Carbon Pulse Daily: Tuesday September 17, 2019
RGGI results – The Northeast US RGGI carbon market has cut emissions across its nine member states 90% faster than the rest of the country, as economic growth in the region outpaced the overall average by 31%, according to a report released by environmental think-tank Acadia Center. The study showed that CO2 output fell across the states by 47% since the ETS commenced in 2009, while GDP there grew by 47%. Additionally, electricity prices under RGGI fell by 5.7% over this stretch, while nationally costs rose 8.6%.
Read the full article from Carbon Pulse here.
New England aims to ensure electric vehicle rebates aren’t just for wealthy
“What’s important for this movement that is happening right now is that there is a lot of work being done to get the design of the programs done right,” said Emily Lewis, director of climate and energy analysis at the Acadia Center, which monitors climate policies in the Northeast. That includes work around the emerging Transportation Climate Initiative.
“Programs are trying to get more input at the front end of design, which was a criticism of RGGI, that is was designed before getting input,” Lewis said.
As part of the transportation initiative’s required public engagement, Lewis said, planners should do more to listen to what residents, including low-income folks and those from historically disadvantaged communities, want from transportation. It may not be incentives and rebates.
“The first thing that comes to mind when designing for equity is humility — you need to start with an open ear and an open chair and give space to the population being served,” said Williams of the Center for Sustainable Energy. “Often the design process is not collaborative itself. With that kind of humility as the first important ingredient.”
A recent public meeting on transportation issues in Connecticut revealed that residents care about safe walking and biking options, as well as more investments in public transit, Lewis said. Any rollout of new programs to address historical deficits in transportation infrastructure for low-income or historically marginalized communities will need to be considered.
“The savings from [the Transportation Climate Initiative] could be used to fund things like EV rebates — as people are still going to be driving,” Lewis said “By engaging communities and hearing their needs, it means that we can also look at funding some of these other transportation options so that we ensure benefits can be spread equitably.”
Read the full article from Energy News Network here.
Bipartisan multistate program cutting down global warming pollution from power plants
Today, a partnership of nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states announced that the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is delivering stronger results than ever when it comes to capping greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and raising funds to invest in clean energy. Analysis by the Acadia Center shows that in the first six months of 2019, planet-warming pollution from power plants in the RGGI states were 19.7 percent below emissions in 2018, the lowest since the program began.
Read the full article from Environment America here.
Cap and trade for transportation must consider environmental justice, advocates say
Transportation makes up 40% of the carbon emissions in the region, as compared to the 28% that comes from the electricity sector, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. A concerted effort to lower that number could help mitigate climate change, fund widespread improvements to transportation infrastructure, and generate thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, supporters say. In Connecticut alone, the economic impact of a market-based emissions reduction system could top $7 billion, according to a report by the nonprofit environmental group the Acadia Center.
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“It shows that these states are willing to work together,” said Jordan Stutt, carbon programs director at the Acadia Center. “That’s something we can build on and strengthen in the [Transportation and Climate Initiative] context — it would need to be more focused.”
Read the full article from Energy News Network here.
Connecticut governor calls for 100% carbon-free power by 2040
Specifically, advocates and lawmakers were disappointed by the administration’s commitment to building a new natural gas plant. “It’s not a bridge fuel. It’s a fossil fuel,” Senior Policy Advocate and Connecticut Director at Acadia Center Amy McLean Salls told Utility Dive. “And if we’re going to be meeting our goals, then we have to be not building new gas infrastructure.”
Read the full article from Utility Dive here.
New Transportation Policy Big Win for Connecticut
The report from the Acadia Center shows that a well-designed transportation cap-and-invest policy could help the state put more than $2.7 billion into clean transportation by 2030, generating more than 23,000 jobs and $7 billion in economic activity.
Like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that generates funds to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) would auction pollution credits linked to wholesale transportation fuels.
According to Amy McLean Salls, the Acadia Center’s Connecticut director, transportation accounts for 40% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“By reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and putting money into clean transportation infrastructure, we would be addressing some of the most egregious problems regarding greenhouse gas emissions which have to be reduced for the state to meet its climate goals,” she states.
Read the full article from Public News Service here.
Rooftop Solar Bills Advance in Massachusetts
“Our building sector is going to be one of the toughest sectors to fully decarbonize,” Deborah Donovan, Massachusetts director for the Acadia Center, an environmental nonprofit, explained to Energy News. “We don’t want to miss any opportunities on buildings we’re going to be living with for the next 50 to 80 years.”
Read the full article from Nonprofit Quarterly here.
Environmental groups accuse state of ‘deeply flawed’ review of biomass changes; call for more input
The groups submitted the request in a four-page letter dated Aug. 1, to Kathleen A. Theoharides, state secretary for the Department of Energy Resources.
It was signed by representatives of the Acadia Center, the Conservation Law Foundation, Green Energy Consumers Alliance, the Massachusetts Sierra Club, Partnership for Policy Integrity, and RESTORE: The North Woods.
The groups alleged that the process used thus far in evaluating state regulation changes has been “deeply flawed.”
Read the full article from Mass Live here.
Raid or reinvest? Connecticut, Vermont take different paths on efficiency funds
In Connecticut, energy efficiency efforts have been largely overshadowed in recent years by the state’s “big push” to get homeowners to switch from oil heating to natural gas, said Amy McLean Salls, Connecticut director for the Acadia Center. A lack of awareness around the payback from energy efficiency programs left the funds vulnerable to diversion, a circumstance advocates worked hard to correct during the most recent legislative session.
Read the full article from Energy News Network here.
Performance-based regulation: Seeking the new utility business model
“The Eversource rate case has shown us that Massachusetts utilities can get automatic rate increases without doing anything differently,” Acadia Center Attorney Amy Boyd emailed Utility Dive.
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The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission’s landmark PIM Principles, proposed by Commissioner Abigail Anthony, are “a framework on PIM design to guide regulators and stakeholders,” Regulatory Associate Project Attorney Mark LeBel, who intervened in the rate case as an attorney with advocacy group Acadia Center, told Utility Dive.
Read the full article from Utility Dive here.