Scott vetoed renewable energy bill | News | Seven days

As expected, Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday vetoed a bill aimed at moving Vermont toward 100% renewable energy. H.289, which had broad support in the House and Senate, would require utilities to sell only renewable energy by 2035.

Utilities, environmental groups and many businesses have supported updating the state’s renewable energy law as a way to increase green jobs and accelerate the phaseout of fossil fuel power plants in New England.

But Scott said the bill would unnecessarily raise utility bills by “hundreds of millions of dollars,” when his administration had proposed “a much stronger plan at a fraction of the cost.”

“It will get us where we all want to go faster, cheaper, and more equitably than H.289,” Scott wrote in his veto.

However, supporters of the bill say it is nonsense. The plan proposed by the Department of Public Service was to increase the state’s use of “clean” energy, which meant greater reliance on nuclear power, said Peter Sterling, executive director of Renewable Energy Vermont Seven days.

Sterling noted that the administration’s proposal would also lower energy rates paid to owners of rooftop solar systems, making them less attractive.

“The Department of Public Service Proposals is simply unable to meet the challenges of climate change,” Sterling said.

The state’s current renewable energy law requires utilities to source 75% of their energy from renewable sources by 2032. In addition to moving to 100% renewable energy by 2035, utilities would also be required to source 20% of that energy from on-site sources, which is double quantity in applicable law.

Scott’s claim that the bill will cost hundreds of millions of dollars is correct, but it is statewide and spans a decade. The total cost for the average household by 2035 will be between $3.50 and $13.50 per month.

Several environmental groups issued a statement expressing dismay that Scott would try to block such a key piece of climate change legislation. On June 17, they called on lawmakers to override the veto.

“Vermonters have made clear time and time again that solving the climate crisis must be a priority and the status quo is simply unacceptable,” Ben Edgerly Walsh, director of the Climate and Energy Program at Vermont Public Interest Research, said in the release Group. . “Unfortunately, Governor Scott has once again chosen to ignore the urgency of this crisis and the priorities of his constituents by disappointing his veto of H.289.”