Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Speaker 0]: Hey, Elias. Alright, welcome everybody. It is House Energy and Digital Infrastructure and it's Friday, May 1. And we are waiting to be joined by our witnesses who are coming on before too long and they're going to give us a preview of some new heat pump technology that we just thought would be interesting to learn about. So while we wait for them, I wanted to look ahead to a couple of things, a couple of letters I want to quickly talk about and then look ahead to the next couple of weeks of agenda planning. So, letters. We've talked about a couple of times as a committee the memo that we're sending to commissioner as a follow on to all of our conversations about the FY '27 ADS budget. And I sent a final copy of that to everybody yesterday in your email with sort of a final, you know, I'm done sort of thing. So I'm gonna as soon as we're done today, I'm gonna send that to commissioner Gresham. So this is just a heads up that, like, if you wanna read it and you have any final if I missed any typos or something, now's your chance because I'm gonna send that and before I leave today. And it's posted on our website.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: So I'm fine with that. I've read it.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. Sounds good. Okay, great. So, I'm going to send that off. Second letter is, this is no pressure. This is just in the spirit of transparency. Scott and I drafted a public comment that we are going to submit to the PUC on the open net metering case. I didn't want anybody on the committee to be surprised by the letter. Anybody who wants to add their name, go for it. Similarly, I'm sending that out at like 11:30. So I've heard from a couple folks who want to add their names. Great. No pressure if you want to. If you don't want to, it doesn't matter. I just didn't want anybody to be surprised that we had submitted that. Then agenda wise

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: That's private.

[Unidentified Member A]: Is that a committee letter?

[Speaker 0]: It's not a committee letter because it's not

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: Yeah.

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: From all

[Unidentified Member A]: of us.

[Speaker 0]: Right. It says we're members of the committee. Yep. But then everybody's individual name is gonna be signed below who wants to be on it.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: Right. You're gonna have a voice that I don't support it.

[Unidentified Member A]: And I heard you voice that I can support it.

[Speaker 0]: Yeah. So maybe I need to add a sentence making it clear that these are from individual members of the committee or something. But, yeah, no, it's not. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm I'm sure we don't have consensus on that issue.

[Unidentified Member A]: Then

[Speaker 0]: okay. Bills. We talked about this yesterday, but here's what I know. H-seven 10, single plant. Senate Finance is overwhelmed, my understanding. They're very busy. They have a ton of bills. So they referred Single Planet to Natural Resources. That's all I know. H527 cell tower, H753 disconnections, and H898 copper to fiber are all in Senate Finance. Data center got moved from finance to natural resources. I think I think they agree that's, you know They're still taking testing. A high priority bill when they're taking testing. If what if they That

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: was data center?

[Speaker 0]: Data center. It's seven twenty seven.

[Unidentified Member B]: So that's not enough of natural resources.

[Speaker 0]: It is.

[Unidentified Member B]: Oh, it is in natural resources.

[Speaker 0]: Yeah. Finance booted it to natural resources.

[Unidentified Member B]: That's right. I saw it. Okay.

[Speaker 0]: Have you gotten an indication

[Unidentified Member A]: No.

[Speaker 0]: So on I I so to go back okay. Single plants in natural resources, five twenty seven cell towers in senate finance. Senate Finance has a bill to just remove the sunset completely and have the two forty eight a process become permanent. We adopted more of a middle ground. Like, we I I think I speak for many of us. I think the two forty eight a process really needs help. And we tried to put in steps in places to improve the two forty eight a process. If nothing happens and nobody passes a bill, two forty eight a expires and cell towers revert by default to act two fifty. And the chair of senate finance understands that. So I would assume they're you know, unless they unless they want it to revert to act two fifty, which I don't think they do because they're they were starting at the exact opposite end of the spectrum. I would assume they're gonna move that bill.

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: But

[Speaker 0]: what they do with or how they change it, I have no idea. Whether they change it in a way that works for us, I have no idea. Whether we have to go to conference, I have no idea. Okay. Disconnects copper to fiber sitting in finance. I think that we might need push those bills. $7.53 is disconnections. $8.98 is the copper to fiber thing. So we've got $5.27 cell towers.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: Seems like distant past.

[Speaker 0]: I know. I know. Seven fifty three disconnections. 898, copper fiber, all incentive finance, with probably on their end very different levels of urgency around those three bills. I don't know. But I have been trying to connect with. Then data centers, I think that moved I think finance looked at it and honestly thought, oh my god. This is a huge bill. We have yield. We have education reform. We have and they took that. They pushed it to natural resources. Natural resources is taking testimony. I really hope they pass it. And I've been I've been really pushing them to make sure they take action on that bill. Seven twenty seven. H nine forty was our miscellaneous PUC bill. It did not, in fact, turn into a bouncing Christmas tree. It passed out the senate with no changes and went off to the governor. Stunning. Shocking. I've never seen anything. And then, two bills that are in natural resources that I think are may or may not make their cross the finish line. I'm feeling more may not ish right now are seven eighteen residential energy code and seven forty greenhouse gas inventory and registry. That's what I

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: know about our doors.

[Speaker 0]: Then as we wait for them to come back, I I don't think anything will be back next week. So what are we doing? Great question. So we are next week, we are taking more testimony on I think IT oversight is something where we can spend some time. So we're trying to get in to talk about the bars. K. So that they've been asked to come in. They did send a written memo, but we asked them to come in like like did. So that's right now scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Then Wednesday, I scheduled a field trip. It is optional, and field trips are, they're a committee, so we can't have a quorum. Any member of the public that would like to come along or the media, that's, you know, fair game. So next Wednesday, for folks who wanna go, you don't need to tell me right now, but just let me know. I set up two shifts. So one group will go first to the weatherization center and then to a small hydro project near here. The other group will go first to the hydro project and then to the weatherization center. And they're all within driving distance. So just think about it. Let me know if you wanna go. But right now, I have us out for the morning in two little groups to see the weatherization training center and this and this little dam. Then we have been talking all year about wanting to take some testimony on the current state of nuclear power in The United States. So I've started to invite people. And just to be totally clear, I wanna make sure we hear a balanced perspective. So I have reached out to some folks who are, I would say, pretty skeptical about the future of nuclear power in our you know, in the country. And I've invited them in. Then I am reaching out to Commonwealth to hear about their new technology, to hear what they're doing. Mike Southworth wants to hear from, and I had also wanted to hear from, the states that are trying to build or are building SMRs right now. Like, how's it going? What's the timeline? What are you optimistic about? What are the challenges? So I wanna hear about that. And then I reached out to senator Welch's office because they've been doing a lot of work around the storage of spent fuel. They have a bill that they're trying to get across the finish line in congress. I think they have policy analyst that works on the whole spent fuel thing. That's kinda where I'm at right now. We'll start filling in with that. And then I also and this may be just too optimistic or too much, but Velco would love to host us. But I need to find out who really wants to do that. That would be on Wednesday, the thirteenth, and that would be a hall because that would be at Velco at 9AM, and that's a drive.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: In route.

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: Yeah. So I could not do that because of rural caucus. So Okay. And and I've been.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. So just let me know. We can if folks are signed, I'll go. I'll do it. I just told them we have to be back from floor at one, and we would need to make sure that I told her about the quorum guidelines. And so if more than five of us are there, they'll just split us into two groups. That's what I knew before I get

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: And I'll provide you with information on on the next generation biomass as well.

[Speaker 0]: Oh, yeah. Next gen biomass.

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: That sounds great. Yeah. Okay.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: Two small things. One, the fusion folks, well, it is technically involved just nuclear or something. It's it's kind of a very different animal than So we kind of talked about it as fusion energy as

[Speaker 0]: opposed to

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: nuclear fusion. Just to try to start clarifying and be because it's confusing.

[Speaker 0]: Then it's a different thing.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: The fission fusion, you know, it sounds the same. But Okay. So and we'll talk more about this with the common one. Energy, fission helps in my mind keep it separate.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. Sounds great.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: And then if we do have time to fill, I would like to revisit cybersecurity. I'm

[Speaker 0]: Okay.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: Very nervous about this and think whether that means getting Norwich back in or whatever you think is appropriate if we have time. It it it would be time well spent. Sounds great.

[Unidentified Member A]: It'll They're always a good research. They're really they're really.

[Speaker 0]: Yeah. Have we had on?

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: So it might be good to have a different perspective. Yeah.

[Michael "Mike" Southworth (Member)]: That's fine. Mean

[Speaker 0]: Great. Send me ideas and or remind me. And if folks would rather do I mean, I like field trips just because they're fun. But if if folks have a bunch of testimony, really wanna take it toward the end of the session. You'd be here doing that instead of being out of the building. I'm I'm open. What I'm trying to avoid is what sometimes happens. It gets inevitable at the end of the year. But, I get I get bored when we're having these long floor sessions, but then there are all these big gaps. Because for myself, I find it's not really enough time to turn to, like, my other job. You know what I mean? Because my head is here. So I I don't know. Just be sending ideas for testimony. And if and if there's limited enthusiasm for the field trips, we could we could schedule testimony. Okay.

[Unidentified Member A]: Do you have a question? Weatherization and hydro, Wednesday the sixth, you said?

[Speaker 0]: Yeah. I was trying to do our field trips on Wednesday mornings because

[Unidentified Member A]: I think that's the day that we planned our commitment.

[Speaker 0]: I thought that was on Thursday.

[Unidentified Member A]: Oh, sorry. Thank you.

[Speaker 0]: Is our committee lunch on Thursday, the seventh? Yep.

[Unidentified Member A]: Okay. Because I had it on the wrong day for me.

[Speaker 0]: Here. Right? Yes. No. Okay. Alright. Maybe our next folks are here. Think we are having a little problem.

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: I just heard from Daria. Yeah.

[Speaker 0]: They still haven't joined. Sorry. They haven't joined? K.

[Unidentified Member A]: So you could call them and see what's up?

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: I can see if I have a phone number.

[Speaker 0]: Why don't we go off live till they get here? If and we're logistical. I just want everybody to know what I was thinking. I will be trying to book our time so that we're not all just rattling around. And it it will also mean that all of our all of these witnesses toward the end of the year are gonna have to be really flexible and not be offended if we cancel at the last minute because you just never know. And then there is often a point in May too when we start when floor moves to ten. Right? Sure. Doesn't that help? I'm making that up. I

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: mean, at the area that moves to, like Yeah. What do we have? Mhmm. Yeah. Alright. So what were the days on the trip

[Speaker 0]: that you have? Right now, I have field trips planned for the sixth and the thirteenth, both in the morning, was the thought being like, we don't have anything to do. We'll be back at one. We need to be back in time for four.

[Laura Sibilia (Ranking Member)]: Okay. Okay.

[Speaker 0]: Alright. Why don't we go at five while we figure out what's happening?