 to today's energy resource fair and town meeting. If you haven't already, please take a seat. I hope you've all learned a lot today from today's resource fair right here in this room. We also have some great outdoor exhibits, including an EV expo that you can check out after the speaking program. And we also have workshops, so please join us for those. Those will start at 1.15. Now without further ado, we'd like to start the speaking program. And I'd like to introduce Senator Bernie Sanders. Thank you very much. Thank you all for coming out to study and think about and learn about an issue of massive consequence for the state of Vermont, to the United States, and in fact to the world. And let me thank our panelists who are going to be speaking right after me, Olivia Campbell Anderson with Renewable Energy Vermont. And Lee Lynn Young with Efficiency Vermont. Lori Fielder with the Vermont State Employee Credit Union. Wendy Ross, who is a homeowner. And I'm going to introduce Mae Boothie in just a minute from 350.org. I hope very much you have had the opportunity to get around the gym here. And to meet with all of the exhibitors. And we are proud and delighted that they are with us in full of the important work that they are doing. We have an exhibition outside as well, where you can check out electric vehicles, a whole home efficiency makeover trailer. It's a big issue. A lot of low income people are blowing through a lot of money unnecessarily. A Vermont built net zero modular home. A wood pellet boiler demo and a solar tracker and more. So it's worth taking a walk over to the parking lot. In just a few minutes, we'll hear from Mae Boothie, who is the executive director of 350.org. And I think all of you know that 350.org is not only one of the great environmental organizations in the United States, it is an international organization. And it was founded a number of years ago by Bill McKibbin, who lives in Ripton, and Mae when you were a student at the Middlebury College. So 350.org has some very local roots right here in Vermont. We're also going to hear this afternoon from a panel of local experts. And then we're going to take your questions. And then the resource fair and workshops will resume. But first, let me say a few words about why my office organized this event. And thank Haley, among others, very much for putting it on. The good news is that in Vermont, as in many other areas of social life, our state is ahead of the curve when it comes to energy efficiency and renewable energy. It's something that we should take pride in, but also something that we should understand requires us to go a lot further than we are right now. We're off. We're doing well, but we can and must do much better. Very often, I hear from Vermonters, who are interested in trying to reduce their electrical consumption, but they don't know where to start. There are many, many options, as you can see today, out there. And sometimes it is hard to know what particular technology, what option makes sense to you, your family, your home, your business. Well, today's exhibits in the workshops are designed to give you practical information on topics like solar panels, financing, heat pumps, clean wood heat, geothermal energy, residential-scale wind, advanced battery storage, and lots more. There is a world that is now in rapid transition. And it is hard to keep up with the stuff. But we have a lot of great exhibitors here who are in the forefront of that transition. And we should learn from them. But what some people may not know is, and this is maybe the most important point that I can make from a consumer perspective, is that many of these technologies pay for themselves within a few years. So even if you are here and you don't really care about the environment, although I doubt that there are many people here who hold that view, maybe if you were Donald Trump and you think that climate change is a hoax, you should also be paying attention because you can save money. And you're going to be saving money more into the future. And one of the concerns that I have, and I hope we'll talk about this in a moment, is that a lot of people don't know that. People say, well, solar is fine. That's a great idea. But I can't afford it. Well, you know what? In many instances, you can be paying off your loan to go to solar and not a nickel more than you are spending on your energy bill, your electric bill right now. And then for 10 or 12 years, you have free electricity. This is the word that we have to get out, that people can't afford it. We've got to do a better job as a state and certainly as a nation. It's helping people finance the transition to solar, to other types of technologies, to weatherization, because it is a good investment. You save money by doing that and not only cut back on carbon emissions and protect the environment. Let me give you just a few examples that I think you're all familiar with. You all know. And there are people here. And we're going to talk about it today. People who install solar eight years later, they are paid off their loan and they have free electricity. A family in the upper valley did about $7,000 in efficiency work, which would pay for itself in terms of reduced energy use after just five years. That is a very, very good investment. And that is something we have got to publicize. This is not just pro-environment. It is pro-consumer. And heat pumps, for example, can save some families as much as $1,000 a year or more compared to home heating oil. With an average installed cost of $4,000 to $7,000, the payback period for that heat pump is seven years or less. That is a good investment. So whether you are motivated by fighting climate change, as all of us are, or if you simply want to save money on your energy bills, these kinds of investments make good sense. But let me also tell you about the other reason we should be investing in energy efficiency and sustainable energy. And that is in terms of climate change, as you all know. We are dealing with the great environmental crisis facing not only Vermont, not only America, but the entire world. And I know that all of you agree with me that we have a moral responsibility to leave this planet, and I speak as a grandfather of seven. We have a moral responsibility to leave this planet healthy and habitable for future generations. And all of you know, all of you know, and the vast majority of the American people know. Don't let Fox Television or anybody else tell you that this country is divided on the issue of climate change in its mind. The vast majority of the American people know that climate change is real, that it is already causing devastating problems in our country and all over the world in terms of heat waves, in terms of prolonged droughts, more extreme storms, melting ice caps, and much more. Now, I know that in some circles, I will not mention where, it is fashionable to ignore science. But the truth is, the scientific community almost universally tells us that climate change is real and that it is caused by human activity. For hundreds of years, we have burned fossil fuels to heat our buildings, generate electricity, and power our vehicles, and in the process, we have released huge amounts of heat trapping carbon dioxide. Today, atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in the past 800,000 years. It is no wonder that average air and ocean temperatures have been steadily rising for decades and 16 of the 17 warmest years on record have all occurred since 2001. Yes, Mr. Trump, climate change is real. As this year's hurricane seasons begin, let's take a moment to remember what happened just last summer. Hurricane Haughty was the most powerful storm to hit Texas in 50 years. Irma was the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever. Maria was the worst storm to hit Puerto Rico since 1932, and I'm out of occasion to visit Puerto Rico. The damage there was unbelievable and people still today, if you know, have not yet recovered from that hurricane. Global warming may not have, quote unquote, caused these storms, but the warmer atmosphere and oceans almost certainly made them worse and more extreme. Warm waters feed these storms, warmer air holds more vapor, leading to heavier rainfall and rising seas caused bigger storm services. It would be foolish to think that changing climate does not affect the severity and frequency of these storms, droughts, and heatwaves, and it would be even more foolish to miss the window of opportunity we have to address this crisis. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the ITCC, says that if we have any hope of avoiding the worst consequences of climate change, including widespread crop failures, increased hunger, mass migrations, illness, ecosystem disruptions, and extinctions of species, we have to dramatically curb cold emissions and we have to do it now. Unfortunately, tragically, we have a president and an EPA leadership, which claims to be absurd notion that climate change is a hoax and how dangerous and tragic that is. Our country has the potential, has the brain power, has the energy to lead the world in transforming our energy system. And yet, we have a president who not only denies the reality of climate change, but is in bed with the fossil fuel industry, leading us in exactly the wrong direction. As all of you know, Trump has filled his cabinet with climate denies, he has joined the US from the Paris Climate Court, his rollback President Obama's clean power plant and opened up fragile coastal waters and precious public lands for new oil and gas extraction. And by the way, the price of gas is soaring any minute. And he even wants to reduce mileage standards for new cars and trucks. So in every instance, we have to admire the consistency of the president. He is wrong in every single instance. And moving us in exactly the wrong direction is the bad news, and I wish I could minimalize it, but I can't, it is very, very bad news. But I also want to give you some very good news. And that is the spike Trump's goal of popping up his billionaire friends in the coal, oil and gas industries. There is a revolution happening in communities all across our country when it comes to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Last year, I want you to hear this, renewable energy added 20 times more electricity to our power mix than all fossil fuels combined. Trump, not the same. Renewables now account for nearly 20% of domestic electricity production, and that number, that percentage continues to grow. Here in Vermont, we have almost 225 megawatts of solar installed or permitted, more than a third of the capacity of the shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Some of that is utility scale solar, some is community solar, and some is distributed solar on roof tops, like the one I have in Burlington. And we are making new strides on innovative energy storage too. And this is revolutionary. GMP's two megawatt Stafford Hill Project in Rutland is paired with a four megawatt advanced battery array designed right here in Vermont. In 2016, on a very hot summer day, that system saved customers $200,000 in just one hour by using stored energy instead of spot purchasing peak demand power. And again, advanced battery storage as both utility scale and residential applications and no one doubts that we're gonna see more and more battery utilization and that the price of battery storage is gonna go down, down and down. Now these innovations are occurring all over the world. In Chile, for example, advanced solar systems are now delivering the cheapest electricity that is without any subsidies ever anywhere by any technology. In other words, that is the future. You want cheap electricity, you're gonna be looking at solar and those prices have gone down and will continue to go down. The renewables industry is also creating good paying jobs more than 350,000 in the United States alone. The US solar sector already employs a quarter of a million people more than Apple, Google and Facebook combined. And the potential for additional job growth is incredible. Impressively, Vermont ranks first in the nation for solar jobs per capita. Situation, we are saving people money on their fuel bills. That's a good thing. We are fighting climate change and reducing our carbon dioxide emissions. That's obviously enormously important. And from an economic perspective, we are creating decent paying jobs. So where do we go from here? In Washington, we are not just fighting against Trump's attack on the environment. And I have to tell you that it is a very sad, I mean, within the history of the United States that we have an administrator at the EPA who does not believe in environmental protection. No matter what I can tell you about, Scott Pruitt situation is actually worse. So that's what the reality that we are dealing with. But nonetheless, I and other progressives in Congress are introducing and supporting legislation to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. And I don't want to go on to all of the arcane details about the various bills that have been introduced, but suffice it to say that one of my top priorities is fighting for legislation to end fossil fuel subsidies. Exxon-movement economy has to promote efficiency. We have to move for 100% renewables. We have to invest in our new rail systems and in public transit. We've got to modernize our grid to accommodate a clean energy revolution. And the point that I want to make, and I know that the panelists will make it as well, is technology is improving every single day. Knowledge is expanding. The problem we face is not that we don't know what to do or how to do it. What we lack now is the political will to take on an extraordinarily powerful fossil fuel industry who are much more concerned about their short-term profits than the future of this planet. And our job is to tell them, sorry, your days are numbered. Your short-term profits are not there to protect the future. And the other point I want to reiterate again is that I want everybody in Vermont and in this country to be able to take advantage of this revolution. So the power should not just be for wealthy people and the upper middle class. And we've got to figure out ways to get that word out to tell people when we're lowering our working class in this state that there are financing mechanisms that make sense to you that you can't afford. And if we don't have those mechanisms today, we've got to get them tomorrow. But there is no reason why just because you don't have a lot of money, you should be wasting an incredible amount of your limited income. We've got to change that, make sure it's full of and sustainable energies and weatherization is available to everybody. The bottom line is this. Our job, as I say very often, is to think big and not small. If we are serious about addressing the crisis of global, of climate change, it is going to take not only millions of people in our country, but billions of people around the world coming together to demand both policies to transform our energy system. It is going to take people organizing at the grassroots level and taking action in their communities and it is going to take people adopting these technologies themselves. Because at the end of the day, all of you who are installing these new technologies become the best salespeople there are. Because if you go to a neighbor and say, look, it's working for me, I've cut my electric bill by 90%, I'm going to pay off this thing in 10 years, I got free electricity, wow, it's real? Okay, I'll do it as well. So we all become salespeople for this energy revolution. So having said all of that, let's get into some details. It is a great pleasure for me to welcome back to Vermont a merry movie of one of the founders of 350.org. Mary, thank you so much for all the great work you have done. Thank you. It's a great pleasure for me to be back in Vermont and I'm really excited about this event in particular because you actually get to enact the solutions right here. So often we talk about climate change and the first question is, well, what do I do about it? And you're doing it right now, so I'm incredibly pleased to be with you. And it was 11 years ago today, not about 11 years ago, that I was unloading my dorm room at Middlebury with all of my belongings and with six of my friends. We were loading up a U-Haul with one folding table and enough chairs for us all to sit on and we're gonna move to Burlington to set up the office for the Step It Up campaign. And I didn't know what was gonna happen. I was really excited about taking this leap of faith with my friends. We've been organizing on our campus for the past four years and we thought, we're gonna have to stop just because we're leaving Middlebury. We can keep going, but that was a big jump. And so I had a lot of butterflies in my stomach but I believed in these people and I believed in the work that we were gonna do. So off we went in our U-Haul. And I've been working on that with that group ever since in these 11 years till now. And we had gotten this idea that we could keep it going because we've been in Vermont. And this is, as you all know, better than me, a place like no else where there is a community that you begin to realize you can build community like this wherever you are. And that was the experience that we had as students. We biked from Burlington to Montpelier with all the other colleges of Vermont in support of clean energy legislation at the State House. We had pinwheels taped to our bike helmets. We worked with the people of Waterbury. And you also may remember the IP tire burn and the plan to burn tires of international papers factory. And we worked with that citizen's campaign. And we noticed the teachings about the importance of voting as an active, a climate activist with our featured guest, for our standards, this is 2006. So we were so involved as students, but it was about much more of being on campus. It was about the community within Vermont. So I just very genuinely wanna thank all of you and all the monitors because it's been an incredible journey for me to be part of this movement. And it's because I was here in Vermont 11 years ago. And the Step It Up campaign had a simple goal. We were asking Congress to pass aggressive and vicious kind of legislation. But with few exceptions, I have to say it's been more about setting it down in Congress on this issue. And that didn't make us give up. So I wanna talk to you today about what did change in those 11 years because quite a lot happens. And the three things I wanna point out are first, the shift in what we've seen about climate impacts. And Bernie spoke about this already, but I wanna highlight a few more aspects about it. The second is how shocked everybody has been about the renewable energy revolution. And the third and the part I know the most about is the fact that we actually have a powerful climate movement now, and we did it 11 years ago. We can actually build political power the way we were not before. So the last happened. On the first part, you know this story very well about extreme weather events. What I wanna talk about is how climate change makes the existing inequality worse. We already know we're living in a time of historic and equality in this country and around the world, but climate change affects the people who are already the most vulnerable. So if you're already struggling to pay the rent and then your community is wiped out from the flood, you're gonna be struggling more. And so the social fabric is getting tighter because of these climate impacts. It's not just the fact that it's changing the places we love for generations. It's changing the way we can live together as a community and that's really serious. The other thing I wanna highlight is that we've already warned the planet one degree, right? One degree Celsius. And all the impacts that we've been talking about happened with one degree of warming. But scientists are predicting five, six, seven degrees of possible warming if we don't get off the course that we're on. And so at the most big scale, we're in a race against time and we were 11 years ago. And what I wanna say about that is when I signed up as a college student and you didn't actually sign up, but made a commitment to be part of this movement, part of the reason for that is I'm a young person. I know you've been here 11 years ago. And this was an issue that affected my generation. And so that's why you see a lot of young people join the climate movement because we can understand how we are personally affected. But I really thought that this would be affecting me much later in my life. I did not expect that at this point in time it would be so serious. And I did not expect, certainly, that my hometown of Sedona, California would almost burn down from wildfires six months ago. But that's exactly what happened. Three different fires came within 10 feet of my dad's house in Sedona. And so I thought maybe this would happen when I'm much, much older, but it's happening now. And so I start there because it is very serious. And so the work we're doing today is important and serious and has very real impacts. So we always start there. That's why we call ourselves 350 That Work because we focus on what we know about the science. But we also know something that I don't think was really clear 11 years ago, which is that the solution is actually fairly simple. I didn't think that then. I thought the solution to climate change was incredibly complex. But it's actually about shifting our energy system off the fossil fuels to 100% renewable energy. There's a lot else we have to do, but at a fundamental level, we have to do that. And we know how to do that. As Bernie said, it's really now a political obstacle. That's an obstacle we can fix. The economics, the technology, we've got that sorted out. So that brings me to the second point, which is in the 11 years since we started, it's been shocking how easily and quickly it's been to shift to renewable energy. When we used to hold up signs about clean energy now, it really was a bit of a dream. I don't know if some of you remember, but sometimes I would be worried at protests because people would say, but can I really go solar? And I would say, I think so. Now there's no, not a shadow to that. And some of the places around the world where we're seeing the biggest changes are some of the poorest parts of the world, where people don't have access to electricity at all. And they're jumping over coal and jumping over oil, and you leave straight to solar. And this is in places like Uganda and London, and we have many parts of Southeast Asia. If you wanna see some of the front lines of clean energy or evolution, it's happening in the developing world. It's happening like it's bringing people electricity for the first time from the science. So it's incredibly exciting. And some climate activists I know think we should really mostly talk about that, and not really talk about that very scary part. But that's not how I feel. I think we have to talk about both. But it has been incredibly empowering. And the last thing I wanna say about this is it is literally empowering. One other issue you work on where you talk about building power and the way you build it is actually changing how you use power in your home. It's an incredibly tangible way of combating climate change. And I know about you all, a lot of the stuff I see on the news, I get very depressed. And all I can think about is writing a check or volunteering, which is incredibly important. Don't get me wrong. But with climate, you need to do those things, but you can also enact it in your community right away. So we have that tool, we value it. The last thing that's changed a lot is the movement. And this is the part that means the most to me because I've gotten to see it with my own eyes. And when we started to step up and then 350, it was in large part because you couldn't really visualize the climate change movement. We knew that there were all these people who really cared about climate change because we knew them and we were in communication with them. But it didn't feel like a social movement. If you were not in the streets, you were not exercising political power, that has really changed in 11 years. And that is not that much time when you think about the history of social movements. People fought for the right to vote for hundreds of years. And in a relatively short time, this movement has really been able to force presidents to make decisions they didn't want to do. Just last week in Canada, a major pipeline was being proposed and the company, based on activist pressure, decided not to build it. So the government bought the pipeline, which is not a good thing. But what is important to remember is that it was the activist pressure and they're gonna get the government to have to sell the pipeline, that's my prediction. But in place after place, we've seen 350 cities in Brazil pass bans on tracking. We've seen in the past month, 26 clean energy actions in Ukraine, where there's almost no climate movement, but it's starting to be built. So we see these stories everywhere. And here in Vermont, great people at 300 Vermont just told me there were 35 resolutions passed at town reading on climate solutions. So it really is everywhere. And there's been a formula developing at the community level where you can stop a fossil fuel project, if it's in your community, you can go to 100% renewable energy, you can stop the financing of a project through divesting or investing in the solutions. We know these things work, they work practically everywhere, and we just see more people doing it. And that's what we're starting to see. So I just wanna end by saying, do you need a story about being in Vermont who was all about finding a community of activists to work together with and to build something we didn't think we could build? And we surprised ourselves, right? In a number of different ways. Not all of them are good, but most of them are really good. And so what you're doing today is not only something for your own family and their own community, but something that has a much wider impact because all of these actions added up really do add up to how we shift our whole economy and start to rein in these devastating impacts of climate change. So we really can do it and I'm grateful to be part of your community. Thank you. Very much thank you Vermont for all that you are doing. So let's come here from Olivia Campbell Anderson who is with Renewable Energy from Vermont. Look in. Profits, individuals, bringing you clean energy solutions, whether that's solar for your home or advanced heating, cold climate heat pumps or electric vehicles. We are committed to achieving Vermont's 9% total renewable energy as soon as possible. And I am excited and excited to see so many people here today to share their clean energy and climate solutions and to learn how to save money by using renewable electricity, heating and transportation. You would be surprised to learn that solar and wind currently only make up 12% of Vermont's electricity generation. And I'm just wondering by little show of hands, how many people here have solar power in their house? They know. Wow, that's pretty awesome. And one of the, you know why that's possible. The science and technology solutions, partially because of the work of Senator Sanders in getting the federal tax credit to help pay for those systems. Partially because of the work of your local senators and representatives like Senator Mark McDonald here for who helped establish net metering that would be possible on your house if we didn't have net metering and allies in the legislature. We have a lot to do, 12%. We have a lot to do to grow our energy independence, as you know. And with 78% of every dollar, 78 cents of every dollar that's spent on fossil fuels leaves Vermont's economy. Just like we buy local food because it's good for our health. It's good for farmers. It's good for our local economy. It's good for our community. So is local renewable energy. And we all, what we know is by many of the exhibitors here today, the electric vehicles that you see outside, we have the technology. We have the solutions available. And if you are looking for more about those solutions, talk with many of the folks here that I know you will. Most of those are breath members or renewable energy Vermont members. But you can also go to our website which is our evermont.org. And we have a business listing of we've sort of vetted to make sure folks have insurance, tell you information about how many customers in Vermont that they helped, how much they've installed. But if you're looking for us solar, if you're looking for heating solution and answer heating, you're looking for solar hot water or energy storage for your batteries. You can go on our website and see all the companies in Vermont that you have that can help you install that in your home. And so we're gonna keep going here and looking forward to taking questions from you. And I guess I'm so inspired by everyone that's here and that I think by show of hands it looked like, what do you think, maybe 40%? So all of those folks can talk to the folks who didn't raise their hands. And so we've got a lot of work to do and we've got to do the urgent. So thank you and we'll talk more with your questions. Thank you. Young is with efficiency in Vermont. We all have to be outside in the sun playing and soaking up our own personal solar energy. But I'm glad to see you all here today. And I want to thank Senator Sanders-Harris for bringing together the two. So efficiency in Vermont is your energy resource. And I really want to emphasize that you are part of it. It's anybody that uses electricity in Vermont contributes to the efficiency in Vermont service. And it's accessible to you as a homeowner. It's accessible to you as a business owner. And it's accessible to you as a down planer. So efficiency in Vermont does the work to assess efficiency opportunities for the best saving fuel, electricity, new technologies, making changes. We assess the efficiency opportunities and then we bring the best forward. Oftentimes we provide an incentive to help people overcome the initial cost of making a change. But we only do that for changes that we know will really help benefit for you as an electricity payer, but also for all of us as members in the broader community of folks that consume electricity and are part of the Vermont economy. So some examples of what we do, efficient labels have become standard. And that's because of the work that efficiency in Vermont has done to make sure that they're at every store and that they're affordable. And over time, they have become more affordable and we've been able to back out. But the reason they became more affordable is because we all did a career job swapping out the labels in our home and the increased consumption of those products helped the manufacturers bring the cost in. Key pumps. Many folks here came to my key pump session this morning and told me that they already have key pumps in their home. Key pump technology was not ready for this climate until just a few years ago. So at that point that it became suitable for this climate, we value all the key pumps that are available and said, well, these are really the ones that are good to use in Vermont and we put an incentive on those. We also work with small businesses. We just launched an initiative to offer an energy walkthrough to any small business in Vermont. So if you're a small business owner and you've gotten your postcard from us, please give us a call and schedule your walkthrough. We'd like to look at all your processes and help you figure out what energy is being used and how you can save. We train contractors, they go into homes so that they are looking for the best opportunities to make a healthy home, a safe home, a comfortable home and a vision home. So we're providing services to everybody in Vermont. We want you all to take advantage and I have another session this afternoon if you wanna come and talk to me about transforming our home energy situation. It's gonna be touching on an issue which is of enormous consequence because it deals with financing. At the end of the day, when we talk about the energy revolution, we gotta pay a whole lot of attention to financing. So Lori, thanks for what you're doing. Lori is with the Vermont State Employees Credit Union. Lori, thanks. Thank you to Haley and everybody at the Senator's Office for waiting us today. It really is great and inspiring to see so many people come out on such a beautiful day in Vermont. So the upfront cost of the energy efficiency project, seeing system upgrades, solar installations can be a challenge for most Vermonters. An average home efficiency project can range, you know, in the average about $8,000 an average solar project can be about $25,000. This sounds like a lot of money and it is a lot of money. We all can relate to how long it takes to earn this amount of money and how we all carefully allocate that our earnings to pay for all of our expenses including our energy bills which honestly can also be a lot of money. So what we like to think about instead of how much this all is, instead we like to think about making the investment, an upfront investment which is really what some of these solutions are about. So that includes energy efficiency, renewables, solar, heat pumps. You know, it actually makes sense to finance many of these purchases. The monthly loan payments and you can talk to us about how that might look for your individual situation can actually be offset by the savings of these purchases or by the power generation of a solar array. ESCCU, which is Vermont State Employees Credit Union, any one of those that works in the state can become a member. We also have an extended membership opportunity for members of NECI, North East Sustainable Energy Association. We value the investments that our members make. We make them in our own business. We benefit from solar as well. And whether the purchase is solar or weatherization or heating systems or heat pumps, green vehicles or even bicycles, we make these loans affordable and accessible so that most people can take advantage of them. Specialized loan program VGreen is, we've been doing this for a long time and we used to hear all the time, this is all great but there's no money for this. There's no financing available. Well, we have money available and we have financing options available that are really customized and specialized in these purchases. You can talk to many of the people here in the room exhibiting today. We collaborate with the vendors. We partner with them. We listen to them. What is needed in the marketplace? What do people need to make these improvements? The loans that we offer have features such as discounted interest rates, extended terms, a super easy application process and a fast turnaround. So we streamline the process to make it easier for borrowers. We partner with folks here. We collaborate with Efficiency Vermont. We're members of RAD which we're very proud of. So again, BSECU is a non-profit we're a financial cooperative which means we're member owned. So if you're a member of BSECU, you own, you have a piece of that business. We offer a special investment opportunity on the green money market account. You can get one as a first as a resident or as a business and the money that you deposit is always accessible to you. It's not locked up in a CD. And a hundred percent of the deposits go to fund the future loan growth of the B green program. So we hope that you talk to us about maybe taking advantage of that as well. So we just want to say that we're so happy that we could be here today and support this type of opportunity. Our mission is to provide affordable financing options and really we feel inspired by the senator that we can actually meet these goals that we have personally and also our state commitment to meet our energy commitments. Thanks. At the end of the day, what I think people want to know is how all of the energy revolution impacts their very lives. And so our last catalyst is Wendy Ross, who is a member of the largest organization up here. She's a homeowner in the state of Vermont, right? She's actually down the road inside the college and I was invited to come and tell you what I've done in my house, which has sort of been five different stages. The first thing that happened was I was given a free energy audit from Efficiency of the Month. So I went in and said, I don't want this, you want it. So I said, sure. So they gave to my house and they did a door test and they looked at the whole house to see what upgrades I needed to be more energy efficient. And that was really helpful. And at that time, they put in some insulation in my basement and the seals around there which was all I could afford at the time. But then random energy committee, which I need to know all about, started having programs to educate people about the different things that they could do in their house. And so I went down and learned about zero energy now and how if you did things straight away, but it really goes return. And so I looked at putting in solar panels well probably like many of you, my house was the place the right way for solar panels and I didn't want a big solar ray in my yard. Fortunately for me, random community solar just down the road was selling chairs. And so I bought chairs in random community solar and that upset my electricity use by a whole lot. But then I decided, I was still using oil and I really wasn't happy about that. So I looked into getting some heat pumps. This wasn't straight away. I mean, I did it over the years. And I found that my house wasn't especially conducive to heat pumps because it's not a nice square, a nice square or rectangular building. So that cost me a little more than I expected. But I had to buy a couple of extra solar chairs to cover it. But I'm very happy with my heat pumps because now I get heat and everything would hardly any, my oil bill has gone round down significantly. I got a call from them last year saying, um, what has happened? We're not selling you for a lot of the things that I knew I needed was some insulation in the attic because I knew that lots of the heat was going out and there was not enough depth of insulation. So that was the last thing that I did is had somebody come connecting with Sarah and Ginov and put insulation in my attic. So those are the five stages of the things I have done. And I'm not really into figures, but as I said, I'm paying hardly any money to urban energy and hardly any money to remount power. And they tell me that my leakage has reduced by 50%. And that return on my investment for energy savings will be 4% overall and return on investment for solar will be 7.4% overall. I do have other things that they don't make a whole lot of sense to me. I'm not really a thing of the house. Happy to, I'm really glad I did it. I was fortunate enough at the beginning to get an investment that had made sort of return to me. So that was my motivation. I know how I'm going to use this money. So I'm really glad I did it and as you have heard, there are ways that you can do it too and go through the different stages so that you can be part of fighting against global warming. Thank you. For questions, but let me start off with me with the first question. Any other panellists can jump down. I think Wendy did a good job talking about the agencies and organizations which were able to help her in the transition she made in her home. But I'm wondering how many Vermonters, despite the good work of all of your organizations, actually know what is available to them and know what the bottom line is. So my assumption, especially in this state, that's the majority of the people want to do the right thing environmentally, but many people actually can't afford to do it. Now if we are saying federal policies, obviously that would change. We would do things like on-bill financing which would make every American be able to borrow money at a rate that would not be higher than the fuel bills that they pay. So that for seven or eight years you pay what you would pay to the electric company or maybe to the oil company and then you see a significant reduction or perhaps free energy from there on in. That makes such eminent sense. But let me just throw it to the panelists here. In Vermont, or perhaps actually May wants to jump in, we're talking about a revolution, we're talking about something that is cost effective. If there was not a crisis in climate change, yes, this would make eminent sense from personal economics. How well are we doing guys in getting the word out to the people over the month? Who wants to lead, do you want to jump in on that one? Does it work? Call the policy man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was really lucky to work with VCRD, John Coganza's here from VCRD on visiting two communities that have invited VCRD in to help them figure out how to prepare their community for the coming climate future. And one thing that was surprising to me is that across the board, the talk that everybody asked for was information. So I would conclude from that, that people know that they want to know more. And I also feel proud that Efficiency of Vermont, one of our main services is to help people get the information that they want and to get quality information and to help them sort through really the best choices. So more information is more necessary. Lori, why don't we jump in? You guys are major finances in the State of Maryland. Yeah, I would also add to that and say that I think that priority or prioritization is also a factor. You know, quite honestly, folks will have no problem going out and dropping $30,000 on a new car and then they'll come to us and say, well, I don't have money to do an energy renovation. That costs $30,000. How am I gonna do about that? So I think in a way it's, you know, there's just some information that can be better information about that return on investment that even with the debt service, an energy renovation or a solar project or heat pump project still makes financial sense and it's a great investment. It's not just a good investment. The other piece is that it's not always monetary. It's not always about there being a financial return. Lots of people end up coming to the credit union. They haven't come to us through a vendor or a program of some kind. We get the call saying we need to redo our roof. So we need a loan for that. Well, you know, they come because there's a problem. So we really work hard to educate the folks that work at BSECU to say when you hear that, that they need a roof. Offer that if they insulate, if they add an insulation project, which might only be a couple of thousand dollars more or less, you know, might not be all that much more, they'll qualify for a low interest loan and the difference will pay for itself. So I think it is about, you know, I agree with Leland. It's information, it's understanding priorities and it's recognizing the value of this kind of investment. Overcome on someone? We have found that a lot of people don't, people know about solar, you know, you drive around the mall and see a lot and we're really thankful for that. A lot of people do not know about portable heating, advanced heating or cold climate heat pumps. A lot of you really don't know about advanced heating. A lot of people also don't think that electric vehicles are for them or they don't know that actually you can get electric vehicles now that go almost to 300 miles for a charge or how do they really work? Am I gonna run out? Am I gonna be able to charge, you know, drive electric from on the outside? I mean, I think those are two areas where people don't really know how it works, don't know that it will work for them and because those are newer solutions. Maybe you want something? I would just say that I think it does have to happen at the state level because the laws are different depending on what state you're in. So this would be a different set of answers if we were in Oregon or Wisconsin but I think the information issue is the key. We have a lot of groups saying you need to go in this direction, like I said, a lot of groups providing the solutions but it would be nice if there was one place you could go that can kind of direct you to all the things you're interested in and it would be a nice role for the government. Like frankly. Let me just ask you a question tomorrow. Maybe get comments on this issue and then we'll go on to anything else. Correct me if I'm wrong, please correct me if I'm wrong but I assume, depending on the size of the home and energy and small amounts of solar location, that an average person with the federal tax rates that exist right now can install solar for, you tell me what, 10, 12, 14 thousand dollars and pay that loan back. You can pay for 10 years, whatever it is, at the same rate you're now paying your electricity, yeah? So there's no difference. I'm paying an electric bill to GMP or I'm paying off my debt to GMP or some other credit union. I'm not gonna be in a penny-worth shape and then for 10, 12 years I have free electricity. Why would anybody not take advantage of that? Wendy, what did you wanna say? I just wanted to say that my solar share has cost a total of 15,600 but I got a federal tax credit of 3,020 which meant the total cost of solar was 12,480 and I have like two outside units and three inside units which a lot of people don't need that much so a lot of people, it would cost less and they are projecting that my annual dollar savings of 924 dollars a year. So in about 11 years you're gonna be paid off and then you'll have 3D energy. So what drives me a little bit nuts on this issue is why aren't we doing a better job telling people that we can see a 50% reduction in their fuel bills? And we're making progress and made this right. Clearly the world is very different and you drive around Vermont and I hope a lot more solar than we used to be but I'm not quite sure that ordinary working people understand that this is a way to save money and Costco has a side that says 50% reduction on everything that we're selling got a long line in Costco, right? We should have a longer line at the credit union and other places that we have right now. All right, let me open it up to comments on that. Yeah, sir, stand up, there's a. This is Richard, from Barry. David, hold the mic close to him up. And back in 73, some of us remember, there was an oil embargo and all the restaurants had to stop serving ice water because ice water costs energy. But now I go into a restaurant once in a while and I get a 32 ounce glass of ice water that I don't drink because of my age you don't drink 32 ounce of ice water. So was it a government program that stopped these restaurants? I think it seems like a waste of energy. Sometimes they are in California, they have to deal with what? Most of the time it is, I want to get back to this question, I want to help on this from the audience. Why is it that if people can save 50% over a 20 year period on their electric bill or on their energy bills, why is it that more people are not taking advantage of it? Our gentlemen reign it back then, yes sir. Be loud please. For over 10 years now and one of the big challenges at the home level is people move every seven years. So it's great that your solar's going to be paid off in 11 years but the average person isn't going to see that return, isn't going to see that drop. So getting the real estate industry to incorporate these systems into the value of their homes is absolutely critical. And I'm standing higher than the industry complaining that they can't sell, it's harder for them to sell houses that way when really what they're saying is we can't be upfront about what it costs to live in a house which should be fraudulent. But what you're saying is, what if I am buying a house which has, which is weather-wise and has solar, I'm paying very little for my energy bills, that would seem to be a positive in the sale of a house, yes? It should be. Are you saying the real estate industry is not incorporating that financial? They are actively avoiding it as it should not be. There you go, that's an issue we want. And that's probably because they don't talk about how much it costs to operate a house that doesn't have all of this weather-wise. Yeah, that's the point, is that there should be a way for a buyer to see the full cost of living in a house. You know, they put the mortgage up front, they put the taxes on there, they put any, what they call them, you have a side of, you know, assessments, tax assessments on there, all that stuff's laid out, but not the energy cost. Good point. Right on it. Okay, gentlemen, yeah, one over there, yeah. I think the sad truth is, it's economic security. People don't know that they're still gonna have their job 11 years from now and that they'll be able to stay in that house. And that is a real problem as far as people getting solar, why not? Well, it's kind of the same point that he made, but the truth is that if you invest in solar and purchase a real house, it's gonna pay significantly less for electricity, that should add to the value of your house. You should get that return on your investment. A gentleman right here. Yeah. Thank you, my name's Tyler. I have solar at home. And getting to the point about people saving on their energy costs, we just had a 5% increase in our electric rate. Well, guess what? That's a 5% increase in my rate of return after taxes. So every time utility bills and fuel bills and gas prices go up, by investing in renewables and insulation and reducing your overhead, you're making a conservative hedge against energy cost inflation. Yeah. A small hedge fund, don't you know? Not at all, but you know, that made it, but to rather than saying it, to really emphasize the point that it's such a good investment and that energy bills are probably not on the positive side coming up. Great. Okay, other questions or comments on anything? Well, I'm sorry, my name's Jassi Penner. I'm the actual, I'm the Republican candidate. I'm sorry, I don't want any political speeches. I want some questions. Yeah. So the question is, President Obama noted that the largest source of fuel is nuclear power, I understand. Shutting down from my head because it was leaking. So there are other places where where nuclear power does not need any carbon footprint as opposed to batteries, even advanced ones. So what, what does that mean? That's a bad question. So my question is, why does that resource not be utilized? That's a bad question. I happen to be opposed to new nuclear power for a couple of reasons. Number one, I get very scared to see another horror show like we saw in Fukushima, Japan. And I worry about the long-term safety. And number two, we don't know how to get rid of the damn nuclear waste that we have right now. While we shut, I don't know, I'm not going to get into the debate with you. You asked if I should get into your minds. While we shut down, please give a back point. While we shut down from my Yankee, we still have nuclear waste on the shores of the Connecticut River, something that many move on or something like that. Okay, I got your question. I'm here to help reduce fossil fuels by the airline industry. You have me not playing for that. Yes. Okay. Oh, other questions? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, right here. Okay. We have nine. Stand up, so you've got a mic. Okay. I'm Renee Mother. And we have nine people living in our house. I just started out at a solar place. And for me, the information, I couldn't find it. I'm learning since I started at my job. But solar seemed overwhelming. It seemed too big. So my question is, what do you do for, say, your middle class, not upper middle class, paycheck to paycheck, you have to have electricity and we've got nine people and you say, well it's gonna cost the same amount as your electric bill. Our electric bill is astronomical. $500 last month plus. And my boss came out and did an energy thing and it's our hot water heater, blah, blah, blah. But my credit was stolen. So what happens when, oh, you should do this and you should get solar and you should do this and that? It's not an option through us right now. It is not an option. But it would literally be life-changing. That's for me, lower middle class, but also what about the older aging community? That's, what is it? They only have a certain amount each month for years. Thank you. Sorry, I'm a little nervous. Okay. Good question. I want to take a shot at that part. So first of all, thanks for that question. I think that's really an important one. And really the answer, because that's complex, right? There's a lot to it, there's a lot to impact there. The answer is that it's gonna be custom. So that's one thing we do at the credit union is that we work with our members to really look at your situation. We would definitely recommend in that situation that you start with efficiency. Vermont to figure out why that consumption is so high. And then from there, you can work with them to come up with some solutions. And we have lots of people all the time that access the heat saver loan, which is a state subsidized loan that efficiency Vermont is offering and we're a lender for it. And it does offer very discounted rates for lower income households. All right, Lori, I think what you're saying is you should drop in and walk with someone. There's lots of options, and you should. Okay, we'll do that. Yep. All right, other questions or comments? Yeah, right there. My name's Daniel from California. I've been a Vermont trip for two years. I just got a loan with SQ. I put in solar heater, what do we call it? Heat pumps. I want to put in solar panels. I'm going to have them on the road in Main Street and even when people can see them. I don't know the answer to your question why people don't know more. I'm going to make sure they do know more because I firmly believe in the 350 initiative of the town leading resolution. I want to take that on as a project for my own account. Do you have a sense of how your investment is working for you financially? My investment started operating on Thursday. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And I believe the heat pump is going to make around 9% with a nine-year payback. And I don't pay taxes, so I don't get the rebate on the portable tags. But I'll get a payback of about 10 years instead of eight years. And I'll get about 15% return on the portable tags. Sounds like a pretty good investment, huh? Okay. All right, Mr. Duncan, right there. Say you can take some walking. Thank you. Perennial kind of political football that we have to deal with here in Vermont is attracting industry and good jobs to the state. And we keep hearing that we have to be competitive with other states or industries go elsewhere. And I would propose that it's a lot harder to be competitive in Vermont because we have all this stuff that falls out of the sky. It has to be rearranged all winter long so that we can get to work, move goods around. It's a lot harder to compete in that and it would be in the South, where you don't have that to deal with. And I'm just thinking that it would be a boon if we could get a lot more home-based forms of income or home-based income, home-based business or industry. And that would also reduce the amount of commuter traffic we had, which would significantly diminish our carbon footprint. And it would also be a big help if we could get some decent internet into the far reaches of Vermont. So I guess what I'm asking for is a silver bullet. It would solve about five problems. I guess we must hit on that. We have to say about that. Thank you. Well, I agree. I mean, one of the problems we have in Vermont and throughout rural America, throughout rural America, young people are leaving rural America heading to the cities. But I think, if I understand your point, that with the explosion of technology where more and more people are now able, if there was decent broadband and decent cell phone service, more and more people could do their work at home and enjoy, I think, raising their families in a rural community if there were good schools, is the challenge that we face. So we have worked hard with some success, not enough, to expand broadband in the state of Vermont. I think anybody here from Springfield? Springfield has now one of the most sophisticated broadband systems in the country, very, very fast. But we have got to continue that. I agree with you absolutely. But also, I would point out is that if we lower the cost of energy in the state of Vermont, that also becomes an attractive quality to bring businesses to the city. Okay, oh, yeah, okay. I'm Danielle DeMarrish from Dorset, Vermont. I work with Grassroots Solar, Solar Installers. And my question is about affordable housing because just as the gentleman up there said that efficiency of a house or the cost to run that house should be part of, when you buy a house, that information should also be available to renters and it should be taken into account when you set rent prices for the houses because quote, unquote, affordable housing where you're putting the brunt of the cost for the energy inefficiency onto the renters who can least afford to pay astronomical energy bills is unacceptable. So that need accountability for landlords so that split incentive where the landlord gets the benefit of the tax credits but the renter has to pay for energy and efficiency. That is something that we should work with to resolve. Excellent point. We made a couple of good points. The first being that somebody could advertise the quote, unquote, low rents but if you're paying $400 a month for energy they all let low. And the second point in making is that if the government helps a landlord that benefit is going to be translated back to the person who's renting the unit, right? And that's a very good point. All of our questions are, let's take part, fine. She's wearing a very nice t-shirt so let's go on. Yes, Alice Reyes from Totney, Vermont speaking of Vermont economy and I agree about the low income housing. We also need childcare. We cannot attract young families without adequate childcare and there simply is not enough. It needs to be so, thank you so much. Well, you're absolutely, and we've just been in one second talked about two issues that don't get the attention that they deserve. One is not just in Vermont or at least in many parts of Vermont should be a county for sure. The high cost of rental housing. But you got a affordable housing crisis all across this country. In California, I don't know. The number of people who are now sleeping out on the streets, including people who work for a living. I was just in Disneyland last week not to meet with Mickey Mouse but to point out that the workers there earn wages that are so low in this profitable corporation that many of them actually were sleeping out in tents or sleeping out in their homes. So the issue of affordable housing is a major crisis and the issue of childcare that was just raised. I got a little bit of good news is that despite Trump and the Republican leadership for a variety of reasons I will not bore you with, we were able to push through a budget which almost doubled funding for the childcare development block grant program. Something that worked for a while. That's not a problem. It is on a viewpoint as well taken that in this state, working people cannot find decent quality affordable childcare. And given the fact that every psychologist who studies the issue knows that zero through four are the most important years intellectually and emotionally that is just absolutely insane. And all over the world, intelligent governments are providing universal affordable childcare for working families. That is exactly what we have come to do. But like everything else, whether it's childcare, whether it's energy, whether it's affordable housing, the priorities that now exist in Washington are absolutely backwards. So you talk about affordable housing, massive cuts. If Trump went against way, and I don't think he will, massive cuts to affordable housing. Secretary of HUD now wants to raise rents for the poorest people living in public housing by 20%. Oh my God. Yeah, I'm sorry. So, yeah, we're fighting those fights but the issue is priorities. You invest in energy, you invest in housing, you invest in childcare, you invest in infrastructure. Of course you do. Those are the struggles we have right now. Maybe just want to do more questions here. Kate, you're ready to decline. Let's say I've got a lot of hands over there. All right. Okay, anything? You got somebody there? Okay. We all know about credit scores. Ken Vermont lead the way that each family would have an energy score which would be comprised of their home audit number and also the transportation number. Very interesting concept, I haven't thought about it. And the score would result in what? If you had a good score. Tax rate for a tenant? The credit score has revolutionized lending and other things where you can present a, this could transfer with the sale of a home. It would be a uniform gauge of what is good by and what is not. Good. Okay. Sound good. Are you gonna have a question up there? Yeah. Thank you, Senator Sanders and to all of the other panelists for being here today and for all the work that you're doing on behalf of the environment. Is it Ms. Boeuf? You mentioned that you became particularly keen on this issue as a student at Middlebury and as a teacher for 30 years, the subject of education is very important to me. And so I was wondering, I'm going to make an assumption that at the middle school and secondary levels in Vermont, the subject of climate change is a part of the curriculum. I don't know if that's valid or not, but I'll make that assumption. But the main point is to what degree or do any of you know, to what degree are schools, elementary, middle and secondary taking this initiative to heart and doing rather than speaking about the potential solutions for global warming and actively engaging in transforming their own energy systems into alternative energy. Thank you. Yeah, I have a great story to relate about the St. Albans School District. The schools have a unique position in that they both are responsible for their facilities and all the energy associated with that and transportation. But also they have these young minds that they're responsible for. The St. Albans School District has made a lot of investments in their buildings, including solar, but also just energy efficiency investments and are seeing the benefits of that every day and the taxpayers in St. Albans also are seeing the benefits of that. And also they take advantage of a service that efficiency Vermont supports called the Vermont Energy Education Program, which is available to any school in Vermont and also community groups like Girl Scouts or something like that. And the Vee program helps kids understand energy use, energy production, and it really gets them started on energy engineering concepts to create the path for future citizenship in our energy conversations that are required. So some school districts really are taking this to heart and doing a great job. And any school district that takes advantage of the program is doing the right thing for our kids. Just to answer your question, a number of years ago in Vermont's which I'm a big fan of were allowed, we brought a non-insignificant sum of money into the state to do exactly what you're talking about. And what we did is brought solar in most cases to a number of schools around the state and they tied the solar into their curriculum. So they would have the measurements there saying how much energy was being generated on a given day and it became an integral part of their science curriculum. And they said money for the school as well. I think we are probably out of time so I'm gonna keep the program going. So let me thank the panelists for the excellent question. Resource fair resumes. Thank you.