Overall progress isn’t being tracked, not all State buildings are considered for cost-effective investments, few projects are being completed, some projects advance that cost more than they save, and reported savings are overstated
Vermont Business Magazine State Auditor Doug Hoffer released an audit today of the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Service’s (BGS) administration of a program intended to reduce energy use in state-owned buildings. The audit found that state government must re-dedicate itself to saving taxpayer money, and protecting the environment, by reducing unnecessary energy usage.
Hoffer said: "It should go without saying that State government should reduce any unnecessary energy use in State buildings and make smart, cost-effective investments whenever possible. Otherwise, Vermont taxpayers’ money is being wasted.
"This week our office released an audit of the Vermont Department of Buildings and General Service’s (BGS) administration of a program intended to reduce energy use in State-owned buildings. The audit found that State government must re-dedicate itself to saving taxpayer money, and protecting the environment, by reducing unnecessary energy usage.
"In the last ten fiscal years (2016-2025), the energy costs in state government buildings have cost taxpayers $137 million. In 2011, the Legislature required state agencies to reduce their energy consumption by five percent annually. In 2014, it created the State Energy Management Program (SEMP) to identify and implement energy efficiency projects in State buildings. The SEMP is run by the Energy Office in BGS."
State Building Energy Costs from Fiscal Years 2016 through 2025
Given the Legislature’s understandable interest in reducing Vermont state government’s energy usage, and the related cost reduction to Vermont taxpayers and associated climate benefits, we performed the audit to evaluate whether the State is measuring its progress in meeting energy reduction goals, determine whether the BGS Energy Office selects the most cost-efficient energy savings projects for buildings, and determine whether the BGS Energy Office assessed whether the energy savings for completed projects had actually achieved the projected savings.
Highlights of the audit include:
- BGS cannot determine whether State government is on track to meet its energy reduction targets because it is not even measuring progress. In addition, BGS has not been submitting progress reports to the Secretary of Administration, as required by law, sidestepping an important accountability lever.
- BGS has not established a system to capture all State-owned building energy use. While they capture the data for BGS-owned buildings, they do not include State buildings owned by other agencies, such as the 1,403,897 million square feet of building space among 424 buildings owned by the Agency of Transportation.
- BGS has not implemented a system to capture the amount of energy used in leased buildings, which amounts to 12% of all State building space.
- BGS has not implemented a system to accurately capture the quantity of transportation fuels used by State employees.
- BGS generally selects the most cost-effective energy efficiency projects, but questionable practices open the door for waste. For example, one project, which according to data from Efficiency Vermont (EVT) will cost $143,170 more than it will save, was allowed to move forward because it was “bundled” with a cost-effective project at a different location, which gave the two combined projects a positive return.
- The number of projects completed has fallen sharply since 2022. Just two projects per year were completed in 2023 and 2024, and only one in 2025, compared to an average of more than eight per year over the prior five years. BGS acknowledges that staffing issues are its primary constraint on its current ability to implement projects. One or both of the energy project manager positions have been vacant since 2021, even though EVT agreed to fund both positions.
- The BGS Energy Office did not reliably assess the actual energy savings achieved by their projects. For a selection of 13 projects completed between fiscal years 2018 and 2025, the lifetime dollar savings that BGS recorded and reported to the Legislature and Vermont taxpayers was overstated by $1,666,511 compared to the lifetime savings recorded by EVT.
The Department generally expressed its intent to adopt the audit’s recommendations to improve energy use reduction efforts.
I hope this audit prompts the Scott Administration to regroup and recommit to cutting out wasteful energy spending. After all, every dollar spent needlessly on fuel or electricity is a dollar that isn’t available to tackle affordable housing, homelessness or meet some other pressing need.
I also want to thank my audit staff for their great work. This audit has the potential to deliver significant financial benefits to taxpayers in the coming years.
The full audit can be found here.
Office of the Vermont State Auditor, Montpelier, VT auditor.vermont.gov
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