The Emergency Board is comprised of Governor Philip B. Scott, Chair; Senator Jane Kitchel; Senator Ann Cummings; Representative Diane Lanpher; and Representative Emilie Kornheiser. VermontBiz photo, July 31, 2023, Governor's Ceremonial Office, State House.
Vermont Business Magazine Emergency grant funding will be available to assist Vermont residents, including homeowners and renters, who were impacted by the July 2023 flood disaster, as declared in Executive Order No. 03-23, and need to replace flood-damaged and flood-destroyed appliances and equipment. Current FEMA reports estimate over 4,000 residences were impacted. This emergency funding will support addressing this urgent financial need. Efficiency Vermont will utilize existing, cost-effective programs, supply chain partners, and delivery mechanisms to ensure supply availability.
Program Amount: Up to $10,000,000
Grant Program: Applications will be considered, and grants will be awarded on a rolling basis and until all funds have been granted. Qualifying replacement appliances and equipment include those on Efficiency Vermont’s Qualifying Products List and comparably efficient equipment. Income qualifications are based on Vermont’s Area Median Income (AMI) in keeping with Efficiency Vermont’s standard practices. Priority will be given to Vermonters with income at or below 120% AMI. For renters, awards will be based on the renter’s income, not the landlord’s income. For a multi-unit dwelling, the average income of all renters in the building may be used to determine income for appliances and equipment that affect more than one unit.
Awards shall not exceed $10,000 per individual. Assistance will not be available for items reimbursed by another source, including insurance payouts and FEMA awards. Applicants will be required to verify income, proof of damage with damage assessments from FEMA and/or insurance companies and other documents as requested by the grantor.
Grant award decisions can be stacked with Distribution Utility Tier III and Efficiency Utility programs and incentives, federal tax incentives, Inflation Reduction Act incentives and state-controlled programs; ARPA-funded weatherization, heat pump and hot water heater switch-and save programs, electric panel upgrades, and flexible load management; FEMA assistance, and other grant awards or philanthropic dollars.
Public Service Department Commissioner June Tierney said at the Emergency Board meeting at the State House on July 31 that the program was developed over the previous weekend “with many cooks in the kitchen.”
The Emergency Board is comprised of Governor Philip B. Scott, Chair; Senator Jane Kitchel; Senator Ann Cummings; Representative Diane Lanpher; and Representative Emilie Kornheiser.
Tierney said it’s an emergency financial assistance program for flood impact and Vermonters the purpose of the program is emergency grant funding that will be available to assist Vermont residents including homeowners and renters who were impacted by the July 23rd 2023 flood disaster and as declared in the executive order 03-23 and these folks need to replace flood-damaged and flood-destroyed appliances and equipment.
FEMA reports estimate that over 4,000 residences were impacted.
“We don't know exactly how many of those are necessarily low or middle income but that is the target audience for this aid and the emergency funding would support addressing their needs.”
Efficiency Vermont would be deployed to utilize existing cost-effective programs supply chain partners and delivery mechanisms to ensure supply availability.
The Department will direct the grant funding to Efficiency Vermont in consultation with many other entities that are habitually active in the space anyway such as the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Vermont Housing Financing Authority.
The PSD will work with these stakeholders to essentially try to get affordable housing off of fossil fuel and to introduce efficiency measures instead.
Tierney said the grant program would be capped at $10 million that would be transferred from $35 million that was appropriated to the department for weatherization and would not to exceed $10,000 per individual. There would be income qualifications they would be using based on Vermont's area median income in keeping with practices that already exist at Efficiency Vermont and priority would be given to folks with income below 120 percent AMI.
They would also make sure the funds are spread out around the state to ensure regional distribution equity, meaning not any one community gets all the money because they have the most applications that get through the door first.
The electric utilities would also be involved in this process with their energy efficiency programs.
Also, customers would be allowed to stack the awards, with, say, existing federal tax incentives and inflation reduction act incentives and any other state control program.
“We all know there's a terrible, terrible need out there to weatherize buildings and the judgment that we can take 10 from 35 million is a solid judgment. I would be hesitating if we go much farther because any contractor will tell you when you're trying to address both efficiency and decarbonization, starting with the envelope of the building is the way to go and that is what weatherization is all about so that's where we are in the program development.”
