes from, how much Vermonters spend on it, and where greenhouse‑gas emissions originate. Duvall summarized the current picture: most state energy use and spending is in transportation and the thermal sector (home, commercial and industrial heating), while electricity is the smallest sector in consumption but the most renewable in Vermont’s purchased portfolio.

The packet of figures Duvall cited included: roughly 550,000 registered vehicles in the state and about 15,000 electric vehicles as of July of the prior year; electricity accounting that is about 75% renewable, 16% nuclear and roughly 9% fossil fuel under post–renewable energy…