Town energy committees urge House to fund greenhouse-gas reporting, freeze net-metering cuts

Members of Vermont town energy committees urged the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on Feb. 18 to back a statewide greenhouse-gas reporting and inventory program, freeze reductions in net-metering compensation and advance appliance- and building-efficiency standards.

Stephanie Moffett Hines, chair of the Arlington Energy Committee, told lawmakers her committee built a carbon-tracking spreadsheet that compiles five years of municipal energy invoices and converts fuel and electricity use into carbon equivalents. "You can't truly manage unless you measure," she said, and she asked the Legislature to provide $500,000 to stand up a statewide reporting program so towns and the state can target the biggest emissions sources.

Retired solar-business owner Bill Laberge, of Arlington, urged elimination of what he called the negative adjuster on behind-the-meter consumption, calling it "a tax on people who are trying to do the right thing." Laberge said removing permitting hurdles and freezing net-metering rates would help keep solar affordable and preserve industry jobs that he expects will shrink after the federal tax credit ended.

Duncan McDougall, chair of Waterbury LEAP, said his county experienced a high number of disaster events and that towns lack the granular data to measure progress. "Human-caused climate change is not a theory. It's here," McDougall said, and he asked lawmakers to support the greenhouse-gas inventory bill to give towns usable measurements for planning and grant applications.

Other witnesses described local projects that officials say produce both savings and resilience: Huntington has roughly 80 kilowatts of municipal rooftop solar and battery backup that reduced town energy costs and increased capacity for warming and cooling centers; Shelburne described a rooftop HVAC conversion to hybrid heat pumps; and Stowe said revising its enhanced energy chapter depended on better data from the state.

Speakers also urged support for appliance-efficiency legislation (H600) and building-efficiency proposals (H718) that they said require modest up-front investments that pay off through lower operating costs. Several witnesses asked lawmakers to examine data-center siting and impacts (H727) to protect communities from water, PFAS and electric-rate pressures.

Representative Kathleen James opened the session and allowed attendees to give two-minute updates. The committee paused for a brief break to continue its scheduled bill work.

The testimony was discussion-focused; no formal votes or committee actions were recorded during the hour of public comment.

What happens next: witnesses asked lawmakers to fund the reporting program and to advance or hold hearings on the bills named by speakers; the committee will take up its formal bill calendar after the break.