 Well, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for being here today. As we get closer to winter, I thought it was important to spend some time talking about the resources available to Vermonters to make their homes more energy efficient and help offset the higher energy costs for phasing. With inflation high and the high price of heating your home going up, it's critical we do our part to help Vermonters reduce their costs. Utilization and increasing efficiency in homes is a key component of that. We're joined today by Peter Walk on behalf of Efficiency Vermont. Tim Perron with Vermont Gas and Commissioner Sean Brown at the Department for Children and Families. Commissioner Kearney is here as well to answer any questions you might possibly have, but they manage the programs that help Vermonters make efficiency upgrades to lower costs and they'll be talking about them shortly. Our partnership with these organizations and others is important to help make sure Vermonters know the opportunities available to them. This year we've launched a website that includes many programs managed by different state departments and community partners all in one place. That can be found at www.vermont.gov slash button up VT. On the page you'll find dozens of links where folks can learn how to best conserve energy, get incentives to cover costs of efficiency upgrades, receive emergency assistance and more. Here's a few examples of what you'll find. Like getting up to 75% of your weatherization expenses covered, incentives to help cover the costs of replacing old inefficient wood stoves, rebates for energy efficient appliances, vouchers to cover up to 85% of the costs of installing pellet storage systems, fuel assistance programs helping some pay for part of their heating bills and more. Again, there are so many programs out there and it could be hard for people to navigate and find them all. www.vermont.gov slash button up Vermont puts them all in one place. I've always been a big fan of weatherization because it's a win-win. That's why I propose and work with the legislature to secure tens of millions of dollars for these efforts this past legislative session. Not only does it reduce costs for Vermonters helping make our state more affordable but it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. So with all that, I'll now turn it over to Peter Walk, a former member of my team who's doing a great job in efficiency Vermont to talk about all they're doing in this space. Peter? Good morning everybody. Thanks for, thank you Governor for having us here today. This is an important topic for us to all be considered as Vermonters are trying to figure out how to keep themselves comfortable, safe and warm during this heating season. With inflation the way it is, with geopolitics the way they are, the volatility of heating fuel costs has never been more of a concern for Vermonters. And we partner across the state with the partners you see behind us trying to figure out how to make it more affordable for Vermonters to save money on their fuel, to be warmer and more comfortable and have better health in their homes. As the Governor mentioned this is a huge opportunity for us to address greenhouse gas emissions in the state over about a third of our overall greenhouse gas emissions come from the heating and cooling of our homes. The button-up campaign which has been part of Vermont's ecosystem for many years is designed to bring awareness to the opportunities that Vermonters have to save money. We have many options through both Efficiency Vermont and Vermont Gas Systems lead programs. We have contractor lead programs. We have DIY programs. We can help with fuel switching to important technology like heat pumps and pellet stoves and other things. We have virtual services where you can have a virtual home energy visit to have an Efficiency Vermont expert walk you through what opportunities there are to save energy and save money in your home. I'm really excited about the incentive structure that the Governor talked about. If you're a moderate income Vermonter there's an opportunity for you to save up to 75% of the cost of weatherization up to $5,000. That is a huge opportunity to make what is a costly upfront expense able to be afforded over time. We also offer low and no income or no interest financing programs opportunities for to partner with different banking organizations around the state to make it possible to afford these types of significant investments that are intimidating, can be challenging, can be scary on the upfront and on top of an already busy and hectic day trying to work through the challenges of day to day life whetherization can seem daunting. But we were here to help give us a call. The answer is ask me how to help button up. The answer is to call either us or Vermont Gas and we can help you walk through the options that are available to you. I want to end on one note. The governor said that the weatherization is a win-win. I'd add a third win in that in that it saves money, lowers our greenhouse gases and it has significant health benefits and overall comfort for the members of the home. And so we're really working to try to make sure that all of those benefits are received by everybody and that we can find ways to fund weatherization in a way that really addresses those key benefits. I'm really excited about the opportunity to get, I believe the total was $80 million of extra money in this year that the governor proposed in the legislature appropriated. 45 of which is going to go through our weatherization agencies to low income and $35 million which is to go through Efficiency Vermont. We're really going to work hard to get that money out the door over the next few years and then there is the Inflation Act dollars that are there to follow the federal government as we work to figure out what the plan is for that to really keep those money flowing and most importantly send the signal to the market to the contractors out there doing this hard and important work that were here as a key partner that the state is here as a key partner through all of this work in order to make sure that they build the workforce necessary to carry out this important work in people's attics and basements and crawl spaces and all over the place. So with that I will hand it off to Tim Perrin from BGS. Thank you. Good afternoon everybody. Thank you Governor Scott for the opportunity to highlight the many benefits of comprehensive home weatherization. I'm Tim Perrin and I'm the Energy Efficiency and Innovation Manager for BGS also known as Vermont Gas. At BGS we're focused on ways to help Vermonters use their energy most efficiently which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut down on heating bills. We all love fall foliage and the first snow of the season but most of us don't love reaching to turn up the thermostat on that first cold day in October. Maybe it was this morning for many. Fortunately there are many ways Vermonters can take steps to weatherize their homes to improve efficiency and save money this heating season. Now is a great time to button up. BGS is a committed partner in this work. Three decades ago in 1992 BGS began assisting Vermonters to make their homes and businesses more efficient. Over the years our team has completed 43,000 energy efficiency improvements with our customers. Fast forward to 2022 and we're working with our partners like Efficiency Vermont, utilities and area organizations to make choosing more efficient equipment and weatherizing your home easier than ever. Weatherization works. Vermonters who weatherize benefit from lower monthly energy bills, improved housing affordability, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, boosted health outcomes and a more comfortable home. For many it can be difficult to fit these types of projects into the average household budget. Thanks to generous incentives weatherizing has never been easier or more affordable. As the governor mentioned opportunities for modern income households to tap into 75% of the project cost up to $5,000 for qualifying weatherization improvements. In addition to this, BGS partners with weatherization agencies to assist customers under 80% of area median income with incentives that can cover up to 100% of the project costs for qualifying weatherization upgrades for those who most need to make these improvements. BGS works with a local credit union to provide 0% financing for up to 5 years, spreading out the cost of improvements over time. We're also excited to now offer on-bill financing through the weatherization repayment assistance program as another great option. Applying is easy. Visit www.vgsvt.com to learn about rebates and programs available today. You can request an energy evaluation or more information from the website. The state's climate action plan finds we need to weatherize 120,000 Vermonters homes by 2030. At BGS, we want to help Vermont reach its goal and we look forward to working with our customers to button up ahead of the heating season. Again, my thanks to Governor Scott and our state and federal partners who have worked together to increase funding for weatherization. These dollars are a direct investment in our green house gas emissions. I'd now like to turn it over to DCF commissioner Sean Brown for some closing remarks. Thank you. I'd like to thank the governor for the opportunity to highlight some of the programs administered by DCF that support low income Vermonters meeting their energy needs, reducing their energy needs, and then assisting if they experience a crisis during the winter. We administered the low income home energy assistance program known as seasonal fuel. It provides a benefit to Vermonters, low income Vermonters, up to 185% of the federal poverty level, whether they heat electricity, oil, kerosene, wood pellets or wood. It provides a benefit and we provide about meat, about 35 to 40% of a home owner's energy need throughout the winter. We also administered through our partners with the community action agencies a crisis fuel program for households, low income households that experience a no heat situation, they run out of fuel. We can provide a minimum delivery of 125 gallons to help them out as well. Also we partner with the public utility commission, Vermont gas and green mountain power to administer a utility discount program. Green mountain power provides a 25% discount to low income Vermonters and Vermont gas provides a 20% discount. We administer those programs on behalf of those utilities. I encourage any Vermonter who has concerns, low income Vermonter who has concerns about meeting their energy needs to reach out to DCF, you can either apply for our programs through our website or call our benefit service center or visit one of our district state or also they can visit one of our partners community action agencies who can also assist them in applying. We also administer some crisis programs. So if someone experiences a no heat situation, their furnace stops working during the winter or they run out of fuel, they can visit a community action agency who we partner with to provide that service. If it's repairable, we will repair the furnace at no cost to the family. If it needs to be replaced, we will replace it at no cost to the family as well. And we will always strive to provide a much more energy efficient model. And that heating, if it's their primary heating source, it could be a wood stove. It could be a heat pump. It could be an oil furnace, a pellet furnace. We will repair or replace it with a more efficient model as we do that. We also administer to help households reduce their energy. We administer through our partners with community action agencies our weatherization program. And as Peter Walk indicated, we are really scaling up that work. We received a $45 million investment from the governor and the legislature as a part of the community climate action plan work to reduce greenhouse gases. So we're really scaling up that program. And low income homeowners would enjoy the benefit of that program at no cost. We really go in and button up their equipment. And we do that with more energy efficient through weatherization, sealing cracks, service their equipment. If it's in good order, if it needs to be replaced, we'll replace it with more energy efficient models as well. And so it really reduces their energy need, makes their home more comfortable and many cases makes it more healthy. The air quality more healthy as well. And again, we partner with our community action agencies to administer that program. They experience an issue with their fuel tank and it becomes red tagged because it's no longer safe. We also provide a program that we will replace fuel tanks at no cost to household as well. And so visit community action agency once again to access those programs. And I'd also say, given the amount of work that's happening in this space, all of our community action agencies are hiring. This is a great opportunity for community action agencies to work with us. If you want to work with us, if you want to work with us, or if you want to change careers, we have all sorts of positions available and please reach out to us or our office of economic opportunity and we're happy to connect you with a provider in your area where you live and we will try to get you hooked up and on the job as quickly as possible. So thank you and I'll turn it over and I'm happy to take any questions at this point. Yes. If they are a low income or moderate and qualify, you can either be a homeowner or a renter to have received weatherization services so it is available to renters as well. Yes, we work with the landlord to ensure that that unit will stay affordable and accessible to low income families moving forward once we make that investment. They can switch the types of fuels they use. Some are going we have a pellet stove program to replace their pellet stove or the other wood stoves that are somewhat antiquated and efficient so that's one way. Even larger scale I think some have gone to pellet stoves and pellet systems biomass type of pellet systems so there are a number of different initiatives you can contemplate as you try and make your homes more efficient and less costly. Sure, something we launched during the pandemic when people didn't necessarily want somebody to come into their home and as an opportunity for I think we all go through this as in our own homes where we try to figure out where do I start? How do I begin this process? What should it look like? And it extends beyond heating fuel use, it extends to appliances and light bulbs and all these things and where should I start? I know my energy costs are high, where should I start? And that's a good place just to have a conversation with an expert about where to start and then that could lead to something like a home energy audit where somebody comes in and does a blower door test in your home and finds out where there are leaks and where ceiling needs to occur, where there are opportunities for either first time insulation or more insulation and an attic or a basement and other places like that. So the virtual home energy visit is just something to get started that could lead to other things down the road. I believe we do it via, I'm not sure what the platform is, but it's the same like Zoom, yeah. So the best thing to do is to give us a call at Efficiency Vermont, you can go to a website and start the process that way and we can get in touch and and set that up. Sure. So what we've actually been over the course of time, Vermont has been a leader in this space of thinking about how you think about what the benefits are to health and we've actually had I think of a pilot that was done in the Rutland area with the Rutland Regional Medical Center where they prescribed weatherization for folks who suffered from chronic respiratory diseases because they're warmer, their air is fresher, it deals with some of the moisture issues that causes concerns and so there are a number of benefits and that's an opportunity to, as we think about weatherization as an energy savings, as a greenhouse gas and as a health tool, those combined benefits are amazing in what they're capable of offering if and then rather than looking at them individually. Are you concerned about the, brought up the issue of meeting some folks to come in and do some of the weatherization work or the heating system work but are you concerned that that's across the board, I mean everything for drivers and fuel trucks to service? Yeah. As you are probably well aware the workforce challenges we face in the state of Vermont are across all sectors this one including whether it's weatherization itself or whether as you mentioned just delivery of fuels and technicians to come in and repair systems and so forth, electricians again it's across the board that's why I've been so focused on CTE, career technical education, trying to bring more of our youth into the trades because it is a lucrative career and we need more of them but it's again it isn't just the trades it's law enforcement, it's education it's healthcare across even state government throughout state government we have we have our challenges in terms of workforce needs. We do, there was another I don't know if that's passed yet but Senator Leahy was successful in I believe at least including some more money and does anyone know whether that passed? Yes it did so we have a base block grant from the federal government of approximately $21 million and Senator Leahy was able to insert a provision in the consult appropriations act that recently passed to continue funding the government about which will Vermont will receive about 5.6 or 5.7 million more dollars on top of that 21 which certainly goes a long way because we were anticipating an additional need and the governor had approved additional state funds as a contingency and so we won't need to draw down as much as much of those state funds to make sure we can maintain purchasing power in a line with prior years average. So last year will it be an office year? Well last year we certainly had a large yes with the ARPA funding and that was certainly a lifetime opportunity for Vermont and we were able to leverage those dollars throughout the spring and the summer to help Vermonters prepare so we normally provide the wood benefit in the fall which is not the best time to be trying to purchase dry firewood so we were able to issue out a substantial wood benefit for this upcoming winter this past spring so allow Vermonters time to buy greenwood or seasoned wood and let it dry throughout the summer and so we were able to help Vermonters that way and we were also first a set number of low income Vermonters we were able to provide a pre-season benefit of about 6,000 households of 125 gallon benefit. No I mean so and that's when I say the purchasing power we always look at our caseload that the dollars available and the cost of fuel to come up with a purchasing power calculation and so we were trying to keep it within that 35 to 40% range and we anticipate being able to do that this year although there is a significant volatility in the heating market at the moment. Triage the situation if it gets that big? Yeah we think we're in pretty good shape here in Vermont at this point in time it's not as though we're not concerned because we always remain on guard and concerned because we never know what's going to happen but at this point in time we feel as though we're pretty solid anything you want to add to that? It's a good question to ask but it's way premature the issue isn't whether there's enough commodity and the like to take care of our thermal needs the issue is what it's going to cost so we have what we need and we have access to more if it's needed I won't lie to you the region has certainly made headlines this fall because other states are concerned about this issue but it's important to remember that in Vermont a great deal of our power comes from the north from Hydro-Quebec so that's our electricity and a great deal of our natural gas as well all through Vermont gas systems from Canada again so in that sense we have a smaller slice of our energy than we have to worry about and in that area it's diversification that's really key and to the question you were asking earlier about what people can do if they set themselves up to where they have fuel diversity in their homes meaning a heat pump and say a propane source or something like that they then have the ability to switch from one to the other as needed and it publicates other policy questions about what we heat with in the state and why it's advisable to have diversity the other thing that really shouldn't be overlooked is personal behavior if you're concerned about your fuel costs say your gas for driving your car try to eliminate your trips if you're concerned about the warmth of your home consider the extra layer those are things that you can do to get into a rationing situation but I'd really like to emphasize that's way premature and not on our horizon right now I'm sure the governor mentioned these integrated wood stoves the greatest great people are saying there's a possibility risk case scenario of a blackout of these temporary blackouts in which case propane heaters etc electrically powered they might not work so well so should we be swapping out our wood stoves our old fashioned, op grid low tech wood stoves just for diversity in case of emergency I think some of those would be swapped out for pellet stoves it's just a different type of wood processing but I think that's part of the program that we had included do you use some sort of electric starter or whatever some do some are hand fed but yeah some of them do but it is important I mean it's an important question I've talked about this before we're not going to switch to complete electricity overnight and we have to make sure that we have the grid there to support that or micro grid or whatever we're going to have battery storage throughout the state to bring be able to bridge that gap in a lot of cases so this is something that we all have to contemplate and be honest and open and transparent and get to where we want to go I still believe that it's the right approach but again I think large scale battery storage micro grids is going to be some of the answer in the future anything else no governor that was a good answer okay do you want to add anything to that do you have any concerns well as you know I had concerns in the beginning I want to make sure that we have roadside safety is a concern edibles kids so forth that's a concern and I think that the cannabis control board is doing their part to make sure that it's everything is measured and that they are doing their part to be sure that it's rolled out effectively so so far so good I don't know again we'll see I know a lot of folks were counting on tremendous income as a result we'll see if that comes to bear or not the next election cycle should be we have two new federal representatives coming in there are going to be two around the list we have to be able to leverage senator lehi's seniority so are you concerned that maybe that federal law might dry up a little bit absolutely senator lehi has been seniority is a big part of what happens in washington and congress he has a lot of longevity there and a lot of power has been very, very helpful to our state so it would be foolish to think that we would be able to replicate that with a junior senator with no years of experience or longevity in the senate in particular so that's again we're grateful for all he's done but there will be a void in the future that's why we have to really think about how we appropriate money because some of the money that senator lehi was able to get appropriated to vermont won't be there possibly so we're going to have to tighten our belts a bit live within our means and do things like weatherization to cut down on the costs for vermonters it is not well the only part that is connected is the proceeds from wheels for warmth goes to the capstone and cboeo and brock and ruttland and they utilize that money, the proceeds for fuel assistance so it helps in that way but not directly connected which one it's been a successful program over the years it really is one of those it's all volunteer driven it accomplishes a number of different areas whether it's to take tires that are still usable and get more use out of them it provides good safe tires to those families who can't afford to buy new ones takes them out of the waste stream as well because they get recycled and then as I said before it provides fuel assistance to those in need so it's a great program we'll see how it goes but it's been over the last 12 or 13 years it's been successful and it's not just you can't measure it in monetary ways because it has some the ripple effect is so great but one of those that again all volunteer driven it's an effective program there are 1,555 as of last night fuel tank owners on the red tag replacement list have any tank owners to your knowledge and refuse fuel service if their tanks are not compliant and in general how's that working out? again when they are red tagged maybe Sean can explain this further but when they're red tagged I believe there is means for them to get a small allotment of fuel to keep them going but I'm not sure about that but there are programs within state government to help them replace those tanks because what happens is they have leaks and they or they look to be in dire straits and may cause contamination as well as loss of fuel which is costly at the homeowner so it's a good program to have but again the downside is folks need some help and replacing those tanks as well anything you want to add to that? that was great okay well thank you all very much appreciate it, thank you all very much