by Linda McGinnis I’m tired of seeing what the cost of heating fuels is doing to the budgets of everyday Vermonters who are working hard to make ends meet. And I’m tired of seeing the negative impact – both environmental and economic – of fossil fuels on our state, all while the corporate suppliers are making higher profits than ever before. Did you know that Exxon’s net income for 2022 was $55.74 billion, a 142% increase over 2021?
This past year, the price spikes for heating fuels reached all-time highs, and were especially painful during the cold winter months. Relying on high-cost, price-volatile fossil fuels that are 100% imported into Vermont just doesn’t make sense – it’s costly to everyone, and the burden falls heaviest on those who can least afford to pay. It’s time to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. And it’s more possible now than ever before.
To address this problem, I’m grateful that many of our state legislators are working to pass the Affordable Heat Act (AHA).
This Act, when paired with unprecedented federal funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and other state and federal incentive programs, provides a pathway to make cleaner, more affordable, and stably priced heating solutions accessible to all Vermonters. These solutions include weatherization, heat-pumps, and advanced wood heat to reduce both energy use and costs.
As an economist who works on issues of energy affordability, I pay close attention to price volatility and its impact on average Vermonters. For the average household heating their home last year with propane or fuel oil, their costs were 60-80% higher than those heating with heat pumps or wood pellets. Our state spends well over $700 million/year on fossil fuels for heating, and more than 65% of those dollars leave the state, doing little to support our local economy. By contrast, when we heat with electricity or wood pellets, 70-80% of those dollars stay in state, creating jobs, strengthening our local economy, and creating a multiplier effect.
Most notably, the thermal sector accounts for over a third of Vermont’s total greenhouse gas emissions, making it the state’s second largest source of climate pollution after transportation (40%). Three-quarters of thermal energy use is fossil fuel based. Since our electricity is well over 90% carbon free in Vermont, switching to non-fossil fuel heat is a powerful way to reduce those emissions.
The Affordable Heat Act is designed to accomplish these outcomes by establishing a performance standard that will require importers of fossil heating fuels to reduce pollution over time. To do so, fossil fuel importers will have to increasingly deliver or pay for cleaner heat options -- mostly for lower- and middle-income Vermonters -- and do so with durable solutions that cut costs for Vermonters over the next several years. Vermont has already benefited from a similar policy in the electric sector – the Renewable Energy Standard – and now has the cleanest electricity in the nation, over 96% carbon-free. It’s time to do the same for our heating.
As a homeowner who switched from natural gas to heat pumps to heat our home when our boiler needed replacing, I can attest to both the monthly savings and increased comfort we have enjoyed. In addition, we significantly reduced our electricity costs for air conditioning, because heat pumps do both heating and cooling incredibly efficiently. This technology delivered heat even on the coldest days, including the cold snap we all endured earlier this month.
Most importantly, as the mother of three young adults who are already facing the impact of fossil fuel use on the climate and their pocketbooks, I urge us all to pay attention to what decisions we make now that will affect our collective future. And I urge us all to get serious about action, considering the high costs and consequences of ongoing delay.
Please ask your legislators to support the Affordable Heat Act and the State Lead by Example bill. It’s time to stop paying high and volatile fossil fuel prices to heat our homes and buildings. It’s time to make decisions that will shift us rapidly to a cleaner, more affordable energy future.
Linda McGinnis is an economist and policy analyst with over 30 years of experience in developing and investing in concrete solutions to sustainable development challenges, both globally and locally. She lives in South Burlington.