BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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H.159 1
Introduced by Representatives North of Ferrisburgh, Bailey of Hyde Park, 2
Bosch of Clarendon, Boutin of Barre City, Canfield of Fair 3
Haven, Coffin of Cavendish, Demar of Enosburgh, Feltus of 4
Lyndon, Harvey of Castleton, Higley of Lowell, Howland of 5
Rutland Town, Keyser of Rutland City, Labor of Morgan, 6
Luneau of St. Albans City, McFaun of Barre Town, Morgan, M. 7
of Milton, Nelson of Derby, Nielsen of Brandon, Pinsonault of 8
Dorset, Powers of Waterford, Pritchard of Pawlet, Steady of 9
Milton, Tagliavia of Corinth, and Winter of Ludlow 10
Referred to Committee on 11
Date: 12
Subject: Public service; energy; renewable energy; Renewable Energy 13
Standard 14
Statement of purpose of bill as introduced: This bill proposes to repeal the 15
Renewable Energy Standard. 16
An act relating to repealing the Renewable Energy Standard 17
It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont: 18
Sec. 1. REPEALS 19
30 V.S.A. §§ 8004, 8005, 8006, and 8006a are repealed. 20 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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Sec. 2. 30 V.S.A. § 8002 is amended to read: 1
§ 8002. DEFINITIONS 2
As used in this chapter: 3
* * * 4
(17) “New renewable energy” means renewable energy capable of 5
delivery in New England and produced by a specific and identifiable plant 6
coming into service on or after January 1, 2010, but excluding energy 7
generated by a hydroelectric generation plant with a capacity of 200 MW or 8
greater. 9
* * * 10
(B) Except as provided in subdivision 8005(c)(3) of this title, “new 11
“New renewable energy” also includes the additional energy from an existing 12
renewable energy plant retrofitted with advanced technologies or otherwise 13
operated, modified, or expanded to increase the kWh output of the plant in 14
excess of a historical baseline established by calculating the average output of 15
that plant for the 10-year period that ended January 1, 2010. If the production 16
of new renewable energy through changes in operations, modification, or 17
expansion involves combustion of the resource, the system also must result in 18
an incrementally higher level of energy conversion efficiency or significantly 19
reduced emissions. 20
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(29) “RES” means the Renewable Energy Standard established under 1
sections 8004 and 8005 of this title. [Repealed.] 2
* * * 3
Sec. 3. 30 V.S.A. § 8005a is amended to read: 4
§ 8005a. STANDARD OFFER PROGRAM 5
* * * 6
(c) Cumulative capacity. In accordance with this subsection, the 7
Commission shall issue standard offers to new standard offer plants until a 8
cumulative plant capacity amount of 127.5 MW is reached. 9
* * * 10
(C) Adjustment; greenhouse gas reduction credits. The Commission 11
shall adjust the annual increase to account for greenhouse gas reduction credits 12
by multiplying the annual increase by one minus the ratio of the prior year’s 13
greenhouse gas reduction credits to that year’s statewide retail electric sales. 14
(i) The amount of the prior year’s greenhouse gas reduction 15
credits shall be determined in accordance with subdivision 8006a(a) of this 16
title. 17
(ii) The adjustment in the annual increase shall be applied 18
proportionally to the independent developer block and the provider block. 19 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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(iii) Greenhouse gas reduction credits used to diminish a 1
provider’s obligation under section 8004 of this title may be used to adjust the 2
annual increase under this subsection (c). [Repealed.] 3
* * * 4
(k) Executed standard offer contracts; transferability; allocation of benefits 5
and costs. With respect to executed contracts for standard offers under this 6
section: 7
* * * 8
(2) The Standard Offer Facilitator shall distribute the electricity 9
purchased to the Vermont retail electricity providers at the price paid to the 10
plant owners, allocated to the providers based on their pro rata share of total 11
Vermont retail kWh sales for the previous calendar year, and the Vermont 12
retail electricity providers shall accept and pay the Standard Offer Facilitator 13
for the electricity. However, during any given calendar year: 14
* * * 15
(B) A retail electricity provider that was relieved from the 16
requirements of this subdivision by the Commission on or before January 25, 17
2018, shall be exempt from the requirements of this subdivision in any year 18
that the Standard Offer Facilitator allocates electricity pursuant to this 19
subdivision if the retail electricity provider meets the following criteria: 20
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(ii) the retail electricity provider owns and retires an amount of 30 1
V.S.A. § 8005(a)(1) qualified energy environmental attributes that is not less 2
than the provider’s retail sales. [Repealed.] 3
* * * 4
Sec. 4. 30 V.S.A. § 8009 is amended to read: 5
§ 8009. BASELOAD RENEWABLE POWER PORTFOLIO 6
REQUIREMENT 7
* * * 8
(b) Notwithstanding subsection 8004(a) and subdivision 8005(c)(1) of this 9
title, commencing Commencing on November 1, 2012, each Vermont retail 10
electricity provider shall purchase the provider’s pro rata share of the baseload 11
renewable power portfolio requirement, which shall be based on the total 12
Vermont retail kWh sales of all such providers for the previous calendar year. 13
The obligation created by this subsection shall cease on November 1, 2032 14
unless terminated earlier pursuant to subsection (k) of this section. 15
* * * 16
Sec. 5. 30 V.S.A. § 8010 is amended to read: 17
§ 8010. SELF-GENERATION AND NET METERING 18
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(c) In accordance with this section, the Commission shall adopt and 1
implement rules that govern the installation and operation of net metering 2
systems. 3
(1) The rules shall establish and maintain a net metering program that: 4
* * * 5
(H) allows a customer to retain ownership of the environmental 6
attributes of energy generated by the customer’s net metering system and of 7
any associated tradeable renewable energy credits or to transfer those attributes 8
and credits to the interconnecting retail provider, and: 9
* * * 10
(ii) if the customer transfers the attributes to the interconnecting 11
provider, requires the provider to retain them for application toward 12
compliance with sections 8004 and 8005 of this title unless the provider has 13
fewer than 75,000 customers, in which case the attributes do not need to be 14
applied toward compliance obligations under sections 8004 and 8005 of this 15
title; and 16
(iii) if a retail electricity provider that is 100 percent renewable 17
under subdivision 8005(b)(1) of this title does not retire the transferred 18
attributes under sections 8004 and 8005 of this title, requires that the provider 19
apply an equivalent amount of attributes from distributed renewable generation 20 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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that qualifies under subdivision 8005(a)(2) of this title toward its compliance 1
obligations under sections 8004 and 8005 of this title. [Repealed.] 2
(2) The rules shall include provisions that govern: 3
* * * 4
(F) the amount of the credit to be assigned to each kWh of electricity 5
generated by a net metering customer in excess of the electricity supplied by 6
the interconnecting provider to the customer, the manner in which the 7
customer’s credit will be applied on the customer’s bill, and the period during 8
which a net metering customer must use the credit, after which the credit shall 9
revert to the interconnecting provider. 10
* * * 11
(II) The amount of excess generation, as defined in the 12
Commission’s rules, from existing net metering systems, may be applied to 13
reduce the provider’s statutory requirements under: 14
(aa) subdivision 8005(a)(2) of this title for a provider with 15
fewer than 75,000 customers, not including one that is 100 percent renewable 16
under subdivision 8005(b)(1) of this title, and 17
(bb) subdivision 8005(a)(5) of this title for a provider that is 18
100 percent renewable under subdivision 8005(b)(1) of this title. [Repealed.] 19
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Sec. 6. 24 V.S.A. § 4352 is amended to read: 1
§ 4352. OPTIONAL DETERMINATION OF ENERGY COMPLIANCE; 2
ENHANCED ENERGY PLANNING 3
* * * 4
(c) Enhanced energy planning; requirements. To obtain an affirmative 5
determination of energy compliance under this section, a plan must: 6
* * * 7
(3) be consistent with the following, with consistency determined in the 8
manner described under subdivision 4302(f)(1) of this title: 9
* * * 10
(E) the distributed renewable generation and energy transformation 11
categories of resources to meet the requirements of the Renewable Energy 12
Standard under 30 V.S.A. §§ 8004 and 8005; and [Repealed.] 13
* * * 14
Sec. 7. 30 V.S.A. § 202b is amended to read: 15
§ 202b. STATE COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY PLAN 16
* * * 17
(e) The Commissioner of Public Service (Commissioner) shall file an 18
annual report on progress in meeting the goals of the Plan. The report shall 19
address each of the following sectors of energy consumption in the State: 20
electricity, nonelectric fuels for thermal purposes, and transportation. In 21 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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preparing the report, the Commissioner shall consult with the Secretaries of 1
Administration, of Agriculture, Food and Markets, of Natural Resources, and 2
of Transportation and the Commissioner of Buildings and General Services. 3
* * * 4
(7) The report shall include the following information on progress 5
toward meeting the Renewable Energy Standard (RES): 6
(A) An assessment of the costs and benefits of the RES based on the 7
most current available data, including rate and economic impacts, customer 8
savings, technology deployment, greenhouse gas emission reductions achieved 9
both relative to 10 V.S.A § 578 requirements and societally, fuel price 10
stability, effect on transmission and distribution upgrade costs, and any 11
recommended changes based on this assessment. 12
(i) For the most recent calendar year for which data is available, 13
each retail electricity provider’s retail sales and load, in MWh; required 14
amounts of renewable energy for each category of the RES as set forth in 15
section 8005 of this title; and amounts of renewable energy and tradeable 16
renewable energy credits eligible to satisfy the requirements of sections 8004 17
and 8005 of this title actually owned by the Vermont retail electricity 18
providers, expressed as a percentage of retail sales and total load. 19
(ii) The report shall summarize the energy transformation projects 20
undertaken pursuant to section 8005 of this title, their costs and benefits, their 21 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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avoided fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and, if 1
applicable, energy savings. 2
(iii) The report shall summarize statewide progress toward 3
achieving each of the categories set forth in section 8005 of this title. 4
(iv) The report shall assess how costs and benefits of the RES are 5
being distributed across State, to the extent possible given available data, by 6
retail electricity service territory, municipality, and environmental justice focus 7
populations, as defined by 3 V.S.A. § 6002. Such an assessment shall consider 8
metrics to monitor affordability of electric rates. 9
(B) Projections, looking at least 10 years ahead, of the impacts of the 10
RES. 11
(i) The Department shall consider at least three scenarios based on 12
high, mid-range, and low energy price forecasts. 13
(ii) The Department shall provide an opportunity for public 14
comment on the model during its development and make the model and 15
associated documents available on the Department’s website. 16
(iii) The Department shall project, for the State, the impact of the 17
RES in each of the following areas: electric utility rates, total energy 18
consumption, electric energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption, and 19
greenhouse gas emissions. The report shall compare the amount or level in 20
each of these areas with and without the program. 21 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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(C) An assessment of whether the requirements of the RES have been 1
met to date, and any recommended changes needed to achieve those 2
requirements. 3
(D) A summary of the activities of distributed renewable generation 4
programs that support the achievement of the RES, including: 5
(i) Standard Offer Program under section 8005a of this title, 6
including the number of plants participating in the Program, the prices paid by 7
the Program, and the plant capacity and average annual energy generation of 8
the participating plants. The report shall present this information as totals for 9
all participating plants and by category of renewable energy technology. The 10
report also shall identify the number of applications received, the number of 11
participating plants under contract, and the number of participating plants 12
actually in service. 13
(ii) the net metering program, including: the current pace of net 14
metering deployment, both statewide and within the service territory of each 15
retail electricity provider; the ownership and transfer of the environmental 16
attributes of energy generated by net metering systems and of any associated 17
tradeable renewable energy credits; and any other information relevant to the 18
costs and benefits of net metering. [Repealed.] 19
(8) The report shall include any recommendations for statutory change 20
related to sections 8004, 8005, 8005a, 8010, and 8011 of this title. 21 BILL AS INTRODUCED H.159
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Sec. 8. 30 V.S.A. § 8127 is amended to read: 2
§ 8127. TRADEABLE CLEAN HEAT CREDITS 3
* * * 4
(k) Credit eligibility. 5
(1) All eligible clean heat measures that are delivered in Vermont 6
beginning on January 1, 2023 shall be eligible for clean heat credits and may 7
be retired and count towards an obligated party’s emission reduction 8
obligations, regardless of who creates or delivers them and regardless of 9
whether their creation or delivery was required or funded in whole or in part by 10
other federal or State policies and programs. This includes individual 11
initiatives, emission reductions resulting from the State’s energy efficiency 12
programs, and the low-income weatherization program, and the Renewable 13
Energy Standard Tier 3 program. Clean heat measures delivered or installed 14
pursuant to any local, State, or federal program or policy may count both 15
towards goals or requirements of such programs and policies and be eligible 16
clean heat measures that count towards the emission reduction obligations of 17
this chapter. 18
* * * 19
Sec. 9. EFFECTIVE DATE 20
This act shall take effect on July 1, 2025. 21