 Good morning everyone. You don't have to be so far away. You can come in closer. Thank you all for being here. Last month we celebrated the signing of the transportation bill which focused on our commitment to improving Vermont's infrastructure. Today we're here to highlight some additional initiatives from this bill which directly relate to electric vehicles and our emission goals. We know that chimneys and tailpipes are the biggest contributors to carbon emissions which is why we focus our efforts on helping Vermonters adopt cleaner technologies in these two areas. We also know the transportation sector is the largest of the two accounting for around 45 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions. To do our part Vermont across multiple administrations has set and worked toward specific goals one of which is to increase the share of renewable energy in our transportation sector to 10 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050. This will require about 50,000 plug-in electric vehicles registered in Vermont six years from today. Well today we have a little over 3000 vehicles EV vehicles registered so it's clear we have a long ways to go and a lot of ground to make up. In my budget address I said I believe we can meet these goals but to do so we must help people make the transition and I believe incentives are the best way to do so. So I'm pleased to have worked with the legislature some of many of whom are here today to invest 1.1 million from this year's t-bill to support an EV incentive program. This is a purchase and lease rebate program that applies to new EVs. It's geared towards helping low to modern income Vermonters so it's limited to households at or below 160 percent of median household income or about 92,000. It's also limited to EVs with a base price of $40,000 or less. The incentive program will help low and middle income Vermonters benefit from vehicle electrification and share their and as we see more people transition to EVs and share their experiences with their neighbors I believe this word of mouth education will help increase use beyond the scope of this program. These incentives can also be combined with those from federal programs and electric utility initiatives which will help further lower the costs and increase the number of EVs on the road. Electric vehicles are also proving to be less expensive to maintain and the technology has come a long ways in just a few short years to offer a variety of vehicle options. Electrifying the transportation sector will help clean the air and keep millions of dollars within our economy and while more work needs to be done Vermon has taken strong steps towards a renewable transportation sector accelerating vehicle electrification will continue to be a priority of my administration. So I'm now pleased to invite BGS Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Fitch to discuss an initiative also from the T-Build that will help the state lead by example and expand the number of EVs in our state fleet. Jennifer. Good morning. As Governor Scott noted in his budget address earlier this year the state can lead by example and we are excited to propose initiatives that do just that. The transportation bill requires that not less than 50 percent of vehicles purchased in leased by the Department of Buildings and General Services be hybrid and plug-in vehicles and not less than 75 percent beginning on July 1st 2021. This year's appropriation bill steers $512,000 to electrifying the state's motor pool. These expenditures will support the purchase of 12 fully electric vehicles and four additional charging stations throughout the state of Vermont. The transportation bill also authorizes state agencies to set and adjust fees for the use of their charging equipment. This will enable Vermont agencies to make their fleet charging infrastructure available to their employees and the public while making the taxpayers whole for the use of this equipment. This fee-setting authority will also help these agencies enter into public-private partnerships with electric vehicle charging providers. Next Secretary Flynn will share additional electrification efforts included in this year's T-Bell. Thank you Jennifer and good morning everybody. The transportation bill establishes requirements for charging equipment available to the public to help improve the consumer's charging experience. Publicly available charging equipment must disclose all charges and provide multiple payment options without requiring a subscription fee. The transportation bill gives the agency of agriculture, food and markets, jurisdiction over charging infrastructure available to the public as part of its overall responsibility for weights and measures in Vermont. The agency will ensure that customers know what they're paying for and will allow electric vehicle motorists to compare charging prices. The transportation bill also authorizes to support an incentive program as the governor mentioned. At the recommendation of the Public Utility Commission the transportation bill removes PUC and the Public Service Department jurisdiction over charging infrastructure. This will facilitate growth of commercial charging stations in Vermont and allow charging stations to charge fees by the kilowatt hour which is the most transparent way to charge for charging. The bill also allows time charges at charging infrastructure which may be necessary in some settings to encourage electric vehicle motorists to move their vehicles once their charging sessions are complete. The transportation bill asks the Public Utility Commission to continue investigating the best methods to collect highway user fees from electric vehicles. Like combustion vehicles electric vehicles are subject to purchase and use tax and registration fees. However electric vehicles do not pay motor fuel taxes and electric vehicles continue to gain in market share the state will need to make up for lost motor vehicle fuel taxes in order to keep the transportation fund whole. Although some states are looking into highway user fee base on a vehicle miles traveled approach we don't think this approach raises the host or this approach does raise a host of complicated issues relating to interstate apportionment and many other concerns. The most workable approach is to add a fee to the cost of charging including home charging to be collected by the distribution utility along with other taxes and fees that already apply. This approach is technologically workable and combined with the favorable rates that apply to EV charging will ensure charging fees do not disincentivize consumers from driving electric vehicles. I encourage the PUC to work with the legislature on establishing a fee system based on per kilowatt hour charges to give utilities and regulators time to adjust to this new framework before lost revenues from electric vehicle electrification become a significant financial issue. Now I'd like to introduce our deputy secretary Peter Wach who will provide an update on the work that we're doing with the VW settlement funds. Thank you. Thank you Joe and good morning. Today marks a significant day for our move towards lower vehicle emissions not simply because of the increase in incentive availability to Vermonters but because of all the other steps that we are taking today to make EVs more accessible and easier to use for all Vermonters. For example the state of Vermont continues to invest its share of the VW settlement money which comes from that manufacturer's use of emissions testing defeat devices to further vehicle electrification. So far the state has granted one million dollars in funding for 30 charging stations across Vermont including both level two and level three the fast charging stations and we will dedicate additional funds to ensure that nearly every Vermonter is not farther than 30 miles from a fast charging station. In addition to the new 30 charging stations which will come online over the next year Vermont currently has 26 fast charging stations and 191 level two charging stations. Our network is vast and growing. We're also using VW funds to launch a pilot project that will help us better understand how to integrate new busing technology into our fleet. We have unique climate needs, unique topography, unique road systems that we need to figure out how to use electric buses in that environment and with a pilot project we will launch will bring four school buses and two transit buses to better understand that work so that we can roll it out for all Vermonters and make it available for everybody in a way that gets through those growing pains quickly. Additionally be transit secured and funding for four additional transit buses with the robust charging network already in place and more charging stations coming online with electric vehicles and a variety of incentives and a variety of electric vehicle models now is a great time to begin to think about purchasing an electric vehicle. I would encourage all Vermonters whether they're looking for a new or a new to them vehicle to take a look at the EV models available today and the ones that will be available to Vermonters in the coming years to see whether or not those vehicles meet their needs and understand how they work and how they're different how they're better in saving money so that you can be thinking as your next vehicle purchase comes online to whether an EV is right for you. If you want to make a quick note that we're acting independently and in partnership with other states because the federal government is not taking the needed action to assist with this transition. We'll roll back the CAFE standards which dictate overall fuel efficiency for our automobile fleet is the wrong approach. Repealing California's waiver to set strong air emission standards which Vermont follows is the wrong approach. Vermont has and will continue to fight against these moves because it harms Vermonters and it makes Vermonters spend more money on fuel. We'll continue this fight through the U.S. Climate Alliance which now represents 24 governors 55 percent of the U.S. population and 60 percent of our economy. These governors are standing up and saying this is not the appropriate action we need to continue this fight rolling back our standards is not the way to do it. Thank you very much for coming today without I'll hand it back to the governor. Well again thank you very much for coming to be happy to try and answer any questions you might have or find somebody behind me that can answer those as well. One question we're supposed to have 50 to 60 thousand electric vehicles on the road by 2020 that's only really six percent of the way towards that goal. Did we set a goal that is realistic? I believe it's a you know you always have to set goals that are not easily obtained but I believe we can we can get there but it's going to take all of us working together. I believe the incentives will help you that but also technology. I mean think back about not too long ago when we talked about electric vehicles we talked about Priuses mostly just Priuses a hybrid and today there's a vast wide variety of electric vehicles out there many of them fully fully electric Tesla being one and it's really changed the whole dynamic and and I believe that we'll see the trajectory won't be even it won't be a straight a straight approach it's going to ramp up incredibly fast and we've seen that even over the last two or three years so I'm looking forward to it I believe it's obtainable and and I believe that Vermont is ready for it. Can you give a ballpark figure for what the annualized theme would be for the average driver who would now be paying this uh kill a lot of hours for a charge? I can't uh I don't have one and I can I can refer to someone else but I will say this uh there are many you know we pay a fee now for gallon feet I would not expect it to exceed that so we're already paying that amount of money and with the cost of EVs becoming more acceptable this could be there's a cost savings to electric vehicles and I don't believe that this will be a significant increase but if anyone else has anything else they'd like to add to that. TJ poor from the public service department and just add to that the governor is correct that the uh in any initial fee would be relatively small and not uh in not become a barrier to adoption of electric vehicles uh it's critically important that we continue to fund our transportation infrastructure but uh we we want to make it so that customers contribute to that but are also very much encouraged to to uh switch to electricity for their transportation needs the public utility commission is uh as part of their report recommended another study by December we'll have a lot more detail on uh on what that fee should be how to collect it and uh and how to implement it. Is that is the general thinking that that fee should uh approximate what people would otherwise be paying by the gas dam? It's to support the infrastructure in an equitable way uh so we wanted to to ensure that the electric vehicles are contributing to roads and bridges and and to uh continue to continue to make those investments and keep that whole those funds whole. Do you plan to have legislation ready to go in January? Well we'll work together in order to do that yes I believe that we should we should prepare ourselves and I believe that everyone needs to pay their fair share in terms of uh maintaining our infrastructure improving our infrastructure uh we've seen over the years many people are are sensitive to that so we don't want it to be a barrier we certainly uh but we we just want to make sure it's equitable for all users of the highway. When they charge you know either at home or at a charging station is that infrastructure that you guys can implement to be able to collect that fee? Well that's all part of what is being considered and being looked at so just to be clear there is no fee being announced today uh this is about an amazing incentive that actually is already on top of other incentives that the distribution utilities are doing so I think this is an amazing day for electric vehicle transportation in Vermont so first and foremost second it is cheaper to to power your car with electricity than gas so even as this is considered and if there is a fee that comes down the road it is still going to be cheaper to power your transportation with electricity so again I think that's what's really exciting because we're doing incentives BED has an amazing incentive uh VEC has an incentive so I think this is really as the governor said about ramping up adoption of clean transportation that can help us with our carbon problem but we'll be ready and we'll participate and we'll respond in any way that's appropriate as this issue is considered of how to take care of our roads and bridges at the same time. Do you think it should event though on a miles driven approach? I don't have an opinion on how it should be I'm really glad that they're putting together this group and and this process I should say putting together a process to have it looked at to make sure that we're using best practices of other states other countries that are looking at this issue and coming up with the smartest most affordable way to do it for vermoners that's what we'll be focused on. Mary if Vermont were to hit that 50,000 EV goal by 2025 do you know how much that would increase power usage among your base? Yeah for sure we've looked a lot at the strategic electrification not just of transportation but of home heating because as you all know our real carbon problem in Vermont is transportation and heating so we've been looking at this issue for years and years and years as we are fully engaged in the battle against climate change so yes we've looked at that the really cool thing about the transformation that's happening is a lot of people actually are charging at home and a lot of people are interested in partnering with us on charging infrastructure that allows us to collaborate with you on when you charge your vehicle so you might get home you might plug in right and then you don't want to think about it for the rest of the evening and so the good news is if you're working with us as an example on that charging infrastructure we make sure that your vehicle is charging when the costs on the grid are the lowest and when it is the most useful from a strategic electrification perspective so our vision of the future is you know dramatically like kick carbon to the curb and do that in a way that allows us to use the electricity infrastructure in a way that makes it more and more affordable for the future but yeah we've looked at at the numbers um I don't have them top of mind but we can follow up on how much that would add and how we would manage that load but what are we talking like would it double the amount of power that you remember oh my goodness no no oh my goodness no no not at all not at all and and remember that Vermonters at the same time are moving towards strategic distributed generation largely solar so we have been actually losing load over the last 15 years so so remount power actually sells less power today than we did 13 years ago so so we really see if this is done in a in a strategic way which it is being done in that way it can really help to manage the electric infrastructure in a way that's incredibly affordable well purchase and lease right yeah exactly and and again we're thrilled because what we found is again it's being looked at all over the country all over the world what moves people to electric vehicles what we found with the Vermonters we serve which is a lot of them you know 78 percent of Vermont we found that the upfront incentive drives it more than anything else so we are so excited that this is going to happen on top of other existing incentive infrastructure that we have so I really believe in that adoption as the governor does I really believe we can get to 50 000 in fact I actually hope we get to a lot more than that because once the flywheel turns I think Vermonters will move forward in technology that is way more sophisticated than the fossil-based technology that a lot of Vermonters are still using today I think the the incentives that we've mentioned before we had I think there was a press conference maybe a year or two ago at Burlington Electric and they have provided incentives along with green mountain power along with some of the manufacturers and the tax credits from the federal government and you could buy a Nissan Leaf for somewhere around $10,000 brand new so those are the types of incentives we're looking for they make it affordable for everyday Vermonters to to be able to transition in this respect and I do think I think Mary made a great point in terms of charging the independence this provides not relying on others energy and independence in some respects because you could you could charge right from home most people don't drive more than a couple hundred miles during a day and they could charge at home and come back that very next night and recharge without without going to any any other charging infrastructure but battery technology has changed dramatically and that's going to continue to improve with lithium batteries and so forth longer life faster charging this is all things we're going to be seeing in the next few years and it's going to be a dramatic increase as technology changes what's that eventually yes absolutely I believe it is the future it's very exciting the the amount of torque in the in the an electric vehicle is is really impressive and and I look forward to that not tonight no they postponed actually until until tomorrow night so I hope to hope to race tomorrow night we'll see eventually for your well I think again the more vehicles that they come out with it's certainly in Vermont I've seen some of the new new companies that are evolving four-wheel drive all all all-wheel drive technology will be I think essential for our region of the country and as well you know pickup trucks I've seen a number of them they're very exciting SUVs are going to be part of that that new the new world I think and when we see that and again we're seeing it every day will be there I just want to make it a point our committee our transportation committee the senate spent a lot of time on this this past winter I knew nothing about electric vehicles I don't know that much more now but the governor said I had to have a long extension cord to my car but anyway what we're focusing on is how did the revenue part and I just that was brought up earlier all we want to do is make the kilowatts equal to a gallon of gas that way is fair some people said well once you register registration added that wouldn't be fair because some people don't drive a lot of miles you want to make it equal to gasoline just figure out what gasoline the tax revenue put in electric and then we can focus on that so that's our mission and that's what we're focusing on so we don't want to lose revenue either we got to pay for our highways thank you and that's again another good point and it isn't we aren't the only state faced with this and we're seeing you know as as vehicles become more efficient even traditional vehicles we see a decrease in the amount of fuel taxes that's accumulated so we're going to have to do something about this on a national level the other governors I've spoken to at national governor's association meetings are faced with the same problems so I believe this will be a national approach at some point and and we'll uh we'll transition together on this your uh your public utilities uh chair said recently that we need to be on a basic amount of wartime footing to meet the challenges of climate change are we on the wartime footing yet well again I think this is a ramped up approach it's not going to be a straight linear line from now until 2050 I really believe as technology changes as we've seen over the last even just take the last two or three years it's improved dramatically and we're going to see continued improvements and and with what tesla has done to the electric vehicle market has been very impressive and inspiring to many and and I believe that's what's going to precipitate change it's going to be more acceptance at that point and again we provide incentives the more your neighbor is driving you see a neighbor driving one the more custom people it changes tough but but I think that the more people who do it and the more we get accustomed to this the more the likelihood of us reaching our goal I believe that we can we can do that and and I believe that we're on that path see electric vehicle racing at pender road someday yes I absolutely believe that that will be the case because I think a racer is a racer they want to they'll race anything with wheels and regardless of the what's powering it so governor it's a given that global warming leads to extreme weather this meeting and a lot of state policies focused on carbon reduction but can the state of amont do more to protect people and property from extreme weather what are the policies we have in place to prevent the damage from a future hurricane Irene yeah well again reducing our carbon emissions will help do that we've taken a lot of steps since Irene I think Irene was a wake-up call for for many of us and we've taken steps with a lot of our infrastructure throughout the state whether it's bridges and culverts and so forth and upgrades in the future so we've taken a lot of steps in that regard we're in better shape than many states obviously with our terrain here in vermont but but we've taken a lot of steps moving towards having being more prepared for what is inevitable and what we need to we need to address and that's what we're addressing today carbon emissions well let's keep in mind let's let's take this the positive aspect of this this is the second highest rating that the bond rating agencies give so we're still the second highest and we we sit apart from many other states in that regard we've done a good job in managing some of our funds we don't we don't we don't have other than our pensions and so forth unfunded liabilities we have a balanced budget without having a constitutional amendment to say that we have to so we we manage our money well they we spent a lot of time with rating agencies this year hours and hours and hours on the phone with them making our case they like what they see but they keep going back to your demographics that's your problem you need more people in vermont and that's why we've taken a lot of the steps that we have so while it's concerning to have a downgrade from my standpoint again it it reinforces the fact that we need to take the charge of this we need to bring more people into vermont be more welcoming satisfying the workforce challenges we have and at the same time i believe once we do that and the legislature was a great partner this past year in doing that taking steps towards that approach the more we the more we prove ourselves i believe that won't be long before our rating will be going back up to the top rating and and i believe that that's that's attainable as well we we won't know until we go out to market what the cost will be but so we'll see we'll see what it is well it's higher your higher risk so it's like going to a bank when you're a higher risk you pay a little bit higher rate in borrowing costs so it's the same type of theory here so we'll see i don't want to get ahead of ourselves we're again the second highest rating which is pretty good and we'll see how the how the market reacts we have a debt affordability committee that takes a look at you know what we should be borrowing so we don't get out ahead of ourselves and and we're frugal by nature and we want to uh to make sure that we we continue to live within our means so we'll rely heavily on them but i believe that we're you know we've leveled out and we shouldn't borrow any more than we need to but but i believe that the rating agencies saw that approach and and look favorably upon a lot of the initiatives a lot of the approaches that we're taking here in vermont and again i want to give credit where credits do the uh the particularly the money committees and the legislature are fully aware of this as well and we're working together jointly uh to try and address this uh so that so that we can get back on the solid footing and move in the right direction which i believe we're doing it looks that way i haven't received any of the figures but everything that would lead me to believe that we're right on target to having a surplus that we thought we were going to have it's uh it's always concerning when we see a rate increase of any sort and that's why it's really important that we uh we focus on this all-payer model that we've uh we've moved forward with uh prevention is key uh the healthier we are uh that will lower the cost in the future the user costs so uh i believe again we are uh we're leading the country in some respects with this all-payer model and and focusing on prevention and that will lead to uh to maybe fewer costs in the future as well bringing more youth more people younger healthier people into the state will benefit uh too it'll increase the the pool without driving up the costs so again it's all hand in hand and i believe we're we're moving the right direction in that respect but i'm concerned about the the rate increases that far exceed uh the uh the uh increases in uh in pay in vermont i think the green mountain care board should do their job and i'm sure that they will come out with uh whatever they think is is appropriate but we have a we have that independent body that reviews these and we'll let them do the job and then we'll see what they come up with. Drugs uh drive a big part of that. I'm sorry? Drug prices drive a part of that. We're kind of taking some steps to open the door to importation from Canada. Senator Sanders is going to need a bus trip to uh Canada later this month. Do you support his efforts to bring Canadian imports? Yeah well we passed the bill as you remember here in the state uh and uh and i do believe that we should be you know at least be treated fairly uh across the globe uh if we uh if we're manufacturing here in in the states and it's shooting ship to to Canada and sold at a rate lower than than americans would pay i don't believe that's right so i support uh i support us moving forward with anything that we can do to reduce the costs on everyday Vermonters. You uh expressed some concern about the public safety implications of the dropping of the murder charges in shipping county. Have you sense that in conversation with the Department of Mental Health put it on either? Well no i think this is an ongoing conversation we need to have and it highlights the problem that we have we need to be proactive uh i think the legislature is engaged with this at this point we'll have these conversations in the future we can't kick this can down the road we need to address it so um i still don't the attorney general is reviewing those cases in particular at this point i i don't know where he's going with that but uh but i think it's again in some respects good news that we're willing to have the conversations about how we can do this better and uh and i believe the legislature will be a willing partner in that regard have you been monitoring the status of the two people that no longer face any charges? um i uh i have we are we are monitoring yes but uh but i haven't uh in myself personally been monitoring that no and so do you feel like you have assurances at this point that uh the oversight of those individuals will resolve any of the public safety concerns? no i i don't believe i i don't think we've addressed that uh to be honest with you no i mean it's it's still the same problem still exists you know there's there's a point uh when and i don't want to talk specifically about the cases but there comes a point when our uh our uh department of mental health uh would have to release certain uh people if they came to you know met got healthier and uh we would have no choice without any court order to keep anyone to release them into either the custody of connect corrections or release them all together so that uh there is that no man's land that still exists and that's what we have to address in the future all right thank you very much for coming out today thank you very much for coming as well