Amendment to Transportation Bond Bill Could Support Modern Transportation Options and Carbon-Neutral Buildings
Governor Baker and many transportation advocates, including Acadia Center’s Jordan Stutt, went to Beacon Hill today to testify on the Governor’s proposed multi-year $18-billion transportation bond bill. The bill addresses a wide range of transportation funding needs—everything from financing for bridges to funds for bus shelters. One of the issues addressed by the bill is the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI), a cap-and-invest program under development that could generate hundreds of millions of dollars each year for clean transportation investment. Governor Baker’s bill would authorize up to 50% of TCI proceeds to support public transit. Acadia Center testified in support of TCI investment in public transit while identifying additional investments and guidelines that should be adopted from the TCI bill filed by Rep. Ehrlich and Senator Lesser.
In addition to TCI-funded investment in clean, equitable, modern transportation options, Acadia Center testified in support of Rep. Vitolo’s recently added amendment that would put the Commonwealth’s money where its mouth is and make new state buildings funded through the bond fossil-fuel free. Just today, Boston announced that Mayor Walsh intends to sign an executive order requiring that all new city-owned buildings will be carbon-neutral – a similar effort to cut carbon emissions in buildings and meet the emissions reductions targets the city and state have set for themselves.
Massachusetts has already committed to economy-wide reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050, and bills currently before the legislature[1] would push that to net-zero emissions by 2050, as recommended by the 2018 special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[2] Either mandate means that, by 2050, all buildings in Massachusetts must run on clean electricity, with no on-site fossil fuel combustion.[3]
The proposed amendment would require the buildings funded by the Transportation Bond Bill to start achieving this standard, and eliminate on-site fossil fuel combustion, unless the change raises the costs significantly. The buildings constructed or renovated with funds authorized by the Transportation Bond Bill will be utilized for decades to come and will be part of the building stock in 2050 and beyond.[4] That is why this amendment is so essential. The Commonwealth must begin immediately to lead by example and use the least-cost technologies to reduce carbon emissions and make buildings safer – with no on-site fossil-fuel combustion.
This amendment will also help keep our money in the state, and create good, green jobs. Because the Northeast imports all its fossil fuels, the money used to heat our buildings flows out of local economies to other states and countries, and Massachusetts is beholden to price fluctuations out of its control. Fossil fuel heating is also a leading contributor to climate change and poses health and safety dangers.[5] Using non-fossil fuel heating sources will reduce energy use, reduce energy costs, increase comfort, decrease health and safety risks, and, more importantly, foster long-term thinking, increase climate preparedness, and generate economic growth.
Author: Amy Boyd, Senior Attorney
[1] H.3983 (currently before House Ways and Means) and S.2005 (currently before Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy) would strengthen the required reductions further to at least net-zero by 2050.
[2] https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/
[3] As the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs stated in the 2015 Clean Energy and Climate Plan, in the years between 2020 and 2050, “accelerated renewable thermal installations are required to electrify the buildings sector’s heating and cooling loads and utilize Massachusetts’ clean electric supply.” at 16.
[4] The US Department of Energy estimates the median lifetime of large commercial buildings is 65 years. See http://web.archive.org/web/20130218065932/ http:/buildingsdatabook.eren.doe.gov/TableView.aspx?table=3.2.7
[5] For instance, last September’s gas explosion in Greater Lawrence is estimated to have cost $1.4 billion in loss and additional expense. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2019/02/21/columbia-gas-parent-estimates-1-4b-in-costs.html Despite the substantial upgrades and safety equipment installed during those repairs, human error has led to two evacuations due to gas line safety issues in the last week alone. See, e.g., https://www.wcvb.com/article/major-gas-leak-prompts-evacuations-in-lawrence/29260322 (September 27); https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/10/01/lawrence-gas-leak-high-street-columbia-gas-tuesday-evacuations/ (Oct 1)
Proposed wind farm clears another hurdle
The agreement won the support of the Acadia Center and other environmental groups, as well as unions, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Energy Council of Rhode Island, which represents some of the largest electric users in the state.
Read the full article from the Providence Journal here.
Once again, it’s not easy being green
Amy McLean Salls of the advocacy group Acadia Center has been working to retain net metering since the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection first began floating policy to end it more than two years ago.
She said for the state to move ahead with renewable energy like rooftop solar, good policy must be in place. “This will get us going in the right direction,” she said, noting that the committee leadership had worked very hard to craft a compromise. “I’m not thrilled – but it’s better than nothing.”
Read the full article from the Connecticut Mirror here.
Activists Push Back Against Utilities to Brighten Solar Energy’s Prospects
One organization that signed the letter was the Acadia Center, a non-profit organization focused on developing a clean energy economy. Amy McLean Calls, its Connecticut director and a senior policy advocate, notes that Vermont has installed four times more distributed solar — or rooftop solar — per person than Connecticut. Massachusetts has nearly two times more per person.
“The higher deployment rates in nearby states indicate that Connecticut’s in-state solar industry could expand but it has to be supported by effective solar policies, which is why we’ve been working so hard to make sure that we don’t go backwards and end up killing our solar industry,” she said.
No one is arguing that the system should not be fair everyone, she said.
“But what we are saying is, it doesn’t exist right now, so we need to not kill it,” she said. “We need to ramp it up.”
Read the full article from NBC Connecticut here.
Northeast could trade gas for hydro. Here’s the problem
Such answers have provoked unease, even among those who believe more Canadian hydro is needed to help meet the region’s climate goals. The Acadia Center is one of several environmental groups that have advocated for injecting more electricity from Hydro-Québec’s existing dams into the Northeast’s power grid. In Maine, the group even offered qualified support of the New England Clean Energy Connect.
At the same time, the Acadia Center has argued that Massachusetts regulators should amend Hydro-Québec’s contracts with the state’s power companies, echoing the concerns of the attorney general and arguing for better tracking that would enable Massachusetts to verify that the energy is coming from the utility’s dams. That would ensure the power is actually carbon-free, the group says.
“The combination of this sort of lax contract language around the baseline in combination with lack of actual tracking that every other eligible bidder to this contract would have had to undergo, it’s just not a level playing field,” said Deborah Donovan, Massachusetts director at the Acadia Center. “It is the price of entry for any other generation in [a regional portfolio standard] market.”
She added: “We don’t have 20 years to miss the boat here. We literally do not.”
Read the full article from E&E News here.
Katie Dykes takes helm at DEEP in era of escalating climate change
“It is incredibly concerning to me,” said Amy McLean Salls, Connecticut director of Acadia Center. In the last few years Acadia has tangled with DEEP and PURA over solar policy that environmental advocates say threatens to sacrifice Connecticut’s solar industry in favor of low electric rates. “Anyone who wants to create a business has to put money down in the beginning so you can thrive,” Salls said.
Read the full article from Connecticut Mirror here.
No guarantee $1 billion CMP line will deliver new energy, Massachusetts AG warns
Both the Conservation Law Foundation and Acadia Center, two environmental groups that signed onto an agreement endorsing the construction of the line during Maine regulatory proceedings, also called for the contracts to be changed to ensure Hydro-Quebec would deliver more clean power to New England than it currently does. The Acadia Center wrote in a brief that the current contracts are “plainly inconsistent with the intent of the statute.” The Sierra Club, an environmental group that opposes the line, voiced similar concerns.
Deborah Donovan, senior policy advocate and Massachusetts director of the Acadia Center, said that the current contracts would allow Hydro-Quebec to decrease its total exports to New England without financial penalty.
“If they did decide to do that, and the total energy deliveries would be less than they’re delivering now, why would we build the line?” Donovan asked. She called the missing provision “essential” to the project.
“We wouldn’t want to see a commitment made to these contracts, or to the line for that matter, without these safeguards,” Donovan said.
Read the full article from Bangor Daily News here.
Hydro Quebec says CMP transmission line will help fight climate change
The Conservation Law Foundation and the Acadia Center are both supporting the project as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the Maine PUC said it agreed with a consultant’s determination that the project would reduce carbon emissions by over 3-million metric tons per year.
Read the full article from News Center Maine here.
N’east States May ‘Cap and Trade’ Transport Emissions
A new coalition of environmental, business and community groups that launched this week to help support the plan. The plan will be modeled on an earlier effort, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, that created a cap-and-trade system for power plant emissions in those states. Since that program’s launch, emissions rates in the participating states fell 16 percent more than the national average. Electricity prices also went down for consumers, declining 3.5 percent in the first seven years compared to 7-percent price growth nationwide, according to an analysis [PDF] by the Acadia Center, a clean energy think tank.
Read the full article by Streets Blog USA here.
In A Win For CMP, Maine Utility Regulators Approve 145-Mile Transmission Line
Two environmental groups, the Conservation Law Foundation and the Acadia Center, did support the project, attracted by CMP’s offer to finance efforts to “decarbonize” the state’s economy through direct dollar donations to such efforts and by supporting policies to promote renewable energy in Maine. But other conservation groups, including the state’s largest, the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), have been steadfastly opposed.
Read the full article from New Hampshire Public Radio here.