Welch: Energy bill good for Vermont
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By Peter Hirschfeld Vermont Press Bureau - Published: June 30, 2009
MONTPELIER – A major climate bill narrowly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last Friday could be a windfall for energy-efficiency efforts in Vermont.
The legislation, the first in the nation to set limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, appropriates up to $2 billion in federal funds for state-level efficiency initiatives. Rep. Peter Welch said Monday that the "Retrofit for Energy and Efficiency Program" contained in the climate bill would grow new jobs, decrease energy demands and lower household utility bills.
"All the evidence indicates that the biggest bang for the buck comes in energy efficiency," Welch said at a Statehouse press conference detailing the proposed bill. "It goes directly to the bottom line … and the efforts you take generally require local labor."
The bill, which now goes before the U.S. Senate, could also bolster funding for renewable energy projects. By 2012, Welch said, Vermont could see up to $71 million in federal money annually for wind, solar and other renewable generation projects.
Welch said the federal government will defer to the state on how to use either of the proposed new funding streams.
"We put the money to work at the local level, with the decisions made back here in Vermont on how best to invest the money in alternative energy and efficiency projects," said Welch, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "You start trying to meet the challenges of making our country energy independent."
The controversial bill eked through the House by a slim seven-vote margin Friday. Even some House Democrats said they worried that new cap-and-trade laws would impose undue strain on conventional energy industries, resulting in massive job losses and increases in utility rates.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the $22 billion cap-and-trade legislation would cost the average household $175 annually.
Welch said that amounts to less than the cost of a postage stamp a day – a reasonable expense for legislation that will create nearly two million jobs and save individual Americans thousands on their annual energy bills in the long term.
Welch said Democratic leadership sought to assuage the concerns of the bill's detractors by delaying effective dates and offering financial incentives to the same industries whose emissions it aims to regulate. Welch said the investments in energy efficiency and alternative energy will generate new jobs, especially in places like Vermont.
"In my view this is absolutely a critical step for the country to take," Welch said. The legislation, he said, will "unleash the power" of manufacturers, scientists and engineers to develop new energy alternatives and solve old energy problems.
Carpenters, electricians, masons and other trades workers enduring the adverse effects of a tight economy, Welch said, would realize the stimulating effect as thousands of Vermonters seek to use federal funds to subsidize energy-saving home improvements.
"It's all fundamentally about jobs," Welch said.
Welch said the efficiency funds would be disbursed via grants to individual businesses and homeowners. Applicants, he said, would have to fund a portion of the improvements themselves.
"The building owner has to have some skin in the game," Welch said. "… Anybody investing their own money – they're going to be determined to get most bang for the buck. You're not going to have governmental bureaucracy, you're going to have the self-discipline of an investor."
Blair Hamilton, director of Efficiency Vermont, said the efficiency funds contained in the proposed legislation could double the number of homes undergoing weatherization and retrofitting in Vermont.
"The grants we expect will catalyze a wave of retrofits both in Vermont and across the nation," he said.
In Vermont, he said, the fund could cover the cost of 30 to 50 percent of a "comprehensive" home-energy project for 2,000 to 4,000 households annually.
"Because these grants can be used for energy-improvement measures like oil and propane, it's a terrific complement to the financial incentives Vermont already has," said Hamilton, noting that state-based efficiency programs now focus almost solely on electricity and natural gas.
The climate-change legislation, heavily promoted by Barack Obama, now heads for a fierce debate in the Senate, where the bill could undergo major changes before heading to the floor for a vote.
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