WESTMINSTER — Southeastern Vermont Community Action is one of five community organizations in Vermont to receive additional funding for the state's Weatherization Program, which helps low-income homeowners and renters reduce their energy usage, lower their utility bills, and improve the overall comfort and safety of their homes.
Priority is given to people getting Fuel Assistance, high-energy-use homes, families with young children, older Vermonters, and people with disabilities, according to a news release.
“This program weatherizes between 800 to 1,000 homes in Vermont each year and saves clients about 20 percent (on average) on their home heating bills,” Vermont Office of Economic Opportunity Chief Administrator Sarah Phillips said in the news release. “The energy they save keeps money in their pockets for other necessities like food, clothing, and medications.”
The program is supported by a blend of federal and state funds. The funds available for the program increased by about 16 percent on July 1, when the state's funding mechanism for the program - a tax on heating oil, propane, and kerosene - was changed. It went from a tax based on price (0.5 percent of sales) to one based on consumption (2 cents per gallon).
Phillips said this change will allow the program to weatherize an additional 132 homes this year and provide a more stable level of funding in the future.
Free weatherization services include energy audits, energy renovations (insulation, air sealing, heating system upgrades), efficiency coaching, health and safety improvements (improving ventilation or addressing carbon monoxide and unsafe heating issues), and referrals to other programs and services.