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[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Snooze, you lose. We're live. Alright. Welcome back, everybody. It's House Energy and Digital Infrastructure on April 1, and we're gonna walk through s two nineteen, an act relating to an energy navigator program report. So I'm rep Kathleen James from Manchester.
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: Scott Campbell from St. Johnsbury. Richard Bailey, Memorial two. Chris Morrow, Windham, Windsor Bennington, Michael Southworth, Caledonia to Christopher Howland, Rutland Pour.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Dara Torre, Washington two.
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: Bram Kleppner, Chittenden 13, Burlington.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Alright. For the record, look.
[Ellen Chekka (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: Ellen Chekka, the office of legislative council. I'm here today on s two nineteen as passed by the senate. This is an act relating to an energy navigator program report. And it's just one section law section. Oh, there's a funding provision in section two, but section one is a session law provision, and it is on a report. The Department of Public Service shall contract with a third party consultant to design a Vermont community based home energy navigator and coaching program in collaboration with the Climate Action Center of Addison County and other existing community based energy navigator programs in Vermont. I'll pause quickly. CAC of Addison County has an energy navigator program already. The department is supposed to consult with them and other existing energy navigator programs. I think at least one of the community action agencies has one as well. That will provide in person and remote energy coaching services to residential consumers and communities statewide. There are some of these programs that are more The Addison County one is just an Addison County, and so this is having the Department of Public Service look at developing a statewide program based on some of these programs that already exist. The Department's consultant shall build on findings from the Department's comprehensive process and performance evaluation of more than 100 publicly funded energy programs focused on affordability, including electric and thermal efficiency, weatherization for customers with low income and beneficial electrification initiatives to inform the design of the Vermont Community Based Home Energy Navigator and Coaching Program. You should hear from the department, but they have already, of their own initiative, begun this comprehensive evaluation of existing energy programs in Vermont. And so they, on the senate side, proposed that they add this to the work that they're already doing. And I believe that they have already issued prior to this bill, they were in the process of issuing an an RFP for a consultant. And so with this bill, would tack on this specific energy navigator program design as part of that. So, you should hear from the department that pumped out the work they're currently undertaking already. The department's consultants shall consult with Efficiency Vermont. I'm down on page one, line 17. The Vermont State Energy Office, the Vermont Climate Action Office, Vermont's Community Action Agencies, the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network, Vermont's Electric Utilities, Community Based Pro Navigator and Energy Approaching Programs, and other states, including Connecticut and Massachusetts, that have experience with community based energy programs. On to page two. For purposes of this section, residential consumers includes homeowners, landlords, and renters. So the proposal is that they report back on a proposed program design. And so the program shall, it should be maybe we say the proposed program shall include these elements. Provide guidance to residential consumers, particularly those with low and moderate incomes to better understand and navigate energy efficiency and clean energy investment options to affordably meet their home energy needs. Advise residential consumers on accessing available grants, rebates, financing, and other assistance programs and incentives to meet their home energy needs, assist residential consumers in prioritizing identified energy saving opportunities, including through the integration of weatherization strategies to reduce heating and cooling loads that could minimize the need for installation to equipment and lower future electric demands on the grid. Help residential consumers connect with local contractors and review and analyze contractor recommendations regarding cost, payment, and other relevant factors. Advise residential consumers in person as necessary and over time, recognizing that hands on coaching help may be needed at a consumer's home and over several years. Onto page three, the program shall provide recommendations for how the program would provide ongoing funding to support the operations of community based energy coaching programs, and recommend any grant funds and private partnerships that may be available to support program implementation. On or before 03/01/2027, the department shall submit a report on the program design to the House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure and the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy. The report shall include a description of the design of the program, which could include the creation of a pilot program or expansion and support of existing community based programs, a description of the technical assistance and educational materials to be developed as part of the program, an estimated program costs, funding sources to provide ongoing support to community based energy coaching programs, a target number of residential consumers to be served by the program, energy and emission savings that will result from the program, and a proposed timeline for the implementation of the program. Section two is then a contingency of funding provision that the appropriations committees have been adding. Originally, this bill did have an appropriation to the Department of Public Service. It did also have an appropriation directly to the CACs and C of Allison County to support their ongoing work. But the Senate Appropriation Committee replaced it with this language. The duty to hire a consultant as described in section one is contingent upon an appropriation of funds in fiscal year twenty twenty seven from the general fund to the department for that. The duty of the Department of Public Service to grant funding to the Climate Economy Action Center is contingent upon an appropriation of funds in fiscal year 2027 from the general fund to the department for that. The effective date is 07/01/2026. This is an interesting This use of contingency funding language, I think, is all a little bit confusing, but you should hear from the department about the work they have already undergone. This bill would create a duty for them to hire consultants specific to this aspect of the report, and so without any funding for that, the duty to hire a consultant in that way is contingent about, is contingent on funding being appropriated, though so far that has not come in. But they may be continuing work regardless on their other part of their reporting that they've been undertaking themselves.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: K. We're hearing from them tomorrow.
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: Do you know if you know how much funding was with radiation?
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: It
[Ellen Chekka (Office of Legislative Counsel)]: was $25,000 to the Department of Public Service for the consultant and $10,000 to the private action center.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Okay. Great. Don't have any questions on the walkthrough. We, tomorrow anyway, we're hearing from the NRC and I think that's going to be kind of specific to these existing programs. We are going to be hearing from the Climate Action Center of Addison County, and we're going be hearing from the department. And I know that Efficiency of Vermont wants to come in and test ify as well. So I think we'll probably just start there. Great. Any questions for what to counsel? Alright, Ellen. Thank you so much. While
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: you're here. So
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: before we let's see. Before we go off live, just a couple of, like, look ahead. So we're we're done for the day, And then we're back tomorrow. And just a reminder that, I'm actually glad we have time after the floor today to kinda prep for tomorrow because one thing I wanna do, and I would appreciate other folks doing this as well, is so that we can really be ready for our markup. We've got a lot of testimony from different folks to go through on S202 with suggested additions to the bill. I want to make sure I'm ready for that and that I'm not the only one ready for that. So, I'm glad we have time this afternoon to press for two zero two discussion in MARCA. Then two nineteen, we've got just a quick little round of testimony tomorrow on that. And then on on 02/2002, we will have already marked up the bill, but we do have coming in to kind of talk about why they support two zero two, and I think they're gonna bring a plug in unit, which is kinda cool. And then Sarah Adams from ISO is coming in Friday to talk about the bill, but they've submitted written testimony. So that's in it's up on our website. Let's all make sure we look at that for tomorrow. We have some little remaining scraps of testimony on s two thirteen, the water meter bill. But most importantly on C PACE, I've been listening to all the to all the thoughts on C PACE. And so, what I've been hearing from committee members about testimony they still wanna hear on C PACE. The insurance companies, We reached out to them. At this point, they're planning to provide written testimony, and we'll get that in from them. And if we still have additional questions, folks are welcome to either say, hey. We want them to come in or reach out to them individually. But we did reach out to the insurance companies, and right now they're prepping a letter. We can take it from there on that. So that's on two zero two or two? C PACE. So the C PACE. I'm back on C PACE. Yep. So who do we need to hear from on C PACE? So insurance companies, that was a
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: Oh, the insurance companies was on S 202.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Was on 202. Who
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: was it? Yep.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yes. It's correct. It's on 202.
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: And where Sorry. Where was coming in? Friday
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: on 02/2002, but they have written testimony.
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: Well
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yeah. Yeah. I am trying to
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: move turn the page over.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yeah. I am trying to move our Friday afternoon testimony to Friday morning, just FYI. So Mhmm. So What now? Okay. Sorry. So back to C PACE.
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: I was conveniently done. Good Friday.
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yes. Oh, well, it is Good Friday. Yeah. So back to C PACE, we're gonna hear from Senator Chittenden's intern who's going to walk us through a report she did on C PACE and other states. We're going to reach out to Michael Yackey at the C PACE Alliance to get his opinion on what, like, maybe two other states we could hear from about how they're doing it, and I'm looking for the closest parallel to Vermont. Right? So, for example, it probably wouldn't be relevant to us for us to hear from, like, California or something. We wanna hear from other states that have small towns that are doing this, and especially about the third party administrator question. And Dara had wondered if we could hear from the climate action office on, like, the that definition of resilience. So, you know, we wanna put in a definition of resilience and maybe hear how resilience would be relevant. Chris had mentioned that there is a definition in the resiliency the resilience implementation strategy. So, we reached out to Jane. So I'm trying to, like, close the loop on where what are we missing here? So maybe a couple other states, definition of resilience, and senator Chittenden's intern on her kind of report. And then trying to wrap up two zero two. Anyway, so just now I'm hearing and trying to get everybody booked.
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: So we're gonna be able to take the week or two off for that?
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yes. And it could
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: be last week in May to come back and fight for education. Right?
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yeah. Yeah. Then the other thing I wanted to ask Alex to do, if you have time, Alex, it would be great if you could monitor our senate counterparts and keep us posted on our bills that are over there. Sure. So that would be natural, I mean, senate natural. They are they seem to be actively taking up data centers. They're taking up seven eighteen. They're taking up single plant, and they're taking up greenhouse gas emissions. So those are, like, on the agenda. So, Alex, if you could just be, like, watching natural resources and give us a little updates on what they're doing over there with our bills. The other committee is Senate Finance. We should be keeping an eye on our bills that they're taking up over there. I do think they're taking up
[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: the
[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: disconnections. Yeah. That's for a witness. Yeah, okay. So just maybe, Alex, if you could do that for us, that'd be really awesome. And then institutions, we should just keep an eye on them, but I don't think they have any of our bills or doing any of our bills. So it's it's probably gonna be finance and and snare. Alright. We're doing all fun. I see.