American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Vermont Climate Change Actions

This is an excerpt from Governor Scott’s Proposed Investment that highlights allocations for climate change actions. His full proposal identifies other areas of interest. Governor Scott Proposed ARPA Budget.pdf (vermont.gov)

This proposal is currently being finalized in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Your action is to make calls to Senators stressing the importance of funding climate change actions at $200 million over the next 4 years.

Federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) includes a $2.7 billion package of aid for Vermont. We have an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen our economy and communities through significant investments in one-time ARPA dollars. More than half of these dollars are directly appropriated to federal agencies, individuals, local governments, education institutions, and others. Leaving approximately $1 billion for the state to expend over the next four years. 

There are 5 priorities issues to be addressed with these funds: economic development, housing, broadband telecommunications, water/sewer infrastructure and climate change. Below is the proposed allocation for climate change in millions of dollars.

Climate Change Total Amount: $200,000,000

Significant investments are needed to reduce Vermont’s greenhouse gas emissions and

enhance our resilience to a changing climate. At the same time, the Vermont Climate Council

is working to develop and adopt a Climate Action Plan by December 1, 2021. This proposal

identifies a $100m suite of policies that seek to balance the unprecedented investment opportunity

provided by ARPA and the need to continue to make progress toward the aggressive requirements

established in the Global Warming Solutions Act, while remaining mindful of the commitment that has

been made to develop a comprehensive Climate Action Plan. 

Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure $25M

Although electric vehicles are a small fraction of the existing vehicle stock in Vermont, their 

deployment is growing rapidly – both within Vermont and the region. Continuing to build 

charging infrastructure throughout Vermont is foundational to supporting this growth and 

ensuring we are well-positioned to take full advantage of the opportunities and benefits afforded 

by EVs. Currently there are 292 public charging stations in Vermont. This funding would be 

used to deploy a mix of Level 2 and Level 3 charging stations in strategic locations including 

along highway corridors, at employment locations, downtowns, village centers, multi-family 

housing sites and other activity areas. The deployment would follow the current location pattern, 

but at a higher rate, while also ensuring charging stations do not oversaturate the market.

Weatherization $21M

Building weatherization continues to be a cornerstone of Vermont’s efforts to improve the 

energy efficiency of residential, institutional, and commercial buildings. Weatherization also 

offers significant non-energy benefits related to the health and comfort of building occupants. 

This funding would support three key initiatives. 

1. Allocate additional funding to the Agency of Human Services’ Office of Economic 

Opportunity to support a longer and larger investment in low-income weatherization. The 

total amount of funding would lead to approximately 900 incremental units being 

weatherized before the end of 2024. The additional investment and extension of the 

implementation timeline will help ensure the full benefits develop a “weatherization 

workforce”. 

2. Leverage current resources to increase healthcare sector investment in energy-saving 

weatherization, leading to in indoor air quality, more homes weatherized and better health 

outcomes. The initiative will demonstrate successful models for co-funding of 

weatherization efforts, providing the opportunity for private and non-profit health care 

partners (e.g., health care providers such as hospitals or payers such as Medicaid or private 

insurers) to invest in preventative and acute health improvement through home 

weatherization and energy efficiency projects.

3. Provide incentives to consumers to purchase electric equipment for heating, cooling, and 

transportation in areas of the state where solar and other renewables have saturated the 

available headroom on the electric infrastructure, and where additional renewable 

development is constrained without expensive upgrades. The beneficial electrification 

equipment would be paired with controls and upstream platforms, also supported by 

funding, operated by utilities (or third parties in partnership with utilities) to “soak up” 

renewable overgeneration, as well as provide operational flexibility for utilities to manage 

the grid in a manner that avoids costly regional transmission and capacity charges. 

Fuel Switching/Electrification Incentives $29M

Funding would be used to provide incentives to consumers to purchase electric equipment to 

replace fossil fuel-based heating and cooling systems with an all-electric energy or modern wood

systems. Additionally, this funding would be invested in municipal back-up electricity storage

installations to provide community resilience in the face of a changing climate and to maximize

co-benefits for electric ratepayers. The beneficial electrification equipment would be paired with

controls and upstream platforms operated by utilities (or third parties in partnership with utilities)

to “soak up” renewable overgeneration, as well as provide operational flexibility for utilities to manage

the grid in a manner that avoids costly regional transmission and capacity charges. 

Currently, Green Mountain Power is working to identify priority areas for this type of project; 

this funding would support a complementary planning effort focusing on the remaining 25% 

(and most rural part) of Vermont to identify key critical facilities in reliability- and 

telecommunications-challenged areas across the state for battery backup power systems.

These efforts will help with load management, a key strategy for optimizing our utilization of the

clean energy derived from existing renewable assets, which includes efforts related to energy

storage and flexible and grid-interactive loads (such as electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps),

at both the utility- and customer-scale. 

Hazard Mitigation Buy-Out $25M

Although it is important for Vermont to take the steps necessary to reduce its greenhouse gas 

emissions, the most impactful near-term actions that Vermont can take in response to a changing

climate are investments in mitigating flood hazards and improve overall landscape resilience. This

funding would be used to create a statewide hazard mitigation program, including funding for a

state-level buy-out program for parcels ineligible for related FEMA programs (a high priority action

item from the 2018 State Hazard Mitigation Plan). The program will be modeled closely to the

FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, but without the match requirement and with increased

flexibility for innovation beyond what FEMA is able to fund. Funding will be used to leverage FEMA

Hazard Mitigation Assistance dollars when available by providing non Federal match. The program

will prioritize projects in communities with greatest economic need and projects that mitigate repetitive

loss among low-income and marginalized portions of the population, and ensure low-income

Vermonters are given sufficient financial support to fully transition into more resilient housing.

In addition, this funding would be used to support implementation of the statewide flood reduction

initiative, which offers dual benefits of both resilience and clean water. 

Climate Action Plan $100M

The remaining $100M will be held to support implementation of the climate action plan.