How does the Affordable Heat Act (S.5) improve on last session’s Clean Heat Standard bill (H.715)?
- Equity, Access and Affordability
- a) The policy requires that the majority of clean heat services at the residential level go toward lower- and middle-income (LMI) households. Additionally, it requires that no less than half of those heating services provided to LMI households be “installed measures” that reduce heating costs over time, i.e. weatherization, heat pumps, etc.
- b) This policy builds on the $100+ million in weatherization and electrification funding for LMI households from Vermont’s 2022 state budget, as well as the $60 million in efficiency and electrification grants for LMI households from the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
- Increased Focus on Weatherization and Electrification – While Limiting Biofuels & Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)
- a) The policy specifies that options like network, grid, and micro-grid geothermal, ground-source heat pumps, solar hot water heaters, on-site and community renewable electricity paired with heat pumps – are all eligible clean heat measures.
- b) The policy also puts restrictions on eligible biofuels and RNG that ramp these energy options down over time, ensuring that the market eventually moves towards only the most clean and renewable energy sources available.
- Improved Climate Accountability and Transparency
- a) Calculating and adhering to the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of our various energy sources is a critical component in ensuring that our clean energy transition is truly clean and renewable.
- b) In addition to the limits on biofuels and RNG (see 2b above), the bill explicitly lays out several key components of how lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions will be calculated, especially around methane emissions and capture, and fugitive emissions. How these energy sources will be measured and scored in terms of clean heat credits will be transparent and accountable, and will ensure that any emissions from extraction, production and use are accounted for.