Vermont needs to reduce emissions by 2025. Can it stick the landing?
(As reported by Emma Cotton – VTDigger April 6)
“The people most familiar with Vermont’s climate plan are not confident that the state will meet its 2025 emission reduction requirement. In 2020, state lawmakers passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, which legally requires Vermont to reduce its emissions by set amounts in the coming decades. The first of those deadlines, 2025, is coming up fast, and as lawmakers work through climate legislation this session, gaps in the emission reduction plan are crystallizing. Members of Vermont’s Climate Council crafted a statewide Climate Action Plan, published in December, calculated to decrease emissions by the necessary amounts. But key pieces of the plan have fallen apart or are not on track to be implemented in time to meet the 2025 deadline.
State officials do not know how much Vermont is currently emitting, which adds a layer of complexity to the task at hand. The most recent data, from 2018, precedes major changes in transportation and commerce that took place during the pandemic. Some of those changes, such as a shift to remote work, could be long-lasting.”
Link to the full article:https://vtdigger.org/2022/04/06/vermont-needs-to-reduce-emissions-by-2025-can-it-stick-the-landing/
Senate votes to support the clean heat standard
(As reported by Emma Cotton – VTDigger April 28)
“The state Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill on Thursday that many consider the most significant piece of climate legislation in the Statehouse this session. The bill, H.715, passed by a voice vote, proposes a clean heat standard, which is designed to radically reform the state’s thermal sector. Using a credit system, it would require and incentivize heating-fuel distributors to decrease the amount of fossil fuels they sell over time, switching instead to a list of heating technologies and fuels that produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Many lawmakers and climate advocates have underlined the importance of passing the bill this session to help Vermont meet the mandated emission-reduction requirements outlined in the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act, the first of which is coming up in 2025. Vermont’s thermal sector is responsible for 34% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the transportation sector. “As there is no other bill offered this session by any party inside or outside the Statehouse to address this obligation, we need to work together and examine the clean heat standard. Saying ‘no’ is not an option,” Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, told lawmakers on the Senate floor on Thursday. The bill directs the state’s Public Utility Commission, which regulates many aspects of energy distribution and usage in the state, to develop and implement the final clean heat standard by 2025.”
Link to the full article and to associated bill:
https://vtdigger.org/2022/04/28/senate-votes-to-support-the-clean-heat-standard/
https://legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2022/H.715
Government Affairs Updates
(as reported by ASHRAE.org, partial topics listing)
- ASHRAE Sends Letter Supporting Inclusion of Standard 62.1 in Connecticut School Air Quality Monitoring Programs
- Decarbonized Energy Pathway More Cost Effective than Polluting Alternatives in Central America
- DOE Request for Information on Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation (RECI)
For detailed information on the above topics, visit the ASHRAE Government Affairs Update website page at:
https://www.magnetmail.net/Actions/email_web_version.cfm?publish=newsletter&user_id=ASHRAE&message_id=21295483
Rob Ward
GAC Committee Member