Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Speaker 0]: Will the house please come to order and members kindly take their seats. Welcome back. We have three bills we will be taking up during our 1PM session. They are house bill six thirty nine, which you will soon learn. It's a committee of conference appointment. House bill seven forty, which is the greenhouse gas inventory registry bill. And then we're going to pull off the notice calendar senate bill two twenty three, which is a committee of conference report. So with that, I'll start with members. During our recess we received a senate message notifying us that the senate refused to concur in the house proposal of amendment to the senate proposal of amendment on house bill six thirty nine which is an act relating to genetic data privacy and requested a committee of conference and appointed its members there too. Pursuant to that action, the chair appoints the following members to serve on the part of the house. The member from Jericho, representative granting, the member from Coventry, representative mark hot and the member from Bethel, White. Now we'll turn to house bill seven forty which is an act relating to the greenhouse gas inventory and registry. The bill passed the senate in concurrence with a proposal of amendment that is printed in today's calendar. Member from Manchester.

[Representative Kathleen James]: Thank you, madam speaker. The goal of h seven forty is simple and it's focused on a goal that I believe we all share, which is to help all Vermonters and especially low and moderate income Vermonters access affordable, clean, and sustainable energy solutions. We wanna help people weatherize their homes, save money on their heating bills, and spend less at the gas pump. H740 fills in a blind spot in understanding Vermont's current energy sources. It gives us a clearer and more helpful baseline from which we can hopefully agree on solutions. When H740 passed the House on March 24, it proposed one change to 10 VSA Chapter five eighty two. It gave the Agency of Natural Resources specific rulemaking authority to create a new comprehensive greenhouse gas emission reporting program that covers all sources of emissions including fuel suppliers. We asked ANR to develop and adopt rules that would cover all fuel sectors, for example, fuels used for transportation and for heating by fuel type and by zip code, town or the smallest geographic level practicable. So in the House bill, the rulemaking was contingent on the appropriation of funds in fiscal year twenty seven, but the House did not appropriate those funds. The senate has returned to us a strike all amendment that you can find on page thirty five twenty two of yesterday's house calendar. And these changes include number one, clarifying that when asking for data at the quote smallest geographic level practicable, it's important to protect the individual identities of consumers. This is an important change. It clarifies that fuel dealers would not be required to report individual customer addresses. The second, proposed change, changes the funding structure by striking the contingency language that the house had and instead adding language that does appropriate $300,000 in one time FY '27 funding for ANR to get started on this work. And the Senate here also made the appropriation language more specific. So they laid out exactly what the funding would be used for. And then section four moves to repeal a little known chapter, 30 VSA chapter 94, also known as the clean heat standard. Section five repeals the requirement that the Department of Taxes share data with the Public Utility Commission and the Department of Public Service for the purposes of the clean heat standard. So it's a full clean heat repeal. Just as a quick reminder, in 2023, the legislature passed the Affordable Heat Act into law and the Affordable Heat Act contained a really important provision called a check back. And in the check back, we directed the Public Utility Commission to do an extensive study or investigation of the proposed clean heat standard to see whether it would be a good fit for Vermont. Importantly, the affordable heat act also included the requirement that following the check back report, the clean heat standard could not be implemented and could not move forward without full legislative approval. What this means is passage the introduction of a new bill, passage by the house, passage by the senate, and, the signature of the governor. So, as we had required in, the affordable heat act of 2023, the PUC set off on its work and they delivered their check back report to the legislature in January 2025. And in that report, they concluded many things. It's actually a good read, but primarily that the clean heat standard wasn't a good fit for Vermont at this time. Since then, there has been no funding appropriated for the work. Most importantly, there has been no legislative approval. So there was no house bill introduced, no Senate bill introduced, no passage. With that in mind, in February 2026, the PUC formally closed the docket on the clean heat standard. So the Senate is really proposing to us to repeal legislative language that required this work, work that is now complete. So Madam Speaker, these are significant substantive amendments, that we believe merit a conference committee. Earlier today, House Energy and Digital Infrastructure took a straw poll vote And on a vote of six three, we recommend that the House refuse to concur and instead appoint a committee of conference, and we ask for your support.

[Speaker 0]: The member from Manchester moves that the House refuse to concur in the Senate proposal of amendment and that a committee of conference be appointed. Are you ready for the question? Member from Franklin.

[Representative Wayne Laroche]: May I, interrogate the presenter of the bill?

[Speaker 0]: The member from Manchester is interrogated.

[Representative Wayne Laroche]: Madam speaker, generally when you're going to collect data or set out to collect data, you need to have some plan as how are you going to use that data, what are you going to use it for, What statistical methods or other methods you're gonna use in order to Point of inquiry.

[Speaker 0]: Member from Dover, what's your point of inquiry?

[Representative Laura Sibilia]: Madam speaker, I'm not sure what is this motion debatable?

[Speaker 0]: It is debatable.

[Representative Laura Sibilia]: Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: You may continue, member.

[Representative Wayne Laroche]: So the point I have is we're going to collect data and I'm just asking was there any consideration of any of these things about how you're going to collect that data and what you're going to use it for. I can understand you could build a trend line of data, but what are you going to do if the trend is up, trend is down, the the data shows different things. What's the purpose in the long run of what we're gonna achieve by putting this in place in the data that might we might collect? Is it a fishing expedition or are we heading for something that we know where we're going?

[Representative Kathleen James]: Thank you for that question. I guess I would answer that at a very honest and simple level, I already answered the question which is that the point of the bill is to gather data that provides us with a baseline in a way that is not currently available. I feel, strongly, I guess, that all good policy starts with, good data and the data drives the policy. So, I guess until we see the numbers which wouldn't be available until 2029 I believe, there's rule making until 2027 and then, it would take a year to get one year of data. And then in 2029, we would have numbers that I suppose a future legislature could look at and say, alright. We've got a pretty good picture of our energy landscape now. Let's start with a shared set of facts and see if we can figure out something to help Vermonters save money on their energy bills.

[Representative Wayne Laroche]: Thank you, member. And I take it it's a fishing expedition.

[Speaker 0]: Will the house please sit stand at ease for a moment? Right. So the will the house please come to order? So the member from Manchester moves that the house refuse to concur in the senate proposal of amendment and that a committee of conference be appointed. Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, please say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and you have refused to concur in the senate proposal of amendment and requested a committee of conference. Pursuant to your action, the chair appoints the following members to serve on the part of the house, The member from Manchester, representative James, the member from Saint Johnsbury, representative Campbell, and the member from Moortown, representative Tory. Member from Pulte, can you please offer us a motion to suspend our rules, message our action on house bill seven forty to the senate forthwith?

[Representative Michael Mrowicki]: Madam speaker, I make a motion to suspend rules in order to message our actions on h seven four zero to the senate forthwith.

[Speaker 0]: The member from Pultely moves that we suspend our rules to message action on House Bill seven forty to the senate forthwith. Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, please say nay. Aye. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and you have suspended rules to message our action on house bill seven forty to the senate forthwith. The last bill we'll take up during this block is senate bill two twenty three. One moment. Member from Pulte. On our notice calendar is the committee of conference report on senate bill two twenty three which is an act relating to water quality of the waters of Vermont. Can you please offer us a motion to suspend rules to take up senate bill two twenty three off the notice calendar for immediate consideration?

[Representative Michael Mrowicki]: Madam speaker, I make a motion to suspend rules in order to take up s two two three off the notice calendar for immediate consideration.

[Speaker 0]: The member from Pultely moves that we suspend our rules to take up senate bill two twenty three off the notice calendar for immediate consideration. Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. All those opposed please say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it, and you have suspended rules to take up senate bill two twenty three for immediate consideration. Senate bill two twenty three is an act relating to the water quality of the waters of Vermont. The bill was referred to a committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two chambers. The committee of conference has met and considered the same and recommends that the house adopt its report which is printed in today's calendar. Member from Randolph.

[Representative Larry Satcowitz]: Madam speaker, to remind the body, s two twenty three, an act relating to water quality of the waters of Vermont, would do two things, create a study group to develop rules to implement policy concerning the antidegradation of waters of the state and require the Agency of Natural Resources to report back on the establishment of a certification program for wetlands professionals. It passed out of house environment on an eleven-zero-zero vote. The committee of conference on s two twenty three met yesterday and proposes to amend the bill by changing the number of legislators that will sit on the study group from two on each body to three. The committee vote was six zero zero and request your support of the amended bill.

[Speaker 0]: So the question is, shall the house adopt the report of the committee of conference on its part? Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, please say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have and you have adopted the report of the committee of conference. Member from can you please offer us a motion to suspend our rules to message our action on senate bill two twenty three to the senate forthwith.

[Representative Michael Mrowicki]: Madam speaker, I make a motion to suspend rules in order to message our actions on s two twenty three to the senate forthwith.

[Speaker 0]: The member from Pultely moves that we suspend our rules to message our action on senate bill two twenty three to the senate forthwith. Are you ready for the question? If so, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed, please say nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it and you have suspended our rules to message our action on senate bill two twenty three to the senate forthwith. Members that completes the bills in the lineup for this afternoon. Please keep an eye on your email for, bills that may be coming prior to notice for, oh, from over from the senate. So with that, the house will stand in recess until the fall of the gavel at 3PM.