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Energy committee pushes clean heat standard
FEBRUARY 13, 2025
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
BY JASON STARR Observer staff
The Williston Energy Committee, backed by local environmental advocates under the Sustainable Williston banner, are urging the selectboard to adopt an electric heat mandate for new home construction. Their pitch echoes a debate in the Statehouse about creating a statewide “Clean Heat Standard.” But with legislative action stalled, local leadership is needed to move home heating away from fossil fuels, advocates said during last Tuesday’s selectboard meeting. The cities of Burlington and South Burlington have already passed their own electric home heating standards. “We are in a climate emergency,” Sustainable Williston member Deborah Miuccio said. “What can we do? The answer is to take immediate action to control what we can control and influence what we can’t control. “The clean heat standard can provide a piece of the solution toward the problem of climate change,” she continued. “Williston can provide a leadership role in this and a model for other towns and cities across Vermont, New England and the United States.” The committee is recommending an ordinance that would mandate new homes be built with a primary heating and hot water source (providing at least 85 percent of a home’s heat) powered by something other than fossil fuels, with the town responsible for verification before allowing occupancy. “New homes will be in service for 100-plus years. Adding more homes that consume fossil fuels … would be short-sighted and expensive to correct,” advocates wrote in a 2024 petition to
Protesters hold signs in 2016 along Route 2A in Williston opposing the Vermont Gas pipeline.
Pipeline protesters keep their foot on the gas VTDIGGER FILE PHOTO
A heat pump is installed outside a Vermont home, providing electric-powered heating and cooling to the home. PHOTO COURTESY OF EFFICIENCY VERMONT
town planners. The energy committee surveyed local home builders and architects in formulating its recommendation. Their (anonymous) feedback was mostly critical of the effort. “There are already barriers making Vermont an expensive place to build,” said one developer. “Why introduce another barrier? Additional mandates will only serve to increase costs and reduce the rate of construction.” “You should not follow South Burlington,” said another. “Vermont has an incredible unmet housing need. Do not drive up the costs to construct new housing.” The proposal’s potential to increase housing construction costs is concerning also to Williston’s housing committee members, who are focused on increasing housing availability and affordability. But selectboard member Greta D’Agostino said the town should find a way to address both problems simultaneously. “Housing is one of the things that concerns me most in our state right
now,” she said. “We are in a housing crisis and we need to add more units at all affordability levels, but I don’t think that can be at the exclusion of advancing our environmental and energy standards. I think we need to find a way to marry the two because I really do think we are at a critical point for both of these things.” Sustainable Williston founder Reed Carr argues that climate change is the more pressing concern. “The housing crisis is not expected to be permanent, it will pass,” he told the selectboard. “The climate crisis is not going anywhere, and it’s getting worse.” Williston Energy and Community Development Planner Melinda Scott said the increased cost of installing electric heat pumps and hot water systems — as opposed to continuing to use the natural gas that currently heats about 3,400 homes and businesses in Williston (according to Vermont Gas Systems) — is difficult to quantify. “I’ve done some research and I’ve gotten conflicting answers,” she said. “There are no consistent and clear see CLEAN HEAT page 3
Vermont Gas compelled to submit new PUC application BY JASON STARR Observer staff It may have seemed that protests about Vermont Gas Systems’ Chittenden-to-Addison-County pipeline were buried in the past. But remnants of the climate activist group that chained themselves to construction equipment in and around Williston nearly 10 years ago in an effort to halt construction of the gas pipeline have forced a new public hearing on elements of the project. The pipeline has been operational since 2017, extending natural gas energy to homes and businesses in Middlebury and Vergennes. But state regulators, with input from project opponents, found several areas where changes were made during construction in violation of the Vermont Public Utilities Commission’s approval — or “Certificate of Public Good.” Changes included burying the pipeline shallower than planned in certain Addison County areas; laying the pipe directly on buried soil instead of propped up on sandbags; adjusting the location of water barriers to prevent wetland impact in certain Williston locations along Route 2A; and failure to comply with requirements related to pipeline-road crossings, including on Lincoln Road in Williston and other St. see PIPELINE page 3
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