Burlington, Vermont’s municipal electric utility is expanding a program that gives apartment renters more access to electric vehicle charging.

Originally launched as a pilot in 2019, the program gives apartment building owners a financial incentive to install chargers and make them available to the public. The chargers use a software called EVmatch, which drivers can access through a smartphone app to reserve and pay for charging times. 

“The primary focus here is to benefit customers of Burlington Electric who are renters or residents of a multifamily condo building,” said Darren Springer, the utility’s general manager. He said 60% or more of Burlington Electric’s residential customers rent apartments, and the utility wants to make it easier for them to drive electric vehicles.

Springer added that the program could benefit the broader public — not just Burlington residents but drivers who are passing through as well.

The new program is expected to roll out in the coming weeks. Building owners who install a smart charger compatible with EVmatch can get a $1,200 incentive to cover installation. If it’s a building that serves low-income residents, the owner can get an extra $250. And if they make the charger available to the public, they can get an extra $300.

The incentive will be available for each charger the building owner installs, covering up to 75% of the installation cost for each charger. Springer expects it will cover a little more than half the cost of the charger and installation in most cases.

Building owners can choose a charger that’s not compatible with EVmatch and just make it available for tenants to use at no additional cost, in which case they could get a $1,000 incentive toward installation and the extra $250 if they serve low-income residents.

Springer described the program as “a real success story for bringing these different seed stage energy companies to Vermont” through the DeltaClime accelerator program. DeltaClime each year provides funding and mentoring to new energy-focused companies, and the 2019 round led to the pilot that Burlington Electric launched with EVmatch.

Through EVmatch, a sort of Airbnb for electric vehicle charging, owners of compatible chargers can make them available for drivers to reserve. The owner of the charger sets the price — they can charge just for the electricity or make a profit by selecting a price markup.

The pilot in Burlington, which began with 14 chargers at apartment buildings, condos and other multifamily residences, was the first time EVmatch deployed a feature that lets owners allow different groups to use the charger at certain times and prices. In other words, a building owner could make the charger available at any hour to tenants and make it available to the public only during the daytime.

In the original pilot, building owners received a $500 incentive toward installation of a publicly available EVmatch-compatible charger. Ten chargers in the original program were made publicly available, leading officials to believe many chargers under the new program will likely be made publicly available.

Springer said officials are confident the program will be successful since the pilot demonstrated demand for chargers by building owners and drivers. “The EVmatch pilot demonstrated for Burlington Electric that the approach EVmatch offered in terms of software, billing and their app worked well for our customers and for participating multifamily, rental and condo buildings,” he said. “It gave us real-world data and experience with EVmatch’s technology.”

He added that the utility’s customers have expressed interest in expanding charging for the public, for low-income residents and for apartment renters. “This program is aimed at doing exactly that,” he said.

Funding for the new program comes through expanded flexibility for Vermont’s efficiency utilities (which includes Burlington Electric) to fund programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as from Burlington Electric’s “Tier III” budget. This segment of the budget requires electric utilities to use a certain percentage of sales for projects that reduce fossil fuel use. The program has been budgeted to support about 50 to 60 chargers over the next two years, but Springer added that the budget could be amended if there’s higher demand for chargers.

According to Heather Hochrein, EVmatch’s CEO, making the charger public can serve as a financial buffer for building owners who want to install chargers when their tenants don’t yet have the cars to use them. Conversely, once the chargers become available, tenants might be more willing to get an electric vehicle.

“We’re very excited about this new program,” Hochrein said. She said the pilot in Burlington demonstrated that chargers in multifamily buildings are being used by the public. The incentive Burlington Electric is offering building owners to install chargers is helpful to increase uptake of EVmatch, she added.

The California Energy Commission last year awarded a grant to the company toward the installation of 120 EVmatch-enabled chargers at multifamily buildings in the state. The chargers will be made publicly available using the same user group feature originally launched in Burlington.

Damon Lane, who owns a four-unit rental property in which he lives and rents out the other units, was one of the original participants in the program.

“My intention was always for it to be publicly available,” he said. Neither Lane nor any of the people living in his building own an electric vehicle. But since it’s located near Burlington’s downtown and in a residential area where many people rent apartments, he thought it could be useful for the public.

Through the pilot, Lane got an Enel X JuiceBox charger. The chargers were provided free through the program to owners of multifamily residences, but he paid $30 to get a higher-power charger than what was offered through the program. (It would have cost about $680.) He also received the $500 incentive toward a $910 installation for making it public.

These incentives helped him substantially, he said, because “unless I was going to charge an outrageous rate [on EVmatch], I was never going to recover the installation cost.” And with the EVmatch software to help with booking and billing, he said, “it is quite easy to provide this service to the community.”

Burlington expands program that gives renters and public access to EV chargers is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A Vermont Senate committee is finalizing a proposal supporters hope will give underrepresented communities a more active role in shaping the state’s environmental policies.

The bill would define an “environmental justice population,” set funding targets for state agencies to spend on these communities, and form an advisory council to elevate the voices of low-income residents, people of color and non-English speakers. It’s a new version of a bill introduced in the state Senate last year.

“We really wanted to answer the question: What does environmental justice look like in Vermont?” said Jennifer Byrne, a fellow at Vermont Law School’s Environmental Justice Clinic who helped write the bill.

The bill references a Center for American Progress study that found 76% of Black, Indigenous and people of color in Vermont live in “nature deprived” census tracts. Research from the University of Vermont has found that mobile homes are more likely than permanent structures to be located in a flood hazard area, and mobile homes in Vermont were disproportionately damaged during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

Byrne and others at the REJOICE Project — Rural Environmental Justice Opportunities Informed by Community Expertise — have been working since 2017 to speak with members of these and other underrepresented communities in Vermont to determine the biggest environmental challenges they face. In addition to flooding, key areas of concern they’ve found that are also noted in the bill include energy affordability, access to fresh food and access to information in languages other than English.

Climate change has made the bill even more important to pass right now, Byrne said. Without a proper avenue for the state to hear from vulnerable communities, she said, new funding for things like weatherization and electric vehicles may mostly benefit places where people have the experience and resources to help apply for assistance.

“These are wildly disparate experiences we’re having here and they’re only going to grow wider,” said Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, who introduced the bill last year. She’s been working to raise environmental justice awareness in Vermont for more than a decade.

Discussion has increased in that time, she said. Data collection is easier, thanks in part to the introduction of EJScreen, a federal mapping tool that can be used to show environmental hazards geographically. Additionally, Ram Hinsdale said, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 raised awareness that people of color in Vermont are more likely to be at a disadvantage for receiving many services.

Vermont has historically taken pride in its environmental progress, and that’s been a barrier to recognizing challenges, Ram Hinsdale said. “So we are finally putting the pieces together so it’s much clearer that despite being a green state, we still have disparities.”

Supporters of the new bill say it will hold agencies accountable for delivering resources fairly to communities. “Lack of a clear environmental justice policy has resulted in a piecemeal approach to understanding and addressing environmental justice in Vermont” and has prevented equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, the bill says.

The bill, which is expected to pass out of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy as early as Thursday, currently defines environmental justice as meaning that “all individuals are afforded equitable access to and distribution of environmental benefits; equitable distribution of environmental burdens; fair and equitable treatment and meaningful participation in decision-making processes; and the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”

An environmental justice population is defined as any census block group in which the annual median income is no more than 80% of the state median household income; people of color and Indigenous people make up at least 6% of the population; or at least 1% of households have limited English proficiency.

The bill would require many state agencies, including the Agency of Natural Resources and the Agency of Transportation, as well as the Public Utility Commission and the Department of Public Service, to consider cumulative environmental burdens when making decisions about the environment, energy, climate and other areas, and the associated funding. They’re required to be in compliance with Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in programs receiving federal funds.

The agencies also must create community engagement plans to effectively include environmental justice populations in the process of evaluating new and existing programs. The Agency of Natural Resources will have to lead development of a mapping tool to help measure environmental burdens geographically. The agencies must set a goal of investing their funds so that environmental justice populations receive 55% of the environmental benefits. That amount is based on the definition of environmental justice population, which encompasses about 52% of Vermont’s population. (This overlaps with the Biden administration’s definition of disadvantaged community in its Justice40 initiative.)

Two new committees would be created under the bill to oversee environmental policy development. The Interagency Environmental Justice Committee would comprise agency leaders to develop guidance on how agencies should create community engagement plans and determine funding distribution.

The Environmental Justice Advisory Council would comprise individuals from outside the state government and act as a consulting body for agencies and lawmakers developing environmental policies. More than half of the 17-member council would have to reside in environmental justice communities. They’d include representatives of social justice organizations, people involved in mobile home park advocacy, members of Native American Indian tribes and representatives from immigrant communities.

Through their work, the two committees will also evaluate and help the state government update the definition of an environmental justice population. Byrne said she expects it will be adjusted as the council and state agencies hear from community members.

By many accounts, the creation of the bill has been relatively smooth, with state agency officials, lawmakers and advocates working together. Byrne attributed this to the multi-year relationship between the Agency of Natural Resources and the REJOICE team.

One of the key questions as the bill nears completion in the Senate committee is how much power the advisory council will have in shaping policy.

Byrne and other advocates would like a procedure to be included in the bill that allows the advisory council to vote on rules being proposed pursuant to this policy. It wouldn’t necessarily stop policies from being approved, she said. Rather, it would mean rulemaking committees are informed whether the council has approved a proposed rule and allow the committees to consult with the advisory council.

“There’s no additional rights here that we’re asking for,” she added. This would simply solidify public engagement in the rulemaking process, she said. Elena Mihaly, vice president of Conservation Law Foundation’s Vermont chapter, who helped write the bill, said advocates would try to get the stipulation in when it goes to the House if it doesn’t make it through in the Senate.

While the process of drafting the bill has been smooth, that doesn’t mean it’s sure to pass: Once it gets through the current Senate committee, Mihaly said it will go to the Appropriations Committee before reaching the full Senate. From there, the bill would go through a similar process in the House.

“I think it’s really fundamental that the state of Vermont has an environmental justice policy on the books,” Mihaly said. While there are disagreements on some of the details, she said, “fundamentally … I haven’t met anyone in the state that doesn’t believe that this is needed.”

Codifying environmental justice into law “is a really important first step” to get the state to address the challenges laid out in the bill, said Sebbi Wu, climate and equity advocate at the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. He’s also a member of the Vermont Renews BIPOC Advisory Council and has been involved in discussions on the bill, including for the definitions of environmental justice and environmental justice population.

Giving vulnerable communities the power to influence policy is vital, Wu said, because no matter how good policymakers are at their jobs, “people with lived experience know what they need.”

But he, like others, emphasized that the bill is only a start. It will help demonstrate the distribution of environmental justice-focused work in Vermont, and it will help involve communities in this work. But equity still needs to be considered in the development of other policies, he noted, whether it’s transportation, weatherization at scale or the clean heat standard currently in discussion in the legislature.

This bill, while it covers many agencies and potential policies, won’t automatically ensure they consider equity, he said. “We have to walk and chew gum at the same time.”

What does environmental justice look like in Vermont? Bill seeks to answer is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A Vermont natural gas utility is expanding into a new and unexpected line of business: helping customers switch to electric appliances.

Vermont Gas Systems (VGS) announced in December that it would begin selling, leasing, installing and servicing electric heat pump water heaters for customers in and around its service territory in the northwest part of the state.

The move comes as Vermont’s 2020 climate law raises existential questions about the future of fossil fuels in the state. Achieving a mandatory 80% reduction (from 1990 levels) in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will all but require a reduction in natural gas sales.

“By offering this, VGS is helping Vermont achieve the climate action goals established by the Global Warming Solutions Act,” said Ashley Wainer, the company’s vice president of customer and energy innovation.

The company’s motivations aren’t entirely altruistic either. In a filing to state regulators in November, VGS explained that its “behind-the-meter” installation and maintenance services are an important source of revenue, expected to bring in about $1,175,000 in net revenue for the 2022 fiscal year.

“These services are a profitable part of VGS’s overall business, and the associated revenue reduces our [cost of service] and therefore reduces customers’ rates,” the company wrote.

VGS is Vermont’s only natural gas utility, serving around 55,000 customers in the northwestern part of the state. Its electric heat pump pilot program will also be offered to Vermonters within 5 miles of its territory, adding an estimated 36,000 homes.

The company doesn’t expect the fuel-switching trial to noticeably reduce revenue. It told regulators that it intends to spend $20,000 on the program in its initial year while charging customers an hourly rate for labor plus a 35% mark-up on materials. If the company were to install 500 units under the program in the 2022 fiscal year, it would add another $68,000 in expected net revenue, according to VGS’ filing with regulators. For any customers not currently served by its pipelines, the business would be new revenue.

The purpose is to better assess demand, its capacity to meet that demand, and how to market the program. “As insight is gained through assessing the best way to promote greater adoption of this technology, VGS will have a clearer understanding of how many HPWHs [heat pump water heaters] can be installed each year, which will also depend on our field service team’s capacity,” it wrote to regulators.

Offering heat pump water heaters will help jumpstart progress on the state’s climate goals, the company said, and is also “allowing us to position ourselves a little more broadly as a thermal solutions provider that isn’t focused solely on fossil fuel gas,” said Richard Donnelly, director of energy innovation for VGS.

VGS’ service crew of about 25 technicians, which until now has been installing natural gas water heaters, will be trained to install the new equipment. As Vermont deals with hiring challenges in the clean energy sector, VGS said this crew will help increase the state’s clean energy workforce.

Vermont, like other states, has a legally binding decarbonization plan that includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26% from 2005 levels by 2025 and 40% from 1990 levels by 2030. State-led policies and advocacy efforts often focus on electrification of the heating sector rather than shifting to fossil fuel alternatives like renewable natural gas to heat homes and businesses.

VGS has its own goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. The company also offers weatherization services and was among the first natural gas utilities in the country to start mixing renewable natural gas into its fuel supply.

The state relies mostly on oil and propane for heating. Customers who purchase or lease heat pump water heaters from VGS will be able to access rebates for them, which total as much as $800 depending on customers’ income and are offered through Vermont’s electric utilities and the efficiency utility Efficiency Vermont. That can bring the upfront price down closer to natural gas water heaters, which range from about $2,000 to $3,500, according to VGS.

Donnelly added that offering heat pump water heater installation should make VGS a more valuable partner to Efficiency Vermont and the state’s electric utilities. Those utilities, such as Green Mountain Power and Burlington Electric, are required by state law to invest in programs that incentivize customers to adopt electric devices like heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. VGS’ new offering should complement those programs, he said.

It could also show a potential path for growth even if natural gas declines as a heating fuel. The company charges between $60 and $250 per year for its heating and water heater service plans. Other natural gas utilities have similar offerings with premium tiers that cover non-gas appliances.

Rick Murphy, a managing director at the American Gas Association, said he was not aware of any other members offering similar programs that help customers switch to an electric appliance. A colleague said the program would likely draw interest from across the country.

“A lot of our members, I think, will be watching to see how this program works as they design decarbonization programs that work for their service territories,” said Emily O’Connell, the gas association’s senior director of policy and analysis.

In Vermont, clean energy advocates are encouraged by the utility’s heat pump water heater program and not surprised based on its other climate efforts. 

“I think this program is clear evidence that VGS is looking to the future, recognizing that we need to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels including natural gas, and they’re embracing a business model that will serve them well, likely into the future,” said Johanna Miller, energy and climate program director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council.

Vermont’s recently adopted Climate Action Plan and the recently updated Comprehensive Energy Plan recommend the implementation or consideration of a clean heat standard, which would require fuel suppliers to decarbonize their building heating fuels.

Matt Rusteika, senior policy analyst at Acadia Center, said the move makes sense given Vermont’s emission reduction goals. An Acadia Center analysis, based on natural gas industry research, estimated that renewable natural gas could potentially satisfy only about 7% of current fossil gas consumption by 2040. “Decarbonization in buildings requires electrification,” he said. 

The VGS program is a yearlong pilot, but the utility said it plans to continue after the first year while officials assess how the pilot went.

Vermont gas utility has a new service: helping to electrify your home is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Climate advocates in Vermont are considering new strategies for reducing transportation emissions as the prospects fade for establishing a regional cap-and-invest program.

Vermont’s initial Climate Action Plan, released Dec. 1, leans significantly on the proposed Transportation and Climate Initiative for meeting the state’s mandatory emission targets. The Northeast interstate initiative would require fuel suppliers to buy annual pollution allowances, which would shrink in supply each year while also generating revenue for clean transportation projects in participating states.

Weeks ahead of the Vermont plan’s release, however, the governors of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts announced that their states would not join the transportation program after all, dealing a blow that has left its future uncertain.

A group within Vermont’s climate council recently began discussions on other potential policies to reduce transportation emissions. They include adopting a statewide transportation fuel standard or joining a cap-and-invest program led by California and Quebec.

Vermont’s Global Warming Solutions Act, adopted in 2020, set a legally binding requirement to cut emissions 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. At 40%, transportation emissions make up the biggest share of Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions, the nonprofit Energy Action Network found in an analysis of 2018 state data.

The 23-member Vermont Climate Council was created by the same legislation to develop a climate action plan to guide state policy. Among the recommendations in its first action plan was for the state to join the Transportation and Climate Initiative, known as TCI.

One of opponents’ biggest points of resistance to the initiative has been its impact on gasoline prices. Estimates vary, but the TCI website projected a 5-cent increase per gallon in 2023. 

“To me, the high cost and price volatility of gasoline is an argument to transition off, not double down on it,” said Jared Duval, executive director of the Energy Action Network and a member of the Climate Council’s transportation group. 

With electricity costs far lower than gasoline prices, electric vehicles could help drivers save money. That is, if they can afford the upfront cost — something the Transportation and Climate Initiative could be used to help them do.

Duval and the other group members recently issued a memo to launch discussions about two alternative strategies on transportation that could be incorporated into an amended state climate plan in June. One idea is to implement a transportation fuel standard. The other is to join the Western Climate Initiative, a cap-and-invest program led by California whose members also include Quebec, which shares a border with Vermont. (The other member is Nova Scotia.)

Duval said the transportation fuel standard offers key benefits for Vermont. It would require fossil fuel suppliers to decarbonize, either by changing the fuels they sell or by purchasing credits to offset their emissions. As the memo notes, performance standards have been used in other sectors such as electricity, through which states including Vermont have pushed utilities to decarbonize their generation sources. Several states, including California, Oregon and Washington, have already adopted standards for transportation fuels.

A transportation fuel standard would also mirror the heating fuel standard recommended in Vermont’s Climate Action Plan. That recommendation has already led the state’s legislature to begin drafting a law to address Vermont’s other major emissions contributor: building heating fuels. It’s possible the building fuel standard could eventually be extended to cover the transportation sector.

The Western Climate Initiative may be more challenging to join, given that Vermont’s governor hasn’t supported the cap-and-invest program already on the table in the Northeast. Still, the Western initiative has one advantage over the Transportation and Climate Initiative simply by being up and running.

“I think the clean transportation standard makes a lot of sense,” said Jordan Stutt, carbon programs director at Acadia Center. “We’ve seen the low carbon fuel standard approach elsewhere.” He added that other states had been considering similar standards in addition to the Transportation and Climate Initiative, and if TCI does end up happening, the two policies would complement each other.

Stutt’s work has focused on advancing TCI. He said the program “is now a fully developed policy that states have in their back pocket. And while it’s still a possibility, it has a very uncertain future right now and states cannot afford to wait on that.” They need to invest in new clean transportation solutions now, he said.

As a reference point, the transportation group in Vermont has pointed to Oregon and Washington, both of which have implemented transportation fuel standards but whose leaders have opted not to join the Western Climate Initiative. Oregon in December implemented a new carbon cap for all fossil fuel emissions, which will likely eclipse the transportation standard the state already has.

Angus Duncan, former chair of Oregon’s Global Warming Commission and a consultant for the Natural Resources Defense Council, helped write the state’s climate strategy and greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals, adopted in 2007. The goals and policy recommendations have been important for the state to make progress on climate goals, he said, noting a 2019 New York Times analysis that found per capita emissions dropped in Portland more than 20% from 1990 to 2017. At the same time, total emissions rose nearly 25% in the same period.

“There’s bad news and good news,” he said, “but the bad news way outweighs the good news.” A fuel standard adopted by Oregon in 2015 “has not moved the pump price of gasoline very much at all,” he said. That’s a good thing in that it helps prove wrong warnings opponents initially gave that the standard would lead to a rise in gas prices. But it’s also a bad thing, he said, because without a steady, discernible increase in gas prices, people won’t be incentivized to switch to electric vehicles.

Duncan said that overall, Oregon’s fuel standards and other policies, including adopting California’s vehicle efficiency standard, put it on a track similar to the path it would have been on had it joined the Western Climate Initiative. Joining that pact could still help Oregon invest in more clean transportation solutions, he said, but it’s not likely to happen since it’s difficult to get state leaders on board with something that could mean surrendering Oregon’s policy initiatives to other states. Oregon is part of an interstate electricity planning body with the three other Northwest states, but while that body makes recommendations, it doesn’t require members’ compliance.

He said the new carbon cap in Oregon will eventually lead to an increase in gas prices. That could help incentivize drivers to start using electric vehicles, he said, but that shift will depend on the state and electric utilities also investing in electric vehicle incentives including public fast-charging stations, particularly in low-income areas where residents often can’t have a charger at home. At the same time, he said, vehicle manufacturers — which he noted small states like Oregon have no control over — need to make electric vehicles available at lower costs and with greater driving ranges so drivers can travel long distances.

If that happens, he said, “we can expect that EV penetration curve, which is relatively flat right now, to bend sharply upwards.”

“I’ve not fully given up hope [on TCI], and I feel like the Transportation and Climate Initiative … has been underway for well over a decade,” said Johanna Miller, energy and climate program director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council and a member of the transportation subgroup that released the new memo. “I’m an optimistic person, so I’m hopeful that it is not completely off the table, but I’m also pragmatic.”

She and others noted that while federal pandemic relief and infrastructure aid could help Vermont in the near term, the state needs a long-term strategy to reduce transportation emissions.

“Whether that’s a performance standard, like a clean transportation standard … or another cap-and-invest program like the Western Climate Initiative — I think they’re both promising and I think they warrant a lot more analysis, especially embedded in the Vermont context,” Miller said.

With regional transportation pact in doubt, Vermont considers other policies is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A group of lawmakers, advocates and nonprofit leaders hopes to hash out a plan in the coming months to help Vermont build the workforce it needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years.

The initiative, one of the winning pitches at a recent competition hosted by the nonprofit Energy Action Network, aims to reduce barriers to creating Vermont’s “climate workforce,” covering the clean energy and conservation sectors. This could include coordinating training programs and aligning them more directly with employment opportunities, as well as launching a marketing campaign to build interest in working in the clean energy sector.

“There have been a lot of good programs and initiatives on various aspects of the climate workforce over the years, and many of the leaders and innovators of those programs are also involved in this effort,” said Cara Robechek, network action manager at the Energy Action Network. “What is different about this effort is that it is tied specifically to the needs identified in the Climate Action Plan, which was just approved Dec. 1.”

Vermont’s climate targets, which are legally binding under the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act, include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26% from 2005 levels by 2025 and by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030. 

Like other states, progress in Vermont will largely depend on electrifying the transportation and building sectors and weatherizing homes so they use less energy for heating. The state’s recently released Climate Plan — commissioned as part of the 2020 law — calls for another 90,000 homes to be weatherized in Vermont by 2030, in addition to the roughly 30,000 that have been weatherized in recent decades.

“That takes people,” said Gabrielle Stebbins, a state representative and senior consultant at Energy Futures Group, and one of two co-chairs on the new initiative. “And that takes people being trained in the near term so that we can get those folks out and working in the near term” to meet emissions targets.

Vermont’s clean energy workforce had an estimated 17,502 workers at the beginning of 2021, a pandemic-related drop after it had been hovering around 19,000 in recent years, according to a report commissioned by the Vermont Department of Public Service. Most workers were in energy efficiency-related jobs.

The Energy Action Network has estimated Vermont currently has about 700 weatherization workers. While modeling is not an exact science, “we have good reason to anticipate that, given what we know now … we will likely need somewhere in the range of 5,000 weatherization workers by sometime around the middle of this decade if we are to achieve the weatherization recommendations of the Climate Action Plan,” said Jared Duval, the network’s executive director. 

Weatherization contractors say hiring is already an ongoing challenge. Dwight DeCoster, weatherization program director at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, said he’s been working with a team of 13 recently, short of the 15 he’d like to have to meet growing demand for weatherization work. He expects his needs to grow as state initiatives grow even more.

“While I’m excited to see that weatherization is being valued by our legislature as a clear solution to the [climate] problem, are we going to be able to complete that task by 2030?” DeCoster said.

He noted that the labor force is short across sectors. The $18-an-hour wage he’s able to offer employees, with benefits, isn’t always enough now that people can get other construction jobs where they make upward of $22 an hour.

“What we need to do is identify workers who are not engaged in the climate workforce currently and understand what the pipeline is going to look like and how we grow it so that we’re meeting Vermont’s needs as we scale up these types of climate jobs,” said Dylan Giambatista, leader of public affairs at Vermont Gas Systems and the other co-chair on the new effort. “Right now we’re at the preliminary stage of pulling these pieces together to make sure that we have the information.”

He noted that, particularly for younger workers, addressing climate change is a priority. “The question is: How do you harness their interests and ensure that the pathway is clear to the in-demand high-paying jobs that are available in these areas?”

Shanna Smith, executive director of the Northeast Employment and Training Organization, was planning to attend a January meeting of the workforce initiative. NETO provides weatherization services for income-eligible residents of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. For more than a month, Smith has had four positions open for weatherization crew members to add to the existing crew of 15. While her team would like to add several more positions on top of that in the coming year, she said it’s already been difficult to fill the current openings.

“It is challenging right now,” she said. With few applications coming in for NETO’s open positions, Smith was planning to see what her budget would allow to increase compensation, which currently starts at $16 an hour. NETO also offers workers a $500 sign-on bonus after six months on the job, along with health insurance benefits.

Weatherization “is hard work,” she said. “It is great work, it’s incredibly rewarding. … But it is hard. And it is hard to find people who want to get their hands dirty and climb underneath houses and go up in attics.”

Early plans

Leaders of the workforce development effort want to deliver concrete strategies to reduce barriers to entry to the climate workforce, such as costly training programs and lack of access to childcare. They also want to ensure people who pursue training have a clear path not only to jobs, but to careers with room for advancement. They’re placing a high priority on ensuring opportunities are available for women, youth, immigrants, people of color, people exiting correctional facilities and residents of the state’s rural areas, among others.

The group is only just beginning its meetings. It doesn’t have a set timeline, but Stebbins anticipates taking about six to nine months to assess workforce needs in Vermont and devise a plan, then shifting to implementation.

“How we see our collaborative effort is to really broaden the table and better coordinate the programs that already exist,” said Rhoni Basden, executive director of Vermont Works for Women. The organization is one of four with a workforce training program that helped develop the pitch. The others are ReSOURCE, the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps and Audubon Vermont.

From Basden’s perspective, Vermont doesn’t lack opportunities for residents to join the clean energy workforce. But stakeholders need to better coordinate these opportunities, she said, and knock down barriers to access. For example, she said, Vermont Works for Women just finished a session of its Trailblazers training program in which 13 women graduated with experience in construction, remodeling and welding. They all had job offers, but six had to turn down opportunities due to lack of childcare and reliable transportation — a concern for many residents of Vermont, a rural state with few public transportation options. 

“Job offers are there and people are being trained, but addressing those barriers … is really going to be a big factor in this,” Basden said. Vermont Works for Women is preparing to launch a new renewable energy-focused version of the Trailblazers program to train participants in solar panel installation, weatherization and other clean energy-focused careers.

After being selected in the pitch competition, the workforce development group is receiving staff support from the Energy Action Network as well as $15,000 in seed funding from the organization. Stebbins said group leaders in early discussions have floated the possibility of compensating participants. She noted, for example, if the group wants input from Vermont’s sizable New American community (which includes immigrants and other people born outside the United States), they have to be mindful of asking people to take time from jobs or other commitments.

Members of the pitch team also want to better coordinate education and employment opportunities. A lack of consistent program funding has meant that contractors often don’t know how many projects they’ll be guaranteed from year to year. Nor do they know whether any given workforce development program will last long enough to deliver a consistent supply of workers.

The Global Warming Solutions Act should help reduce some uncertainty, since it holds the state accountable for meeting its climate goals, Stebbins noted. But she said the new workforce building initiative should help bridge the gap between educators, employers and workers, who also need to know they’re entering a job with a livable wage and prospects for advancement.

Pitches were voted on twice in the competition — once at the Energy Action Network’s annual fall summit and then again by the group’s broader membership. Robechek said more than 100 people voted in total. After the voting rounds, the group’s board confirms the winning pitches. In addition to the workforce pitch, the 2021 winners included a group that wants to develop a plan for investment of Transportation and Climate Initiative revenues in Vermont (assuming the state joins the pact), as well as a group that wants to help plan the phase-out of fossil fuel-dependent equipment in the state.

“The climate workforce is such an important thing for us to be figuring out, so it’s exciting to see where this pitch goes,” Robechek said.

Vermont aims to weatherize 90,000 homes this decade. Can it find enough workers to finish the job? is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.