The Douglas administration is resisting calls for a big increase in spending on Vermont’s statewide energy efficiency utility.
The Department of Public Service tells the Public Service Board that Efficiency Vermont’s efforts to promote compact fluorescent light bulbs are about to be shunted aside by the private market.
Two environmental groups — the Conservation Law Foundation and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, maintain there are big untapped energy savings to be achieved if the state steps up its investment in efficiency programs.
Those groups are asking for the Efficiency Vermont budget to be boosted from its current level of a bit more than $30 million to $52.5 million next year and $85 million by 2011.
The Department of Public Service says it doubts that level of investment will pay off.