Today’s Episode
In this week’s Climate Dispatch, Representative Laura Sibilia – Vice Chair of the House Energy & Technology Committee – joins VNRC’s Johanna Miller and VCV’s Lauren Hierl to provide a deep-dive overview of H.518: The Municipal Energy Resilience Initiatives bill. This bill focuses on supporting municipal energy-saving and fossil-fuel reduction strategies. As the bill continues to evolve, it is also broadening its focus to include more municipal resilience investments and opportunities.
As you’ll hear from Rep. Sibilia, H.518 is focused on three fundamental things 1) increasing people-powered capacity and technical assistance to communities, 2) supporting assessments in communities to identify priority pollution-reduction and resilience projects, and 3) providing essential grant support to communities to actually make projects happen.
At the core of H.518 is the clear recognition of the important role communities play in Vermont’s energy transition while also recognizing the essential need to support all communities with the capacity, technical assistance and funding to undertake priority projects.
H.518 is also a cornerstone priority of the environmental community’s 2022 Common Agenda – and a must-pass bill this session. Follow the February 4th, House Energy Committee hearing on this bill to get an even deeper overview.