 Let me give you both a run of show. We're waiting for another speaker. Just in case we don't have a speaker, right here we'll be going. Yeah, I'll be right back. Really? Yeah. So just let him come up to the podium. Good morning. How are you doing? All right. This one, by the way, I just want to make sure. Give that one. Yeah, give it a shot. Make sure it's loud enough. Is that one loud enough? Can everybody hear me? Can you hear me in the back? Thank you. All right. Good morning, everybody. Happy Earth Day. While, like most Earth days in Vermont, it is gorgeous outside and would be great to be outside. It's also not very warm outside. So really glad that we're inside celebrating Earth Day today. Thanks for joining me. My name is Peter Wach. I'm the managing director of Efficiency Vermont. I want to thank you all for being here with us today. And to thank our guests, we'll be speaking this morning. You'll hear from them in a moment, but for quick introduction. Congresswoman Beckaballet was going to join us today, but she is hard at work in Washington and unable to join us, unfortunately. But Thomas Renner from her office and Haley Parrow from Senator Sanders' office will be with us today to say a few words. We're joined today as well by Secretary Moore from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, House Speaker Joel Kowinsky, Linda Gray from the Norwich Energy Committee, and from Rewiring America, our partner in this endeavor, Amanda Sacks. We are here with Rewiring America and the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network to launch a new online tool, what we're calling a one-stop-shop incentive calculator. This will be an important tool in our toolbox when it comes to fighting climate change in Vermont by helping Vermonters electrify all of the pieces of their lives. At Efficiency Vermont, we often hear from folks excited to invest in more climate-friendly technologies, but we also hear it's hard to know where to start, and it can be challenging to understand how the different offers come together to make it more affordable for Vermonters to make these transitions. This tool helps to address that need, and shortly you'll hear more about it and see a video of the tool in action. This calculator is how everyday Vermonters will see federal incentives, state rebates, utility offer, and efficiency programs all in one place, and all customized to their home and their goals and their needs. More importantly, this calculator will be a critical factor, a critical first step to help Vermonters weatherize their homes, electrify their heating systems and vehicles, and plan their next steps to join all of us on the decarbonization journey. We've assembled a great group of folks today, important partners, to address the challenge ahead. Partners working in Washington and then national non-profits, partners at state agencies and across state government, and partners at the grassroots and community level. As I mentioned, Congresswoman Becca Ballant wasn't able to join us, but she was hard at work this weekend on votes on critical national security legislation, as I'm sure you're all well aware of. And she was going to speak to the important work happening at the federal level. We're seeing for the first time really a massive investment from the federal government, helping states like Vermont make the climate change investments necessary to help their folks make these transitions. So she's there with our hard work and congressional delegation and Senator Sanders and Senator Welch and the transformative work that they have underway, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a key piece of that investment and many forms of which will be coming to Vermonters very soon and will be part of the calculator as more and more information is known about those programs. Here to say a few words on behalf of Congresswoman Ballant and Thomas Renderer from her office. Thomas, I'll invite you up to say a few words. Thank you. Just fell down out there. Hey everybody. Congresswoman really was hoping to be here so she sends her regrets of not being here. I have the statement she was going to read though. I'm so sorry I cannot be here today to celebrate the launch of this and send this calculator. The Inflation Reduction Act, IRA, is a piece of landmark legislation that will bring much needed assistance across the country. Senator Sanders, Senator Welch and I were and continue to be proud to support the IRA. Vermonters know all too well the impacts of the climate crisis. We understand that we need to make investments in our homes and communities to combat climate change and thanks to the IRA, which is the single largest investment in climate and energy the federal government has enacted. Vermonters are able to make some of those investments. I have heard from many Vermonters about how excited they are to access the benefits of the IRA, but do not know how to determine what they qualify for and how to begin the purchasing process. This tool puts the answers to much of the confusion at people's fingertips. I am happy that on this Earth Day, Vermonters have a new resource to help the planet and their pocketbooks. The partnership between Efficiency Vermont, Vermont Natural Resources Council, and Rewiring America has brought us this tool that will assist Vermonters in navigating the various rebates and tax credits that will help Vermonters make important home improvement upgrades so they can create more Earth-friendly and climate resilient homes. Thank you. Thank you, Thomas, for those remarks. And Haley, if you would come and say a few words on behalf of the Center. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Haley Parrow and I'm Senator Sanders, Outreach Director. I know the Senator would have liked to be here in person, but I thank you for the opportunity to offer a few remarks on his behalf. I'd like to thank Efficiency Vermont and the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network for organizing this event and Rewiring America for helping to build this incentive calculator to help Vermonters access state and federal energy incentives. I often hear the Senator say that it's great to have federal incentives where people need to know about them and how to access them. It's no secret that climate change is one of the greatest crises we're facing today as a state, as a country, and as a planet. Vermonters know that addressing the global crisis of climate change means aggressively transitioning away from fossil fuels. And that's why our state is a national leader in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Senator Sanders has been proud to lead the charge in Washington, D.C. to create federal funding incentives to help Vermont households cut carbon emissions and save money in their utility bills. That's why he introduced the $7 billion solar for all program that is included in the Inflation Reduction Act. This program will help thousands of Vermonters go solar and we're expecting more news on how it will help our state very soon. The Vermont specific incentive calculator that we're announcing today will play a key role in helping Vermont households understand the support that's available to them in terms of cutting energy bills and taking on climate change. Senator Sanders looks forward to continuing to fight in Washington to cut carbon emissions and address the crisis of climate change. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Thank you, Haley. I'd like to take a brief moment and just have a round of applause for our congressional delegation for carrying this. This is a truly remarkable set of investments across many facets of the work we do to address climate change and it would not be possible without those dollars coming from the federal level. All right. So, I want to speak a little bit to what efficiency Vermont's goals are for this tool and why this calculator was so important for us to work with Electrify America on rewiring America. I've got too many names that sound very familiar from my past. I apologize for that. This calculator will be how many Vermonters connect to discounts for weatherizations, heat pumps and electric vehicles, and other green technology. It's helpful for Vermonters who are doing well, for homeowners who have time to think about investing in heat pumps on the road, for those where the next vehicle isn't a question of when, but if, and not if, and when they're going to go to an electric vehicle. For folks who can afford the upfront costs of blue-top trolley. But this tool is critical for helping Vermont households that are struggling. Low-income households were already facing significant energy burden from old furnaces or inefficient appliances, from vulnerable Vermonters wondering how they'll afford heating and fuel bills that only seem to grow each winter. And of course, as we all learned last year, the looming threat of extreme weather from a changing climate. We need to make efficient solutions and clean technologies available to all Vermonters, regardless of location or income of race or ethnicity, whether they're renters or homeowners, and especially for households we haven't reached before, in historically disenfranchised communities. If Vermont is going to reach its emissions and climate goals, we can't repeat the mistakes of the past that have left so many bombs. For all this calculator offers, it's a means to an end. The end is nothing short of a revolution in how our society uses energy. A transition to a more just, equitable, and affordable energy future. This tool will help all Vermonters see the support they can get to join that revolution and make that transition. From the curious looking for their various births rebate to the family that desperately needs to replace a failing water heater to the homeowner deciding what they're going to do when the aging boiler finally dies to the retiree watching their fuel bill soar who just wants a more predictable way to heat their home. This tool is not the answer to the challenges we're facing then, but it's one of the answers to help Vermonters address the grooming crisis and to be able to take action. It's one part of a concentrated effort that we all have to make to help everyone along in this transition to help them access these promising technologies and to help them realize an affordable, clean energy future. Next, I want to talk about how this tool works. It works by building on the hard work, trust, and relationships efficiency of Vermont has built over more than 20 years of energy efficiency across Vermont. That work is impossible without partners, many of whom are here today. Partners of Vermont's utilities whose incentives populate this tool and who have worked with us for years to refine how we bring the total set of offerings to Vermonters. Partners like the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network who have done so much to activate town energy committees and other grassroots groups around important climate action, and partners in state government who recognize the threat of the climate change and are taking action with the policies that support efficiency, weatherization, clean energy, and so much more. These partnerships represent a unified approach for this work, their strength in unity. We know a fragmented approach is less successful. Like Vermont itself, we have the freedom to act alone and the wisdom to unite to achieve results. That unity is seen in this tool and how it harnesses the efforts of so many and gets them pulling together in the same direction. This calculator is also open source so it can be borrowed and put on other sites, increasing access by reaching customers where they already are and appearing on websites that are already busy. This helps for organizations that might not have the funds to build or buy a tool like this to get everything it offers to their clients and customers all at no cost. This is all thanks to our partners at Rewiring America. These offers are now all in one place, making it easy for customers to find what they're looking for, but also let them see how much is out there without becoming overwhelmed by too many options. As someone who's seen my fair share of rebate page, a tool this easy, dare I say fun, to use is quite an accomplishment. When you think about all of the variables that are out there in terms of the number of offerings, where they're coming from, how to line them up around technology and what's available to each other, it's critical that we pull all that information to create that one-stop shop for Vermonters. We owe it to them to not make them go looking. So snap a photo of the QR code on the signs around us or go to EfficiencyVermont.com, explore this new tool and see your customized results, and think what it means that thousands of Vermonters can also use this tool. See what's offered and make these updates happen in their home. Speaking of partners, I'll now hand the mic to A&R Secretary Julie Moore, who has been a long partner to me and to Efficiency Vermont to see how these things are helping address climate change here in Vermont. Secretary Moore, please come inside. Good afternoon. Vermont statute requires significant reductions in our collective greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and we've made real progress in this work since the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2020. In large part by taking full advantage of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding available to Vermont under the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and most recently the Inflation Reduction Act. And Haley, I'm pleased to say we actually received word this morning that Vermont is receiving $62.5 million to support the development of distributed solar projects on roofs of permanently affordable apartment buildings and homes owned by low-income Vermonters. But even with these significant investments, projections continue to show a gap between our current trajectory and what is needed to achieve Vermont's greenhouse gas reduction requirements, meaning there's more work to do. One of the key strategies for reaching our 2030 climate goals is increasing Vermont's reliance on high-efficiency electric products to replace fossil fuel use, outright, or older, inefficient electric appliances. This can be challenging, as you've heard from Peter, because it involves literally thousands of one-off decisions being made by individual Vermonters every year. And while some of these are planful, like deciding to weatherize a home as part of a larger renovation project, many important consumer decisions are made in the moment when the prior appliance stops working. From water heaters to cook tops and ranges, electric vehicles to clothes dryers, Vermont consumers are making choices every day that impact greenhouse gas emissions for years to come. Helping Vermonters have convenient, current, and tailored advice about available incentives is critical to individual buying decisions, so that navigating offers does not become an unnecessary barrier to what are often both climate and budget-friendly choices. Using the Rewiring America Calculator to quickly see what electrification incentives an individual is eligible for informs decision-making, both for immediate purchases as well as planned investments. On a personal note, my clothes dryer conked out last week. And so, in playing with the Rewiring America Incentives Calculator demo over the weekend, as I considered my remarks for today, I was immediately drawn to the incentives available for heat pump clothes dryers and was pleased to say that the rebates that are currently available make the heat pump dryers extremely cost-competitive with traditional dryers, influencing my personal decision-making in real time. In addition to being timely for my personal needs, the Rewiring Calculator is also opportune in that earlier this month, on April 1st, the Agency of Natural Resources submitted a $100 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant application to EPA. We will learn of our award by July, and if successful, this funding will be used to expand incentives for passenger electric vehicles, weatherization, and electric panel upgrades, all of which are part of the Rewiring America Calculator and whose uptake is critical to meeting Vermont's climate commitments. This is going to be an important and powerful tool going forward. Thank you, Secretary Moore. I'll now turn it over to House Speaker Joe Kowinsky. The legislature's leadership, especially the House's leadership over the many years, has been critical to Vermont's own actions in addressing climate change. And to build those actions in with federal incentives, distribution of electric utility and gas utility incentives, as well as incentives offered by the Efficiency Utilities, is critically important. I now invite Senator, excuse me, Speaker Kowinsky to the table. Having a day. Thanks, Peter. Thanks. It's so great to be here with you today on Earth Day, elevating an important tool that will help Vermonters better understand the wide variety of incentives that are available to help them reduce their energy bills and help lower their carbon footprint at the same time. There are significant costs to Vermonters because our state relies heavily on fossil fuels, a reliance that often places disproportionate costs on lower-income and rural communities. Fortunately, though, there are energy solutions that cost less, are cleaner, and are far more efficient, and I am proud of the work that the legislature has done in making sure that Vermonters in all 14 counties have access to these cost-saving solutions. Over the past several years, we've worked to open more opportunities for Vermonters to save on energy costs by supporting expanded investments in weatherization, especially for lower-income earning Vermonters. Additionally, every year we pass a transportation bill that invests in Vermonters who drive a vehicle to get to work or school or to the doctor by expanding access to vehicles with higher miles to the gallon or electric vehicles. I am especially proud of the incredible success of a mileage-smart program for our low-to-moderate income Vermonters to provide up to $5,000 for the purchase of a high-efficiency vehicle. We've expanded investments in programs that accelerate the uptake of money-saving heat pumps and water heaters and other efficiency programs to reduce home heating and cooling costs. I actually just had heat pumps installed in my house. We're on the same trend here. Vermonters can access programs that help people make needed investments in home or businesses, electrical service upgrades to set the stage for them to tap into cleaner electricity and save hundreds of dollars on their heat and electricity bills. We will continue to do this work. I am thrilled that as Vermont deepens its commitment to cleaner energy future that we can help promote and elevate tools like this new calculator to make it as easy as possible for Vermonters to access cleaner, healthier, and less costly energy choices. I look forward to continuing to do this work with the partners here today and with many others as we do what we can to make Vermonters' lives better today and for future generations to come. Thank you. Apparently I'm just promoting everybody to senator today, so it's a Monday morning. I appreciate you bearing with me. I think that the two personal stories you just heard are telling to what we're trying to accomplish here. The marrying of the important and aggressive state goals to address climate change with the personal decisions that Vermonters have to make every day. We have to make that marry together and make it as easy as possible. It's critical to the work, and it's critical that we start the conversation by getting that information out there. As someone who can speak to the perspective of Vermont communities trying to make sure that we can do our best to address climate change, I want to invite Linda Gray from the Norwich Energy Committee who is an important partner in this effort and an important representation of the work that we're doing at a community level to really bring folks together and provide them the information they need, the trusted sources of information from their friends and neighbors as we work to address the climate crisis. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. You put it well. I'm here to give the local perspective on helping households make the switch away from fossil fuels. So I know from personal experience that Town Energy Committee volunteers spend a lot of time talking with their neighbors, and we have to seek out solid, reliable information to share about how to make changes in their homes. So there are more than 120 Town Energy Committees across the state, and this network of Energy Committees in Vermont makes for a very well-placed and well-trusted partner. Think of us as the last-mile delivery to translating state or national policies into home-level action. So we set up infotaples at the transfer station and at the general store. We have conversations about how to use less energy, how to save money, how to switch to clean energy. We reach our neighbors through face-to-face conversations, through lists or posts, or dozens of Town websites. We rely on having sources and advisors like Efficiency Vermont, HeatSquad, DriveElectric Vermont to whom we can direct our neighbors, and now we have this new tool that's made possible by rewiring America and Efficiency Vermont. So I've been accosting my neighbors for about 16 years now, trying to highlight both the personal and the global benefits of making investments in efficiency and cleaner technologies. So I notice that the desire and the commitment to make changes is much stronger than it used to be. Ever since the IRA was passed in 2022, we've been working hard to make sure our communities know about these important incentives. For an average householder who's not an energy geek, the details can be hard to keep straight. That's why we're all very excited about this incentive calculator from rewiring America. And it's not just that it's a single web resource, it's that it shows people an estimated an estimate personalized for their circumstances and personalized for them as remanters pulling in state and utility incentives. So this gives them a full picture and makes it clear how affordable their household level climate actions are. So it's a great tool and I'm looking forward to spreading it far and wide and I think I can embed it in our web page later today. I appreciate the honesty of a costing your neighbors that's great. We all do that and we try to talk about talking to them so they give her your honesty. As I go to our final speaker I want to take the time to thank her and her team for the work that they've done with us. As the inflation reduction act came into being it became a compilation of many of the different actions that the federal government had been considering that the Congress had been considering. What do you think about the solar for all that Hailey mentioned? The homes and hero work that Senator Welch was closely part of. All of those pieces coming together in one place it really was rewiring America that made it possible for all of us to understand what was in the bill to start with. So their creation of a broad calculator helped us understand the opportunities. So that spoke to the $58 million that's coming to Vermont for weatherization and heat pumps but didn't yet speak to the solar for all and the $100 million for just many of the components of this landmark federal investment. So as I introduce Amanda Sachs from rewiring America I want to say thank you and for making the approachability of the inflation reduction act meaningful for those of us in the work and for those folks in Vermont and elsewhere. So thank you. Thank you Peter. Hello everyone. My name is Amanda Sachs and I'm thrilled to be here as a policy associate with rewiring America. We are the nation's leading electrification nonprofit and we work with partners across the country like folks here in this room today to help communities access the benefits of clean electrification. We've absolutely loved collaborating with Efficiency Vermont and others including a pro bono team from Google.org who are fantastic in making this tool possible. Our mission collectively revolves around making climate friendly technologies irresistible. So this process needs to be easy and streamlined and simple. So it's exciting that with just a few inputs our calculator can guide households through the amazing and lengthy incentives offered in Vermont that lower the upfront costs of electrifying homes. And I've seen across the country Vermont's incentives are pretty amazing. It's an exciting time to be working on climate. Just recently we were in Colorado Rhode Island and DC at similar launches and by July we will extend our footprint to nine other states. This progress feels really palpable and each launch and each partnership signifies that the wheels are turning. To me I feel like we are succeeding in what we've intended to do here. A clean electrified energy system is unstoppable because it just makes sense to lower pollution and bills to improve public health and to put people to work in well paying clean energy jobs. But our journey doesn't stop here with this calculator. Rewiring America will be integrating this data into our personal electrification planner. And this will allow homeowners and renters to make a plan that fits their specific needs and motivations and helps them better understand the costs and savings associated with their decisions. You can access these resources and much much more at homes.rewiringamerica.org I just want to say thank you so much for all being a part of this effort in the building energy and transportation sectors. You know progress looks like electrification and renewable energy for all but showcasing that progress that it's happening, that it's probable and probably inevitable is what inspires other people to join in. I'm grateful to be here with you today elevating this tool and all of the work that's being done in Vermont and I very much look forward to continuing to find new ways to collaborate. Thanks everybody. Alright, now the moment you've all been waiting for the tool that I'm going to ask you to the tool is a lot simpler than our ability to run it. I just want to know it's as Matt gets there we go. Hi, my name is Amanda and I'm a policy associate with Rewiring America. I'm pleased to present Rewiring America's new savings calculator now featuring state and utility incentives for Vermont. Special thanks to the efficiency Vermont team for Vermont's resources council and Google.org for their support making this tool available to Vermont residents. The goal of this tool is to give households that have resources that are personalized to their situation. This gives them time and confusion to discover and determine which incentive applies to them. I'll look you through a couple of examples to show how our tool works. First, let's take an example of a household interested in improving their heating ventilation and cooling. So in the first box we select heating ventilation and cooling. Let's say they live in Burlington their zip code is 05 401. They own their home and their household income is $65,000 a year. We ask for household income so that we can determine their eligibility for low income incentives. Then they put their tax value status. Let's say they're married right now jointly and their household size let's say it's three people. When these additional inputs ensure that we're guiding them toward tax credits and correctly assessing their household eligibility for low income incentives. Click Calculate and when the results come through you can see that since their utility is Burlington Electric Department you see a bunch of Burlington Electric Department incentives and we're highlighting the breadth of age back incentives available to them. If this house is interested in the heat pump they can see that they could benefit for up to $12,000 as a discount on the heat pump. Being in a lower income bracket means that they would be eligible for up to $400 additional off of the heat pump and these are just the age back incentives. If we go down you can see the other incentives available to you. So let's say on top of that we wanted a heat pump close dryer. There's also an incentive for that. There's expected to be federal incentives as well that you can see in this area. If the resident wants to learn more we can take them to the best page to get their needs met. So let's say because they're income eligible they want up to $400 off of their heat pump. This takes you to Burlington Electric's website. If you go down a bit you'll find the online rate form and this is a handy checklist to get you through your process of applying for that every day. For a second example let's show a household in Brooklyn, Vermont that's interested in electric vehicles. So we select electric vehicle, they own their home, zip code is 05701 having their heat pump that's $95,000 a year and automatically selects free mountain power say free people in their household and directly. So you can see a lot of EV incentives including 100% off of an EV charger level 2 with an electric vehicle purchase. That is a very enticing incentive up to $2500 off a new electric vehicle that's for everyone in the state. That's awesome. These are six different incentives pop up but let's say a household makes $60,000 a year then even more pop up including $1000 off of the used electric vehicle this school is available now I hope you enjoy it. As you can see the breadth of incentives that are available to Vermont is very significant. So as we think about bringing those pieces all together so everybody can see them in one place and this is a dynamic process we don't know precisely yet what our partners at the Vermont Public Service Department are going to put in place for some of the IRA programs for that $58 million that we spoke about. They are working on it now and working on that plan and so it should be out shortly and the solar for all how do we integrate all those pieces together once those programs are known and how they're going to work they'll flow right through that calculator and we'll be able to get all that information out to folks. So it's going to be a continuous process for folks to come back and check as we get more information on what those programs will look like we will be directing people to the calculator so they can see what that looks like and how they move forward with the different options Any questions? How about you? I'm just curious, I know there was a tab for mentors on there but is there a way for say a landlord to navigate the tool as well to think about the 25% we need something like that? Why don't I follow up with you I'm not actually sure about that but it's a great question because it comes up on a regular basis. Please go ahead. Is there a way through the tool incentives and rebates for example for EPs and I know something that is a question we get a lot with stories like how do you stack them so I thought I saw a tab that looked at make a plan on there is there a way to sort of help people navigate that to a very specific place? So as Amanda mentioned there's the pieces around their tool around planning but what we wanted to start with was everything that could be available to somebody if they chose a used EV their options might be different than if they pursue a new EV and understand sort of the way those work together but we're always happy to answer questions that efficiency want give us a call, we'll help walk folks through it's always important to have as much information and to have a guide through that process so folks in your town energy committee can help answer some of those questions and sort of we have guides for everybody to walk through those and the way it works best for them So it sounds like if you're looking at the tool you're like wow there's a bunch of great options here for me the next one would be to make a call to stay efficient I think the tool itself if you were to read through all of those you could kind of understand which ones would match but if you wanted to check that information with us we'd be happy to answer those questions A quick question a friend of mine was ordering energy on their house and found out it was over $700 to get it done so they decided that it wasn't worth it didn't take much for them to go yeah thanks but no thanks is there anything involved with trying to create some incentives to get to actually know what products they need before they just go out of the bottle there are all sorts of ways to do that in energy out is one of those things one of the things that I might recommend for your friend is to give us a call we do virtual home energy visits where you can call us through a smartphone you can walk us around on FaceTime or Zoom or whatever works make sense for you show us your basic systems and sort of level of insulation that you can see and sort of area talk about areas that are drafty or cold or uncomfortable in your home and we can help to start to build a plan on what you can do to address those things and that's free of charge if there are no more questions thank you very much