Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: She got open. Oh, okay. We're live. We did. Had to open. We can open window. We just got nailed out already. Oh.

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: Yeah. Because of the humidity coming in? Yeah. It's a

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: little. We're

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: live. Hi. Can you guys hear us? I

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: can. Yes.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Hi, Brooke. Laura.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Hi. How are you?

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Good. We are live on YouTube. Just wanted to alert you. We will just go around the room and introduce ourselves, which we always do, and then we'll turn it over to you to introduce yourself for the record. And I believe, I'm sorry, I'm running a little bit behind today, that you have already submitted written testimony. I think it's on our website. Super. So, have until about 09:30, but that's the idea. We should get going. Anyway, welcome everybody to House Energy and Digital Infrastructure. It's Thursday, April 16, and we are taking testimony on H600, an act relating to appliance efficiency. And my name is Kathleen James. I'm from the Bennington 4 District.

[Rep. R. Scott Campbell (Vice Chair)]: Scott Campbell from Saint Johnsbury. Richard Bailey on oil two. Chris Morrow, Windham, Windsor Bennington. Michael Southworth, Caledonia two. Christopher Howland, Roland four.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Eric Bury, Washington two. Bram Kleppner, Chittenden 13, Burlington.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Super. Alright. Over to you guys. If you could please introduce yourselves for the record, and we're eager to hear your testimony.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Sure. So, I will get started. So my name is Brooke Lockwood and I am the state policy associate at the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, which we shortened to ASAP. And I'm joined here today by Joanna Mauer, our deputy director.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Hi.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Okay. Great.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Alright. Great. So we have some slides to share, so I will run through them. And if you have any questions, maybe feel free to interrupt us or to save them to the end, whatever is is best. But, just one moment while I share screen.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Super. We, we usually ask as we go. We tried yesterday to save questions for the end and it was I thought it was hard. So if you don't mind. Sure.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah. So I just requested, access to sharing.

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: Okay.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: There.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Okay. And can you all see our screen?

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yep, we can.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Okay, great. So again, my name is Brooke Lockwood. I'm the state policy associate at ASAP. We are a project of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy dedicated to advancing cost effective appliance efficiency standards at both the state and federal level. As I mentioned before, I'm joined by ASAP's deputy director, Joanna Morrow, and we really appreciate the opportunity to testify today in support of house bill 600 and would like to request an amendment that would enhance the savings opportunities of the bill. So, first I would like to take a moment to thank everyone in the room and the Vermont legislature as a whole, for the leadership that your state has shown in the appliance efficiency space. In 2018, Vermont led a wave of states passing state appliance efficiency standards, prompting other states in the region to take action. So since that time, 13 states have adopted appliance efficiency standards, creating a strength in numbers effect that's helping states with policy implementation. But even more relevant to our conversation today, Vermont was a leader in the adoption of federal backstop language and was one of five states that adopted federal backstop language between 2016 and 2020. So those states being Vermont, New York, Hawaii, and Colorado. So what does federal backstop language mean? It means that if a federal standard is completely eliminated, then that standard becomes standard in Vermont. So with Vermont's current language, the state would only be adopting those standards that were in place as of 01/19/2017, thus missing out on some of the updates that have occurred in the past nine years. So this update is important now because there's been an unprecedented attack on federal appliance standards. The Department of Labor has proposed rollbacks or eliminations for 17 federal appliance standards and more could be coming. At the same time, Congress has advanced legislation that would give the executive branch new powers to repeal existing standards, attacking the anti backsliding provision that you heard a bit about yesterday. If a standard were eliminated, that change could take place in as little as sixty days. So that's a big problem for many reasons, but one of the most important is that federal appliance standards save Vermont households and businesses significant amounts of money. Without federal appliance standards in place, the average Vermont household would have spent an additional $6,900 on utility bills over the last ten years. And in that same period, Vermont businesses would have spent an additional $700,000,000 on utility bills as well. And further than that, as concerns about rising energy demand and load growth are topic of the day. I'd like to highlight that without federal appliance standards, the state's electricity consumption would have been 17% higher in that past decade. And last summer alone, peak demand would have been 200 megawatts higher without these oops.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Sorry. I the peak to

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: the peak summer demand, I I don't think we've I'm not

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: sure we've talked yet about additional load it would place on the grid. Would that be just an estimate based on less efficient air conditioners? Where does that one come from?

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Joanna, would you mind?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah, you can take that. Yeah, so that's our estimate of the peak summer, the peak demand savings in the summer in Vermont from all existing federal efficiency standards. So you're right, air conditioners is certainly a big one. Okay. But reducing the energy consumption of refrigerators and clothes dryers and water heaters also contribute to those peak demand reductions.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Okay, thanks.

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: And I have a follow-up question. And this is using the minimum standards, not the energy star. Is that correct?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: This is based on federal standards on the books today. Not the energy star levels, but the minimum efficiency levels that are in place today.

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: Right, thank you.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: You said, sorry, I know this is on a previous slide, but you said that the federal standards could be repealed, that that could happen in as little as sixty

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: days? Yes. So from, Joanna, correct me if I'm wrong, that's based on how typically standards are regulated at the federal level in agencies. Would you mind explaining that?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah, the sixty days, DOE, so DOE have proposed a bunch of rollbacks last year and if they were to finalize any of those, our understanding is that could essentially take those rollbacks could take effect as soon as sixty days after a final rule was published.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Okay, because one of the things we talked about yesterday is whether it could be beneficial to be proactive on this like this bill kind of envisions so that we have something in place and don't have to try to scramble as a legislature to deal with it retroactively or to move quickly, which is not our forte. But what I just heard you say is that these rollbacks have already been proposed. So all it would take is perhaps as little as two months to finalize that or make it happen at the federal level. And we're out of session six months out of the year, seven months out of the year. So, okay. Sorry. I was just trying to make sure I understood the timeline.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Thank you for your question. So, you know, beyond, sorry, one moment. So without the electric without these federal standards, electricity use would obviously be significantly higher. Peak demand would increase, which ultimately drives up infrastructure cost and rate payer rates. In its current form, this bill simply updates the existing Vermont backstop date from, the 01/19/2017 date to 01/19/2025. And again, this just means that if a federal standard is completely eliminated, it then becomes a standard in Vermont at the efficiency levels of that date. So beyond the financial and energy consumption benefits, federal standards protect consumers in the state and prevent inefficient low quality products from undercutting compliant manufacturers driving up utility bills of people in Vermont. I know some of you have been wondering what exactly is being captured by that change in date. So I'm gonna be turning the next few slides over to Joanna here.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Thanks Brooke. Yeah, so this is a list of the standards that DOE has adopted since 2017. And so these are not covered by the current backstop in Vermont. These cover standards for major home appliances and residential, commercial heating, cooling, water heating equipment, as well as some additional products like air cleaners, pool heaters and light bulbs. And so H600 would backstop all of these recently adopted standards. However, there's an important product that would remain excluded from the backstop with the current language in H600. And we're requesting that the standards for what are referred to as expanded scope electric motors be added to the backstop. And we'll talk through why that's necessary and why it's important for Vermont. So just briefly some background on these products. We've had standards for a long time for larger motors and certain types of small motors. However, there had been no standards for many types of commonly used small motors, which DOE refers to as expanded scope electric motors or eSEMs. And there are about 15,000,000 eSEMs sold each year nationwide, and they're used in a wide range of residential, commercial and industrial applications, including pumps, fans, compressors, commercial food processing, conveyors, and large power tools. During the Biden administration, DOE initiated a rulemaking for eSIMs and in December 2022, a coalition of efficiency advocates and motor manufacturers submitted a joint recommendation to DOE with recommended efficiency levels for eSIMs and, DOE finalized standards for eSIMs consistent with the joint stakeholder recommendations in a January 2025 final rule. However, the ESEMs rule got caught in a weird spot during the transition from the Biden administration to the Trump administration. What happened was that the final rule was signed by the responsible DOE official on 01/08/2025, and the rule appeared in the federal register public inspection issue the day after president Trump's inauguration. However, DOE subsequently withdrew the document and never officially published it in the federal register. Based on legal precedent, because the rule appeared in public inspection, it's considered final, but because the ESOP standards are not yet in the code of federal regulations, they're not covered by H600 as currently drafted. And we think it's important that H600 include the ESEM standards because those standards are set to deliver very large electricity savings, helping reduce strain on the grid, as well as significant utility bill savings. In Vermont, the standards for eSIMs will save consumers and businesses $3,300,000 on utility bills annually by 2035 and save 22 gigawatt hours of electricity annually by the same year. And the standards will also cumulatively deliver $77,000,000 in utility bill savings and four ninety five gigawatt hours of electricity savings through 2050.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: So they're caught in limbo land at the federal level, which is why Vermont could go ahead and advance its own standards because we wouldn't be getting crosswise with any kind of preemption or language. So where's the industry on this?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: So motor manufacturers support the ESEMs rule. As I mentioned, DOE's final rule reflects a joint recommendation that we and other efficiency advocates made with the motor manufacturers. The motor manufacturers are represented by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, NEMA, NEMA submitted comments on DOE's proposed rule supporting the standards. The proposed rule was identical to the final rule. And based on our conversations with motor manufacturers, they're very interested in having these standards take effect as planned in 2029. I'm trying to make sure that-

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: It's not a now thing, There would be an on ramp and they wouldn't actually take effect for several years.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: That's right. The compliance date is yes, 2029. I guess related to your, as you said, it is kind of in this limbo situation, as I mentioned, there's this legal precedent saying that the rule is final. And so that's why we think it makes sense to add it to the backstop language, just like any other final rule, and that will help ensure, if DOE were to proactively repeal the rule, Vermont would still have the standard in place and ensure that those savings are delivered in Vermont. Okay, Greg Southworth.

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: How would the industry having to meet these new standards, how would it affect overall cost to consumers?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah, that's a great question. So DOE did a very thorough economic analysis of the standard levels that were adopted. They're very cost effective standards, depends on the particular motor category, but payback periods in the range of one to two years. So the initial modest incremental cost is paid back very quickly in electricity bill savings.

[Rep. Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: Right, but the initial cost of the equipment would increase to the consumer.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: There would be a modest increase in first cost that's significantly outweighed by the bill savings.

[Rep. Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: Thank you.

[Rep. Bram Kleppner (Member)]: Do you know roughly speaking the range of the average useful life of these motors?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: I believe on average it's about seven years or so.

[Rep. Bram Kleppner (Member)]: May, another question. Did NEMA, I don't want to ask you to try to guess their motivations, but in your conversations with them, did they express why they support these standards?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: I think, I mean, from our conversations with them, they support advancing efficiency. They think it's good for their customers, good for their business, good for the nation. They support advancing technology that saves energy for their customers and the nation.

[Rep. Bram Kleppner (Member)]: Thank you.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Rick Southworth?

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: Was there any opposition from industry for this to change?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah, that's a great question. Actually, so there are some questions about motors that are used in equipment that's separately regulated by other DOE standards. And actually Brooke, maybe if you can go to the next slide, I think this will help. So this is a specific language that we're suggesting be added to H600. It references DOE's final rule for ESEMs so that those standards would be adopted just like any other final rule that's been finalized since 2017. And there's this language at the end, excluding any motor incorporated into a product to which a federal energy conservation standard applies. And that's ensuring that there's no preemption questions because since, for a piece of equipment that's subject to a federal standard, our understanding is that a motor incorporated in such a piece of equipment would be preempted. And the reason that's related to the question is this, we also understand satisfies any concerns that for example, manufacturers of air conditioning equipment might have. And so we're not aware of any opposition this language as drafted here.

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: Okay, not sure that quite answers what I was asking, but we can move on.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yeah, and we can hear from, you know, we'll get them in to speak for themselves. I think that's always best. Okay.

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: So I just wanted to address the current state legislative landscape. So as I mentioned before, for several years, Vermont was one of five states with federal backstop language in place. And those five states represented a significant market of about 70,000,000,000 consumers across the country. This cohort is now growing. Virginia actually just signed legislation earlier this week adopting this updated federal backstop date. There's also active legislation in Rhode Island and Illinois that would adopt this state as well and add the standard for electric motors. This group of states committing to upholding the existing federal standard sends a clear message to manufacturers and retailers that we want energy efficient appliances and ultimately creates a ripple effect across the country as they work to avoid a patchwork approach to their work. And really, just ready to open the floor to Q and A. Happy to scroll back and forth in the presentation as needed.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Super. And I'm looking over, you had submitted some narrative kind of written testimony as well that's up on our website. I'm just scrolling through that to make sure. Does anybody have any questions at the moment? Yeah, Representative Bailey.

[Rep. Richard Bailey (Member)]: Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out whether the, what is the life expectancy of these new boaters?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah, so DOE's estimate is that the average lifetime of these motors is about seven years.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Representative Howland?

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: Are these small horsepower motors or do they include three phase and two forty volt?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah, they do include polyphase motors, primarily single phase and the horsepower ranges a quarter horsepower to three horsepower is what these standards cover.

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: Quarter to three. And what are they we talking about efficiencies moving from 85% efficiency to what would be the new range? I'm making the assumption that 85% efficiency was which an assumption I would have used when I was in the industry or not knowing the motor that was being presented.

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Yeah. So it depends on the the number of polls, whether it's opened or enclosed, the specific category. So I can't give you a single number there, but happy to follow-up with the specific efficiency levels if that would be helpful.

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: Probably would be natural, Sherry.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Okay. Other questions?

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: Think so. I think it's pretty straightforward.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yeah.

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: And we'd already gotten a heads up on this from Bennington and Andrew Bogle on topic. The

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Yeah. We're just just diving into the motor question. Yeah.

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: Well, we had the same the same actually, same language. Super.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Alright. Great. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate your time. And will you submit your slideshow that we can post as well? We can

[Brooke Lockwood (State Policy Associate, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: definitely do that. Thank you so much for all of your time. We really appreciate the opportunity to to speak with you all today.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Thank you. Appreciate it. And our next folks just walked in the door, so we are very efficient today. Great. Alright. Thank you so much.

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: Thank you.

[Rep. Bram Kleppner (Member)]: Thank you.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Hi. Hello. Welcome.

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: Tim online yet, my colleague? Oh, I don't know. No. Alex, have you seen Tim yet?

[Joanna Mauer (Deputy Director, Appliance Standards Awareness Project)]: Not yet.

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: He's keeping us in suspense. Okay. Tim's at a far away conference right now, we're beaming him in. Oh, very him up, Scotty.

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: Very exciting.

[Rep. Christopher Howland (Member)]: So I'm happy to start. I mean, he's

[Shared committee mic (multiple members)]: the expert. I could get go, but whatever you wanna We

[Rep. Kathleen James (Chair)]: can wait a minute or we could go off live until he we take a five minute break. Why don't we take a five minute break?