MONTPELIER – The Legislature has been busy. To date, there have been over 300 bills introduced and referred to committees. My assigned committee has 22 bills assigned to it. Most of these bills are energy-related, the others are relating to broadband and consumer protections. Again, there have been many people providing testimony on these bills ranging from utilities broadband providers, cellular companies, state entities and other interested parties. The primary sponsors of the bills have presented them to the committee.
One of the bills is a bill to repeal the Clean Heat Standard (Affordable Heat Act H.16). I support repealing. The study done by the Public Utilities Commission found many issues with this and do not recommend implementation. At this point, it does not seem that the bill will be addressed in committee or in the House. If it isn’t repealed and just left unaddressed, there are three provisions in the bill which would still be in effect and will still cost taxpayers money. All of the information on this bill and all others in committee can be found on the legislature’s website under the Energy and Digital Infrastructure page. I will continue to advocate for this bill to be addressed.
Other bills taking a lot of committee time are H.11 – An act relating to consumer protections applicable to broadband and VoIP services and H.125 – An act relating on reporting on energy transition. Even though testimony given by state entities points out what is contained in the bills is already being done there still seems to be a push to have it voted on. We do not need more government redundancy! I will not support these bills.
Education funding and the governor’s education plan are forefront. There is still a lot to figure out and it is still too early to tell what will happen. The number of districts proposed in the plan is five. This seems a bit aggressive and there is a lot of talk around the statehouse about this. I have heard there is a great deal of work happening in committee surrounding education. There are no concrete answers on any of this yet.
I have been asked to look into the funding for PCB remediation at Hardwick Elementary. I have reached out to state agencies for information on this and am waiting for response. I contacted Representative Yacovone and he and I are working on this together. When I have information, I will let you know.
I am told NEK Broadband is currently in the build-out stage of bringing fiber internet to Stannard. After speaking with Krista Shute, executive director of NEK Broadband, she stated the project should be completed by January 2026.
Michael Southworth represents Caledonia-2, including Hardwick, Stannard and Walden.
