ISO-NE Decision Will Hold Back Clean Energy Throughout the Region
Boston, MA. — If approved by its regulator, a decision made Thursday by New England’s power grid operator, ISO-NE, along with a majority of its stakeholders, will slow New England’s ability to meet state climate goals, exacerbate the climate pollution impacting our communities and our economy, and cost consumers extra money they can ill afford.
Yesterday afternoon, ISO-NE and a majority of its stakeholders, which are mostly energy companies, decided to push back by two more years the elimination of a major barrier to clean energy in the region. The Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR), which pays gas power plant generators extra on the ratepayer’s dime to stay in the market, was on its way out. But now ISO-NE is delaying implementation of an improved approach and keeping clean energy from competing fairly in the regional capacity market for two additional years.
According to Melissa Birchard, Senior Regulatory Attorney and Director for Power Grid Reform at Acadia Center, after originally proposing in May of 2021 to eliminate the harmful MOPR rule in 2023, ISO-NE changed its position at the 11th hour. “ISO-NE has let the region down by choosing to cut clean energy out of the capacity market for two more years. This decision throws an unnecessary lifeline to gas generators that could otherwise be priced out of the market by cost-effective clean energy,” says Birchard. “Despite pushing for quicker market reforms in the recent New England Governors Energy Vision Statement process, the states appeared to back the delay. This is a disappointing failure of leadership,” said Birchard.
The New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE), which represents the states, recently announced they did not oppose the two-year delay. This position appeared to sway many previously opposed parties, contributing to majority support for the delay. Acadia Center and its partners, as well as renewable energy companies and a number of other stakeholders, strongly opposed the delay, which would keep in place barriers to clean energy participation in the ISO-NE capacity market until the 2025 auction, which commits resources for the period beginning in 2028.
“This outcome comes at a cost for New England’s climate goals and damages the communities that will suffer higher bills and more pollution in their neighborhoods,” said Acadia Center’s Birchard. “The region has waited too long already for these overdue market reforms.”
Acadia Center calls on the New England states to stand behind important climate and clean energy reforms and demand that ISO-NE increase its accountability to consumers and communities, to avoid these failures in the future.
Media Contacts:
Melissa Birchard
Clean Energy Program Director
mbirchard@acadiacenter.org
617-742-0054 x103
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Acadia Center is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization committed to advancing the clean energy future. Acadia Center advocates for an equitable clean energy future for Connecticut, tackling regulatory and legislative energy policy, transportation, energy efficiency, beneficial electrification, utility innovation, and renewable energy.
Holding Public Utilities Accountable
Today Maine’s Governor Janet Mills announced the Utility Accountability Bill, the Governor’s initiative authorizing the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to set minimum service standards to ensure electricity consumers receive adequate service at just and reasonable rates.
If the state is going to transform buildings, transportation, and the electricity grid to better serve Maine’s energy consumers and respond to the climate crisis, it needs to start with utility regulatory reforms that give the PUC the tools to regulate utilities with Maine people in mind. Acadia Center commends Governor Mills for taking these necessary steps to best leverage ratepayer dollars to ensure reliability and affordability while simultaneously planning across all state agencies for climate and equity benefits for all Mainers.
If our electric utilities fail consistently on any of the standards, they will face financial penalties. By establishing a “report card” on utilities’ performance, with repercussions for poor performance, we expect to see demonstrable improvements on reliability, bill accuracy, storm recovery, and renewable interconnection issues, all problems that have plagued Central Maine Power (CMP) and placed them dead last on national utility customer satisfaction lists. In addition to its audit, climate adaptation, and whistleblower provisions, the bill provides more direction on options available if utilities are not fit to serve Maine’s consumers.
Further, Maine’s investor-owned utilities have a monopoly franchise, and often charge ratepayers at returns that far exceed interest rates while building bigger projects that may not benefit energy consumers accordingly. While Acadia Center thinks utility regulatory reform can go further to relieve energy burdens on underserved and overburdened consumers, the Governor’s bill is a good first step in holding CMP and Versant Power accountable for their performance on affordability and reliability.
Acadia Center supports the Governor’s utility regulation bill and urges the Governor and Legislature to make deeper reforms to ensure utilities serve energy consumers in the transition to a clean energy economy – what we call RESPECT (Reforming Energy System Planning for Equity and Climate Transformation). These two significant reforms in utility planning will overcome the dysfunctions caused by siloed decision-making, unbalanced utility incentives, and the current market indifference to climate and equity:
- Conduct “all-in” energy system planning that considers supply and demand-side resources; customers’ energy, capacity, and thermal needs; and climate requirements and environmental justice impacts for all fuels across the state.
- Create a statewide planning entity that can look for solutions beyond utility boundaries and across fuels, leaving traditional utilities free to focus their efforts on business development in alignment with climate and equity mandates.
RESPECT proposes a modernized framework for how utilities make investments and decisions, so that we can build the energy systems necessary at the speed required to address the climate crisis. RESPECT addresses three problems with current planning and regulatory oversight: (1) planning is siloed between electric and gas utilities, which causes overspending, reduced reliability and resilience, and more climate pollution; (2) current planning processes ignore equity and environmental justice; and (3) utilities will not plan against their financial interests, even with performance incentives.
Until these reforms are in place, we believe the Governor’s bill is a powerful opening shot to create greater accountability of transmission and distribution utilities to Maine ratepayers and resolve performance issues that are not improving under current law and regulation.
For more information:
Jeff Marks
Maine Director & Senior Policy Advocate
jmarks@acadiacenter.org
Mobile: 207-956-1970
We Are Grateful to You!
The Acadia Center team is deeply thankful to all who support our efforts and partner with us on tackling the challenges of the climate crisis. Here are just a few highlights of all we were able to achieve in 2021 because of your support. Because of you, we can continue this important work in 2022 and beyond.
Fuel Oil Associations Issue Misleading Claims
Rockport, ME. — Oil and gas dealer associations initiated a media campaign today calling on the region’s governors to cease support for clean, consumer friendly electric heat pump options. In fact, heat pump rebates are already insulating consumers from volatile heating oil price spikes while improving indoor air quality, reducing pollution, and providing efficient, comfortable heat.
“Energy marketers misleadingly claim that concerns ISO-NE [the regional power grid operator] recently flagged about pandemic-related fuel supply constraints require this backward response, but their claim is meritless,” said Melissa Birchard, Senior Regulatory Attorney and Director, Clean Energy Program at Acadia Center. “Pandemic supply chains and fuel demands in other countries are contributing to price volatility and making fossil fuels harder to come by,” noted Birchard. “The short- and long-term answer is to help residents shift from reliance on volatile fossil fuels to electric alternatives that are cleaner, safer and equally comfortable.”
“Calls to cancel heat pump rebates are a sad example of the fossil fuel industry once again fighting the clean energy solutions that will keep our communities, safe, warm, and healthy,” said Matt Rusteika, Senior Policy Analyst at Acadia Center. “Many fuel oil dealers already recognize this and are providing a full array of heating choices to their customers, including air source heat pump conversions.”
According to press reports, ISO-NE’s Gordon van Welie has raised concerns about supplies of home heating oil, citing pandemic-related shortages of truck drivers that could affect deliveries. Given that the supply chain for heating oil, gas, and other fossil fuels has been disturbed by the pandemic, increasing reliance on those fuels makes zero sense. As European gas prices soar, U.S. gas companies are exporting gas for greater profits, leaving domestic customers exposed to even more price volatility.
“Heat pump rebates help families and businesses control costs, insulate household budgets from fossil fuel price spikes, and increase the overall efficiency of the region’s energy use,” said Rusteika. “Energy marketer attempts to sow doubt about heat pumps are sadly self-serving. Heat pump rebates are unlikely to influence fuel supply constraints either way. And many heat pumps installed each year displace electric resistance heat—which reduces strain on the grid.”
“Long-term,” says Birchard, “the region needs to expand its electric transmission grid and clean energy supply to help solve constraints and ensure reliability. Heat pumps are a key part of the solution, as controllable heat pumps can provide a flexible resource for the electric grid.”
Acadia Center calls on the governors to reject the misleading assertions and backward-looking position of the fuel dealers associations.
Media Contacts:
Melissa Birchard
Clean Energy Program Director
mbirchard@acadiacenter.org
617-742-0054 x103
Matt Rusteika
Senior Policy Analyst & Buildings Lead
mrusteika@acadiacenter.org
617-742-0054 x108
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Acadia Center is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization committed to advancing the clean energy future. Acadia Center advocates for an equitable clean energy future for Connecticut, tackling regulatory and legislative energy policy, transportation, energy efficiency, beneficial electrification, utility innovation, and renewable energy.
RGGI auction sets new highs, demonstrates need for climate and justice reforms
BOSTON, MA- Today, the states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) announced the results of the program’s record-setting 54th auction. Emissions allowances were sold for $13.00 each, generating $351 million in proceeds for investment in the clean energy economy. Both the allowance price and the auction proceeds establish new record highs for the RGGI program, which has now been in operation for 13 years. Auction 54 also resulted in the release of additional allowances from the Cost Containment Reserve (CCR), undermining the program’s environmental integrity.
Higher RGGI allowance price is good for climate, clean energy investment
The auction clearing price of $13.00 is 39% higher than the clearing price from the previous auction in September, and 75% higher than the clearing price from one year ago. The clearing price represents the price that power plant operators must pay for each ton of CO2 emitted by their fossil-fuel-fired plants. The recent increase in allowance prices means the RGGI program is sending a stronger incentive to produce electricity from carbon-free sources, like wind and solar.
The record-high amount of proceeds generated from Auction 54 is also a boon for the clean energy economy. Since the program launched, the vast majority of RGGI proceeds have been invested in energy efficiency and clean energy projects. Today’s announcement that participating states will be receiving $351 million from the latest auction (bringing the annual total to $926 million) is great news for climate action, the economy, and the growing workforce in energy efficiency and clean energy.
Necessary RGGI Reforms for Environmental Integrity and Justice
Today’s auction results also reveal serious problems that the RGGI states must address with urgency.
Today’s auction clearing price of $13.00 met the Cost Containment Reserve (CCR) trigger price of $13.00, resulting in the addition of 3.9 million allowances to an already oversupplied market, allowing increased emissions from the region’s power plants. Given the desperate need of the RGGI states—many of which are struggling to meet their climate targets—to reduce power sector pollution, allowing additional emissions beyond the cap is unacceptable. Acadia Center and our partners have opposed the use of a CCR and its design since its introduction. As a reiteration of recommendations Acadia Center has made in both of the previous RGGI Program Reviews to preserve the program’s effectiveness and environmental integrity, the RGGI states must either eliminate the CCR or reform it by: 1) significantly increasing the price trigger and 2) withdrawing allowances from future supply, rather than minting new allowances.
Even more importantly, today’s auction results demonstrate the critical and overdue need to ensure that RGGI auction proceeds are invested equitably. The RGGI program imposes no requirements on participating states to guarantee equitable investment, and most of the participating states lack processes to ensure RGGI-funded investments deliver meaningful and proportional benefits in overburdened and underserved communities. As a result, many states invest RGGI proceeds into clean energy projects that, while effective in reducing climate pollution, fail to address the inequities in the clean energy transition. In other cases, RGGI funds are used to fill budget gaps, addressing neither climate nor justice imperatives. At a minimum, the RGGI states must adopt requirements for equitable investment that are consistent with the Jusitce40 Initiative, developed by the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. If the RGGI states applied this framework to the investment of RGGI proceeds from 2021, they would be investing at least $370 million in disadvantaged communities in one year alone.
The RGGI states are currently in the midst of the Third RGGI Program Review. This presents an ideal opportunity for the states to commit to the reforms described above, along with a suite of additional measures (like a dramatically reduced emissions cap and more inclusive processes) to ensure the program supports a just transition to a carbon-free future. For more information on the Third Program Review and to participate in upcoming meetings, see: https://www.rggi.org/program-overview-and-design/program-review.
Media Contacts:
Jordan Stutt, Carbon Programs Director
jstutt@acadiacenter.org, 617-742-0054 x105
198 Tremont Street, Suite 415, Boston, MA 02111
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Acadia Center is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization committed to advancing the clean energy future. Acadia Center advocates for an equitable clean energy future for Connecticut, tackling regulatory and legislative energy policy, transportation, energy efficiency, beneficial electrification, utility innovation, and renewable energy.
Massachusetts Needs Innovation and Efficiency – So Why Did The DPU Just Kill One of The Best Ideas?
One of the most forward-looking pieces of the Massachusetts 2022-2024 three-year energy efficiency plan now filed at the Department of Public Utilities is the brainchild of the Cape Light Compact – the proposed Cape and Vineyard Electrification Offering (CVEO). The CVEO would result in retrofitted low-income housing that is all-electric, powered by solar panels, and resilient in storms thanks to onsite storage. It’s exactly the sort of thinking that we need to be doing more of – how to make homes healthier and safer, lower carbon pollution, and make communities more resilient. Plus it’s targeted at the households that still have the least access to heat pumps, solar and storage, even with all the programs we have in those areas. So why did the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) just kill it? On November 5, the DPU requested that it be removed from the programs before it can even be considered.
Cape Light Compact (CLC) is a municipal aggregator that provides energy to the citizens of towns on the Cape and Vineyard, as well as administering their electric energy efficiency programs. As a municipal aggregator, CLC is different from the other utility program administrators – and often provides more customized offerings to its customers, including higher incentives (though still cost-effective) that drive, not surprisingly, higher customer participation rates.
Acadia Center has enthusiastically supported CLC’s proposed CVEO since it was first presented to the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council in 2018. It’s exactly what the efficiency programs should be doing to address the intersectional crises of climate, affordable housing, spiking fossil fuel prices, resiliency, and the fact that low- and moderate-income customers aren’t reaping the benefits of solar and storage, despite the SMART program’s best intentions. But the DPU decided on November 5th that it’s just not possible under existing law. Why?
Through the CVEO, CLC proposed to weatherize and install heat pumps, solar PV, and energy storage in 250 low- and moderate-income homes, heated with oil, propane, or electric resistance heat. The offering combined the existing statewide incentives for weatherization, heat pumps with controls, and demand response through thermostats, with an innovative way to pre-pay existing incentives for energy storage and a third-party ownership model for storage and PV that leverages outside incentive funding to offset the overall ratepayer impact. In other words, it takes the programs the Department has already approved and stretches them farther and deeper to truly serve the best interests of customers of the Cape and Vineyard. Homes would be warm, free of combustion byproducts, cheaper for residents to operate, and resilient in the face of increasing storms and outages – all within the cost-effectiveness screening of the efficiency programs.
The DPU has already approved incentives for use of energy storage for demand reduction, including allowing 5-year contracts for daily dispatch incentives (i.e., beyond the length of the 3-year plans). But the CVEO’s twist on this idea to pre-pay 10 years of incentives to enable the purchase of a new energy storage system (which would also provide resiliency benefits to the residents) went too far for the DPU – mostly because resiliency benefits are outside the scope of the energy efficiency plans.
The Green Communities Act was amended in 2018 to include “programs that result in customers switching to renewable energy sources or other clean energy technologies;” as one of the types of offerings that could be included in the 3-year plans. Despite that amendment, the DPU held that energy efficiency funds cannot be used to pay for solar. Because the CVEO proposed to use energy efficiency funds to essentially operate a power purchase agreement with the 3rd party solar developer, the DPU determined that it was just too close to using EE dollars to fund solar panels for its comfort. But what about the comfort of the residents who would benefit from this program? What about the benefit to communities by lowering of emissions with the switch to clean energy sources? What about the recently changed DPU mandate requiring them to factor equity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in their decisions?
The DPU’s statement that “[it] agrees that facilitating low-income customer access to solar PV while electrifying heating is consistent with Commonwealth policy but doing so requires the intersection of multiple programs” is fairly telling. At the moment, our regulatory system just wasn’t set up to allow this kind of innovation. There are too many silos for money – efficiency, SMART tariff, net metering, demand response, developer funds, and investment tax credits – where the streams cannot be combined. Even though all the money comes from the same place and goes to fund programs that help the same people – Massachusetts ratepayers.
That’s a problem. But Acadia Center has a solution.
Acadia Center’s new report Reforming Energy System Planning for Equity and Climate Transformation (RESPECT) takes on some of these regulatory silos and proposes a new way of looking at planning for the future of our grid and consumers. Under RESPECT, regulators could encourage innovative solutions that take on multiple problems and make something even greater than its component parts for the ratepayers. Rather than being bound by the solutions of the past, innovative programs like CVEO could become a guiding example for how to think differently.
We need to do better for the ratepayers of Massachusetts. We need to be able to use programs that we have, bend them slightly, and feed two birds with one scone. Otherwise, we have no hope of being able to take on the climate crisis with all we’ve got.
Governor Baker balks at transportation and climate program
BOSTON, MA – Today, Governor Baker announced that Massachusetts would no longer be pursuing participation in the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) program. The program, which would place a declining limit on vehicle pollution and direct proceeds to an array of clean transportation investments, had become a central component of Massachusetts’ strategy to rein in transportation pollution. Now, without that program on the horizon, the Commonwealth will have an even steeper hill to climb as it seeks to achieve its legally binding emissions targets.
While the reversal on TCI is frustrating, stakeholder input on the program should continue to inform the Commonwealth’s next steps. For example, advocates and legislators called on the Baker administration to invest at least 70% of the TCI proceeds in overburdened and underserved communities, with representatives from those communities empowered to influence investment decisions. That commitment to equitable investment in our transportation system must be incorporated into the Baker administration’s planning. Similarly, Massachusetts committed through the TCI process to work with environmental justice communities to advance air quality monitoring programs; that vital work must go on, and the Commonwealth must find a new source of adequate funding.
The TCI program was never intended to be a comprehensive solution to the Commonwealth’s long list of transportation woes. Stubbornly high tailpipe emissions, congested roads, underfunded public transit, and cities with dangerously poor air quality can’t be solved by any single policy. But TCI would have provided a much needed shot in the arm. Now, Massachusetts has one less tool in its bag to meet its climate targets and deliver the clean air and equitable transportation system that the Commonwealth’s residents deserve.
Media Contacts:
Jordan Stutt, Carbon Programs Director
jstutt@acadiacenter.org, 617-742-0054 x105
198 Tremont Street, Suite 415, Boston, MA 02111
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Acadia Center is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization committed to advancing the clean energy future. Acadia Center advocates for an equitable clean energy future for Connecticut, tackling regulatory and legislative energy policy, transportation, energy efficiency, beneficial electrification, utility innovation, and renewable energy.
Introducing RESPECT: Acadia Center’s Proposal to Transform Utility Planning
RESPECT proposes a modernized framework for how utilities make investments and decisions, so that we can build the energy systems necessary at the speed required to address the climate crisis. RESPECT imagines a world where investments in our energy systems are aligned with state goals to address climate pollution, further environmental justice, and lower consumer costs. By proposing two simple, but far-reaching reforms, RESPECT avoids conflicts of interest and redirects the focus of energy system planning towards benefits for consumers and addressing the climate crisis.
Join the authors for an in-depth look at this new framework.
Acadia Center intends the RESPECT report to spark a discussion about how to ensure that utility investments and decision-making are aligned with state policy goals and welcomes the opportunity to share these ideas with you.
View the webinar on Acadia Center’s RESPECT proposal here.
Question 1 Maine Citizen’s Initiative – Electric Transmission Lines
On November 2, Maine voters decided to support Question 1. This Citizen’s Initiative makes changes to state law regarding construction of electric transmission lines, including banning certain projects in Franklin and Somerset Counties and requiring legislative approval of projects on public lands harboring such transmission lines. While Acadia Center did not take a position on Question 1, we recognize that Maine citizens voted their intuition and conscience in the face of a barrage of conflicting messages and ads from New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) supporters and opposition.
The massive capital and planning necessary to transform buildings, transportation, and the electricity grid over the next three decades necessitates major reforms to expand heating and transportation electrification; increase clean energy generation, storage, and delivery of offshore wind and solar; and oversee innovate grid modernization. Acadia Center aims to ensure that the Northeast region rapidly decarbonizes its energy system in line with United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommendations and will continue to work to build a comprehensive zero-carbon energy system by focusing on and prioritizing clean energy solutions, local clean energy resources, deep energy efficiency, utility reform, transportation improvements and innovations, and the phase-out of fossil fuels. Following the success of Question 1, Acadia Center will continue to hold Central Maine Power (CMP), Hydro-Quebec (HQ), and the Massachusetts utilities to their carbon-reduction and clean energy commitments prior to considering its full and unqualified support for NECEC, which will continue to face legal, policy, and political challenges even after the vote.
As Acadia Center examined the path to a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, it considered the potential for hydroelectric energy from existing impoundments to replace some of the fossil fuels used in the Northeast’s energy mix. The Northeast is currently heavily reliant on fossil fuels, especially natural gas, for electricity generation. According to multiple studies, when electricity comes from excess generation at existing hydro impoundments, it results in dramatically lower carbon emissions than electricity generated by fossil fuels. Beyond the question of whether carbon emissions from hydro are lower, Acadia Center has been open to hydropower imports from existing hydro projects, but only if specific critical conditions are met and expectations fulfilled. Because these conditions and expectations were not definitely met, Acadia Center did not endorse either the energy contract between Hydro-Quebec and Massachusetts utilities or the NECEC line.
In January 2019, Acadia Center joined a multiparty settlement to impose economic and consumer protection conditions on CMP in the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s (MPUC) proceeding on the NECEC transmission line. In that proceeding, Acadia Center joined the settlement for a certificate of public need and necessity (CPCN) for the NECEC line to strengthen Maine’s economy, protect consumers, and deliver a clean energy future for the state. However, Acadia Center stated that it would only support the line and the contract between HQ and Massachusetts utilities if, and only if, CMP and HQ also:
- Ensured the project advances state and regional climate goals by verifying the emission reductions expected from the contract over its lifetime; and
- Thoughtfully and sensitively protect the Western Maine landscape from unacceptable siting impacts.
Contrary to Acadia Center’s sustained advocacy for transparency and accountability, Massachusetts regulators approved a contract that fails to hold HQ responsible for verifying that electricity deliveries over the NECEC line, if permitted, will continue to produce real, incremental climate benefits over the life of the contract. However, Acadia Center believes that the NECEC does provide real and meaningful benefits to Maine citizens and the climate. For example, earlier this year, Efficiency Maine extended its electric vehicle (EV) rebate program — the EV Accelerator Program — for another year using a one-time $5 million payment it received from the settlement of the NECEC project. The funds will help defray the cost of approximately 2,500 more EV purchases with a quarter of the funds reserved for income-eligible buyers. Efficiency Maine estimates the vehicles added with these funds can save Maine drivers a total of $2 million per year in fuel costs, and more than $18 million over the lifetime of the vehicles. Those same vehicles will prevent an estimated 82,000 tons of CO2 from being emitted over the course of their on-road lifetimes.
A second element of the CPCN settlement sent $1.5 million to Efficiency Maine to promote high-performance heat pump systems in low- and moderate-income homes and in K-12 schools. Efficiency Maine will receive another $13.5 million from the settlement for this heat pump initiative. A third element of the settlement sends $2.5 million to Efficiency Maine to subsidize installation of heat pump water heaters, heat pumps, and weatherization in qualified low-income homes. A fourth element of the settlement allocates $1.5 million to develop public high-speed EV chargers in Lewiston-Auburn, Fairfield, Newport, Bangor, Ellsworth and Belfast. An additional $8.5 million in settlement funds are allocated to building out Maine’s public EV charger network over the next five years. Another part of the fund will help perform an analysis of how the Northeast can achieve economy-wide decarbonization of zero emissions by 2050, as called for in the Maine climate action plan and the IPCC.
Acadia Center is also closely monitoring the PUC’s implementation of LD 1682, a key initiative that we prioritized in the 130th Legislature and was enacted into statute. For the first time ever, the PUC must consider greenhouse gas reductions and compliance with Maine’s climate statute in its decision-making. If this law had been in effect when the PUC was considering the NECEC permit, perhaps Commissioners would have ensured that GHG emission reductions promised under the project were more robust, measurable, and verifiable. Whether that would have swayed the final permit decision is unknown, but Acadia Center believes the NECEC project was made stronger through broadband, EV, infrastructure, and heat pump provisions and the potential that the NECEC corridor could be a real shot in the arm to reduce emissions throughout the Northeast. Now, future PUC decision will help save ratepayers money, improve equity and environmental justice outcomes, and support decarbonization.
For more information:
Jeff Marks, Maine Director, jmarks@acadiacenter.org, 207.236.6470 ext. 304
Statement of Acadia Center on Maine Citizen’s Initiative Question 1: Electric Transmission Line Restrictions and Legislative Approval
Rockport, Maine. On November 2, Maine voters approved Question 1. This Citizen’s Initiative makes changes to state law regarding construction of electric transmission lines, including banning certain projects in Franklin and Somerset Counties and requiring legislative approval of projects on public lands harboring such transmission lines. Acadia Center has been involved with issues arising from the climate impacts of the project and ways Maine can plan for a clean energy future that benefits all Mainers and has issued this statement:
“The controversy over the NECEC line has crystalized the need to systematically reform and change Maine’s approach to energy planning and regulation to ensure good decisions and earn public acceptance,” said Daniel Sosland, Acadia Center president. “As Maine embarks on implementing the Maine Climate Action Plan and meet its climate goals by 2030, it must do so in a way that earns the support of the public and benefits Maine communities. Acadia Center will be offering specific regulatory reform suggestions so that we can better agree on how to move forward with the many clean energy solutions that will benefit Maine and move us off fossil fuels as quickly as possible.”
Maine Director Jeff Marks added, “Maine is witnessing the damaging impacts climate change is bringing and it is imperative that we shift from fossil fuels like natural gas to non-fossil fuels. Massive capital and planning are necessary to transform Maine’s buildings, improve transportation, and modernize the electricity grid. Over the next three decades, Maine will expand heating and transportation electrification; increase clean energy generation, storage, and delivery of renewable energy; and innovate and modernize the electricity grid. Acadia Center supports measures like local community solar, offshore wind, enhanced weatherization to improve our housing stock, strong energy building codes, and electrification of heating and transportation among many solutions to decarbonize our energy system and move Maine consumers away from the volatility of fossil fuel markets. This shift will provide enormous benefits to Maine consumers, its environment, and its economic future and protect the state’s forests, fisheries and recreational future from the threats posed by our changing climate.”
On November 4, Acadia Center will be proposing a range of reforms intended to further modernize and update Maine’s energy regulatory system with the goals of improving transparency and public confidence that the system is working in the interest of consumers. We are pleased that our earlier proposal to require that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) address climate in its decisions passed this last legislative session and was signed into law by the Governor. Going forward, this law will require the PUC to take a deep dive on the GHG emissions reductions claimed when considering permits like the NECEC, and ensure the measurement and verification of those reductions.
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