Mayor Miro Weinberger introduced the “Net Zero Energy Roadmap” to a packed City Hall, telling the crowd that Burlington can “show the country that another future is possible.”
The roadmap lays out four ways to get there. According to the plan, Burlington can reduce 60 percent of its dependence on fossil fuels by encouraging Burlington Electric Department customers to switch to electric heat. It can shave off another 20 percent if drivers transition to fully electric or hybrid vehicles.
An additional 15 percent would be cut once Burlington installs a district energy system, which would capture steam from the Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station to provide heat for large energy customers such as the University of Vermont Medical Center. The final 5 percent could be achieved by drivers choosing alternative modes of transportation, according to the plan.
In all, the roadmap calls for the city to use 65 percent more renewable electric energy to meet the 2030 goal. The plan was a cornerstone of Weinberger’s 2019 State of the City address, when he called it “the most ambitious climate goal of any city in America.”
“Today I am calling on all Burlingtonians, residents and business owners to join city government in committing to achieve this net-zero energy goal,” Weinberger said Monday, noting that all must consider electric “every time they are making a heating, building or transportation investment in the city.”
BED is offering numerous incentives for customers who go electric, such as the Net Zero Energy Home Program, which offers up to $2,250 to residential natural gas customers who install a home heat pump.
To reduce transportation-related fossil fuel use, the city-owned electric utility will give $800 to customers who purchase a pre-owned electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid, an extension of an existing program that offers up to $1,200 for new or leased EVs. There are even rebates for electric forklifts and lawn mowers.
“We want to electrify everything,” BED general manager Darren Springer said. “No sector goes untouched.”
The city also plans to install 20 more EV charging stations over the next year, adding to the existing stock of 14, Springer said.
“That behooves us to look inward and at our own communities. And so we’re doing that,” Stebbins said.
“This is really hard stuff, and it’s really hard by 2030, but we’ve gotta do this,” she continued. “We have one choice. We can do it when we’re ready and planning, or we can wait until these kids are 12 years older.”
Fourth-graders Graham McNeil, great-grandson of the McNeil plant’s namesake, and Kaya Rubin also took to the podium to speak to the plan’s importance to great applause from their peers.
The roadmap notably does not include cutting fossil fuel use by the Burlington International Airport, which is based in South Burlington but is Burlington owned and operated.
“That is clearly an important area of ultimately getting to where we need to get as a society,” Weinberger said. “That is an answer that cannot continue to be neglected and ignored by the federal government.”
The F-35s are due to arrive at the Vermont Air National Guard Base at BTV sometime this month.
The Burlington City Council was expected to hear more about the city’s net zero goals at its Monday night meeting.
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So Miro wants to keep the smoke-belching McNeil plant running? And gouge up the landscape to run heating up the hill to UVM and most likely also downtown all the while bypassing the Riverside apartments where some of the poorest folks in town live . . . what a guy.
Let’s start by getting the corrupt Trump and his greedy, science-hating minions out of office and not replacing them Wall Street loving Neo-liberals.
Climate change is THE issue above all others. But the Establishment Democrats will not offend their Wall Street paymasters. The DNC is the Inauthentic Opposition to the depraved Republican Party. Without a viable 3rd party that isn’t a wholly owned subsidy of the MIC and Wall Street nothing of any real consequence will be done about Climate Change. Carbon taxes, Cap and Trade, carbon sequestration and putting up a few wind turbines is a pathetic response to the crisis that is coming. It means the end of our culture of unlimited , unreflective consumption and convenience.
Miro’s support of the F-35, the over-development and over-population of Burlington and keeping the McNeil plant chugging along are not signs of someone who is an environmentalist.
I saw nothing about closing the Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station which generates heat from the burning of wood chips and In 2012 was designated the top carbon-emitting facility in the state.
The plant is a major co2 emitter and its’ wood fuel can only be considered renewable on a scale measured in generations not years. A timeframe that does not compute with the delusional fantasy called the Net Zero Energy Roadmap. The McNeil Plant has no actual benefit when it comes to climate change. Nor does burning wood for residential heat. It just poisons the air and the people trying to breath it (you and your neighbors).
Why are Burlingtonians so in love with non-binding statements that have absolutely no chance of ever becoming reality? Is it just a mass form of virtue signaling, by a town so smug in its perceived environmentalist superiority, that it isn’t able to comprehend the fact that they have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to affect any change at all, other than to make it very expensive to live here?
Please stop with statements like, “Burlington can show the country that another future is possible. That is not a reason to do anything, because 98% of America does not know that Burlington, Vermont exists and the other 2% think it is in Canada.
I say we do whatever is needed to ensure that Burlington is once again encased in a one-mile thick mountain of glacial ice as it was 80 thousand years ago in the throes of the late Ice Age. Sadly the climate warmed and the glacier mysteriously melted without any help from evil homo sapiens (we humans had not yet arrived.)
As 28 Nobel Prize winners have opined, it seems earth has gone through climate cycles Irrespective the influence of flora and fauna like humans and dinosaurs. Nah, those scientists must be wrong because Al Gore, Bill Nye, AOC, Bernie Sanders and Oldnorthender say the real problem is the evil homo sapien.
If virtue signaling were a competition, Burlington and most of its residents would be dominating the podium. What a joke
Electric heat is expensive. Leveling the mall and replacing it with nothing will save a lot of energy, though.
So the plan puts the onus on the citizens to switch to more expensive electric heat, use electric cars and/or not drive at all. That’s not a plan, although it is more of a plan than anything that has happened to the mall. The winner here seems to be Burlington Electric and with Green Mountain power set to raise rates how long will it be before Burlington Electric does?
Georgetown, Texas; wash, rinse, repeat.
Electric heat is more expensive! Why is Miro trying to get more people to do that? He’s just trying to drum up business for BED! It might be cheaper and cleaner if they built solar power grids like many other places have.. Vermont needs to get into the 20th century!
The utility folks must just love this. I missed the part where tax dollars, in the form our the government, are used to pick winners and losers to the benefit of a single industry. Who needs a marketing effort when the Government is pushing your products for you?
The supposed net-zero plan is mere green-washing to distract attention from the Miro-supported F-35 that burns 2.25 gallons of jet fuel to go 1 mile, wastes 27,000 gallons of jet fuel on each flight, and is for use in the continuing wars for oil.
The green-washing plan is not a plan for the city. It involves very little city cost or city action. It depends almost entirely on individual home and car owners.
Coming out just weeks before the F-35 arrives at the airport, the purpose of the bogus net-zero plan is to make the mayor look like he cares about the environment at the very moment that the mayor’s actual action to support the F-35 basing is hell bent at climate destruction, injuring thousands of people in the noise danger zone, and making thousands of affordable homes unlivable.
It’s important for Burlington to prepare for reduced energy resources generally and get its ducks in a row in many areas — this kind of local-level effort is as much about preparing for transitioning to a low-energy-intensive economy (extremely practical and useful), as about fighting global climate change on a municipal level (seemingly futile, if morally responsible). This effort should include heating, transportation, food sourcing, etc. However, when it comes to electricity generation, my concern is that if the general public doesn’t understand the finer points of renewable energy financing, it’s tricky to understand and hold public officials accountable for actually investing in power sources we can call renewable. For example — while Burlington Electric Department gets electricity from Georgia Mountain Community Wind, it cannot claim that that electricity is renewable, because BED chose to sell off the GMCW RECs (renewable energy credits) as part of financing the power purchase. Apparently 2018 numbers aren’t yet available, but after REC sales were counted, more than 50% of BED’s 2017 energy portfolio was made up of nuclear, coal and natural gas. Most people in VT are not familiar with how REC sales affect renewable energy, and until this is widely realized I think we won’t know enough to require politicians and utilities to place importance on retaining and retiring renewable attributes. Until then, it’s hard to view electricity management choices that feel good but don’t retire RECs as anything but greenwashing. See here for a full explanation and snapshot of how much of BED’s energy portfolio is actually renewable: https://www.burlingtonelectric.com/our-ene…
Seven Days youre overlooking the real story here about Burlington Electric and its one that is quite salacious if you do some digging. It starts with a D but isnt for diversity. Youre welcome.
Way to go Miro and Burlington, you are pushing more and hard to keep your plans working. To only have the Millionaires live in Burlington. You have plans to outs the poor and the aging. Is it because they are not in your plans?? Oopps sorry if you’re old and worth millions you got it made. Vtdigger said in Aug 11,2019 “Vermont millionaires see 70% boost” The poor and middle class has seen hardly any difference except maybe getting less. Yet the rich keep coming to Vermont and are taking over.. They want to make Vt into CA and NY. Give Mico and the res a yardt, there won’t be a true Vermonter left in VT. The man who said he is helping the poor sure became a mult- millionaire real fast…Goodbye Vermont it was great being born here and growing up in this once great state, it’s sad seeing you die and becoming a socialist state. RIP VERMONT
Political grandstanding to divert attention away from his hole in the ground… the push to have people use bikes seems like a virtuous idea until you realize it has the added benefit of giving away more square footage to residential developers like him in the form of fewer parking spaces for cars… one way to control power consumption is to have fewer people using power… and this mayor is hell bent on increasing the population… vibrant Burlington means crowded Burlington…
Miro,
I believe you are suffering from “Fecal Emesis”
Jimmmmmmmmmmmy
Mr. Reality B Free,
Great comments .
Does Joe Biden know Vermont is in Canada and not New Hampshire?
Jimmmmmmmmy
By the way, it was kind of the photographer to shoot Weinberger from a low angle to make him look bigger but the effect is lost because he can barely see over the podium.
“Empty platitudes are the delusional fill of little men whose legacies consist of giant holes.”
– R. Carruthers
I hope everyone in this city — regardless of political affiliation — shows up for the next mayoral election and VOTES. MIRO. OUT.
He’s done more to damage this city during his time in office than seems imaginable. But grifters gotta grift.
Miro has brought some fiscal responsibility to this town. The previous administration damaged Burlington’s economic health almost beyond repair. Miro has done a good job bringing some sanity to the realities of running a decaying, expensive, weather-challenged small city. The fiscal chaos that he entered into when he took office was formidable.
The problem with things like the fantastical Net Zero Energy Roadmap to me is that he is basically forced into stunts like this in a thankless attempt to placate the radically illogical magical thinkers who demand unrealistic platitudes to feel better about their and Burlington’s place in the world. Pragmatic, logical, well-thought out solutions based on doable, data-driven facts are how successful things get made. That is why almost nothing gets done in Burlington, VT. Miro didn’t bring the problem to town. He is fighting an almost impossible fight against the forces of lethargy, demographics and idealogical dogma.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, SF6 is the most potent greenhouse gas it has ever evaluated, with a global warming potential 28 times that of CO2. SF6 or Sulfur hexafluoride has an estimated atmospheric lifetime of 8003200 years.
Guess what SF6 is used for. Where once large coal-fired power stations brought energy to millions, the drive to combat climate change means they are now being replaced by mixed sources of power including wind and solar.
This has resulted in many more connections to the electricity grid, and a rise in the number of electrical switches and circuit breakers that are needed to prevent serious accidents. Collectively, these safety devices are called switchgear. The vast majority use SF6 gas to quench arcs and stop short circuits.
Our rush to electrify with renewables has many unintended consequences, one of which is filling the atmosphere with a gas 28 times worse than CO2.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environme…
I agree with most comments – most, that is.
“Reality” –
“He is fighting an almost impossible fight against the forces of lethargy, demographics and idealogical dogma.”
He’s fighting the forces of lethargy and dogma? Can he leap tall buildings in a single bound?
Donna – Vermont is becoming a socialist state? I agree with everything else you said. We hoped never to have the problems of other states, but the forces of the modern world are finally getting here. And yes, we’ll have to fight to keep Vermont the way we want it, rather than the way the Market wants it.