By Arthur Hendrickson
Efficiency Vermont (EV) is a program created to promote energy savings. The EV funding comes from an energy charge added to your electric bill. It is a hidden tax. The Vermont Legislature created EV 14 years ago and it is overseen by the Public Service Board that sets the tax. Since the creation of EV, the annual budget for EV has grown from $17.5 million in 2000 to about $47.8 million in 2014. The charge is a regressive tax; both rich and poor pay at the same rate. Residential customers pay the charge at a higher rate than commercial businesses and at a lot higher rate than industrial users. Because the average worker's wages are in stagnation, the present EV rules make it difficult for most homeowners to gain any meaningful benefits. The EV program is run by a nonprofit – Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC). In my view, EV has gotten out of hand as to where and how they spread the wealth.
By watching the EV television ads, one gets the impression their primary interest is in the homeowners. The reality is EV normally grants two-thirds of their benefits off the top to commercial and industrial businesses. The EV website list 69 businesses that they have given technical and financial help in what they call the Energy Leadership Challenge. Examples of the participants are Sugarbush Resort, Killington/Pico Ski Resort, King Arthur Flour, University Mall, Shelburne Museum, Green Mountain Coffee, Burlington International Airport, The National Life Group, Fairbanks Museum, Bennington College, The Orvis Company and Dubois and King. The EV rebates for all businesses and their contractors are large. After an energy audit, businesses are allowed up to 250 rebates for items installed by an approved Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) contractor by filling out simple forms. The HVAC contractor, in turn, receives a bonus of up to $200 for each unit installed.
Many ski areas release information that they have spent millions of their own and/or investor money on expansions and improvements. Sometimes the money they are spending is yours and mine. The ski areas are presently participating in an EV cash for clunkers snowgun buyout program called "The Great Snowgun Roundup." Depending on what snowgun is purchased the rebates vary from $500 to $4,000 per gun. Examples of participation are Mt. Snow is replacing 645 snowguns, Sugarbush/Mt. Ellen 500, Killington 400, Stowe 765 and Smuggler's 250. Press reports vary that EV is paying out somewhere between $5 million and $15 million and has pledged to give the proceeds from the junked snowguns to Vermont Ski Area Association. I find this disgusting because that money, in part, came from the pockets of many Vermonters that do not ski because they cannot afford the price of a ski lift ticket.
The EV treasury is public money. By statute all money received by EV is not to be raided by the Legislature and given back to the General Fund; but, in other cases, the Legislature has chosen to ignore similar statutes. The money given to the ski areas for snowguns would have been much better spent for other needs, such as reducing property taxes or toward the projected deficit.
Operating expenses reported on the EV website are redacted. It was reported by VT Digger February 18, 2014, in an article by Tom Pelham titled "Inefficient Efficiency" he wrote "... Within Efficiency Vermont alone, in addition to rate increases, their 2012 annual report shows spending of $1.32 million was spent on administration, $1.38 million on strategic planning, $1.28 million on marketing. Further, in 2011 they had six administrators compensated at over $120,000 and over $6.7 million in independent energy efficiency consulting cost."
For years I have complained to my legislators that the residential charge should be eliminated along with the tax credits for things such as solar installations, heat pumps and electric cars calling them "Welfare for the Rich." Generally only citizens with deep pockets are able to take advantage of these handouts. There are too many legislators of the opinion they have to "tax and bribe" the way to energy independence. It seems the bigger the businesses, the bigger the incentives or special treatment given. How do you like your tax money going to established businesses that can well afford stuff on their own? I don't. How do you like paying toward building new homes and the appliances in them? I don't because they have never paid a cent of the electric charge to deserve the gift. That is what home loans are for. As long as the energy charge remains on homeowners' electric bills it will only contribute to the imbalance of wealth in which the rich get richer and the rest either go nowhere or get poorer. The vast majority of the households will be relegated to being long-term donors to EV because only on occasion will they buy the cheap light bulbs or get an appliance rebate. Most homeowners have already contributed more in the last 14 years than they will ever receive.
The operations of EV should not be confused with the great Vermont Agency of Human Service's Weatherization Program designed to help lower income residents – particularly older Vermonters, people with disabilities and families with children – to save fuel and money.
What has energy efficiency done for us? It is a myth that EV saves us money. Our electric provider, Washington Electric Co-op, many times in the past has received and is asking again for rate increases from the Vermont Public Service Board because there are not enough sales to cover the cost of operating expenses. The less electricity we use the more it cost us. The energy charge should be eliminated from the residential customers' electric bills and let the people make their own choices how to spend their money. I suggest when those campaigning for the Legislature knock on your door you mention EV and maybe ask them, "What has Efficiency Vermont done for you?"
Hendrickson lives in Moretown.
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