A Call to Action: Connecticut Climate Justice March and Acadia Center’s Support for 2024 Clean Energy Priorities

For Release: February 2, 2024

Download the Press Release: Acadia Center Press Release – 2024 Connecticut Climate Justice March

Hartford, CT – In the lead-up to the start of Connecticut’s 2024 legislative session, Jayson Velazquez – Acadia Center’s Climate and Energy Justice Policy Associate – today joined climate, energy, and environmental advocates, organizers, and activists in Connecticut’s Climate Justice March. In this call to action, participants and speakers called on legislators, officials, and organization leaders to take adequate action to address climate change.

In addition to the Climate Justice March, advocates, organizers, and activists issued a Climate Justice Letter with a detailed list of equitable solutions to align Connecticut with its emissions reduction targets outlined in the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA).

In addition to contributing to the list of solutions in this letter, Velazquez gave a speech during a stop on the Climate March in Hartford to highlight the pressing need to address energy inequities across the state.

Acadia Center expresses specific enthusiastic support for energy priorities outlined in the Climate Justice Letter:

• Operationalize Procedural, Distributive, Corrective, and Contextual Equity: Incorporate equity principles identified by the Governors’ Council on Climate Change (GC3) and the Connecticut Equity and Environmental Justice Advisory Council (CEEJAC) into Connecticut climate and energy plans.
• Increase Funding for, Identify, and Address Barriers to accessing Energy Efficiency Programs including the Home Energy Solutions Income Eligible (HES-IE) Program: Increase funding for efficiency programs to ensure maximum deployment of energy efficiency upgrades throughout the state, and ensure that adequate funding is devoted to workforce recruitment and training to ensure a robust energy efficiency workforce in Connecticut. The existing Community Partnerships Initiative could be leveraged to ensure barriers are identified, and solutions are collaboratively designed to provide increased access to energy efficiency programs.
• Expand Renewable Energy Deployment: Expand solar programs and establish targets for commercial, residential, and community solar projects, while addressing battery storage needs.
• Require Renewable Energy Sources on New Commercial and Industrial Construction: Support legislation to enable and incentivize municipalities to require renewable energy sources such as, geothermal, solar, heat pumps, etc., on new commercial and industrial construction.
• Heat Pump Deployment and Building Electrification: Invest in the electrification of newly constructed and existing homes. Support development of heat pump targets and financing programs, such as no-or-low interest loans for zero-emission heating equipment and necessary electrical upgrades to help support the transition to electric heat pumps and water heaters.
• Carbon Free and Healthy Schools: Support establishment of a $25 million CT Green Bank program to help schools implement energy saving and renewable energy construction projects.
• Grid Modernization and Grid Enhancing Technologies (GET): Support regional collaboration among northeastern states to strengthen interconnectivity in electric grid development and ensure GETs are
supported to better understand and develop electric capacity on our grid.
• Equitable and Responsible Energy Infrastructure Siting: Ensure the Connecticut Siting Council is empowered to address environmental injustices through analyses, collaborative and co-designed community-benefit agreements in the siting of energy generation and transmission infrastructure projects.
• Data Accessibility, Usability, and Transparency: Ensure data analysis capabilities are expanded at state agencies and considered as critical components of Connecticut climate and energy plans. Data should be publicly available, in usable tables, exportable formats, and opportunities should exist to request additional data to support advocacy efforts.

Acadia Center will continue collaborating with partners across Connecticut to push these goals forward in 2024. We look forward to an energizing and productive legislative session in the coming months, in a year that will be pivotal for the state and region’s progress in combating climate change and inequity.

Although Acadia Center contributed to and participated in the development of the Letter issued today, we did not directly sign on due to some policy priorities extending beyond our scope of work.

Media Contact
Jayson Velazquez, Climate and Energy Justice Policy Associate
jvelazquez@acadiacenter.org, 860-246-7121 x203

Environmentalists demand Northeast governors oppose gas pipeline expansion project

A multistate coalition of over 90 environmental organizations is demanding that the governors of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York publicly oppose a proposal to expand a major natural gas pipeline in the Northeast.

The company behind the project, Enbridge, says piping more natural gas into the region will help stabilize energy prices, make the electric grid more reliable and help states meet their climate goals by burning less oil on cold days. But the coalition opposing the project — which includes groups like the Sierra Club, the Acadia Center, the Conservation Law Foundation and 350 Mass — disagrees.

“More pipelines will only exacerbate our existing fracked-gas dependence, raise our energy bills, and harm our communities,” the coalition members wrote in letters they recently delivered to the four governors. “In order to mitigate the climate crisis, and to protect our communities, the amount of fossil fuels burned must be decreased immediately and [states must implement] policies that ensure the just and rapid transition to a cleaner, renewable energy-powered regenerative economy.”

To read the full article from wbur, click here.

Advocates urge Governor Healey to oppose major gas expansion proposal

A coalition of climate advocates is calling on Governor Maura Healey to oppose the proposed expansion of a gas pipeline, called “Project Maple,” which they say would hurt frontline communities and worsen the climate crisis.

In a letter sent to Healey on Wednesday, the advocates asked Healey to clarify her stance on the proposed project from the Canadian-based pipeline and energy company Enbridge. Healey has previously said she won’t allow any new gas pipelines, but Project Maple isn’t technically new. The company has proposed building next to existing pipelines and making upgrades to increase capacity.

Given that, Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the clean energy advocacy group Acadia Center, said it’s likely that if Project Maple got built, it will “end up being a stranded asset that costs ratepayers a lot more in the longterm.”

To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.

Residents Dealt Legal Setback That Will Have A Lasting Impact on Public Health: ‘These Numbers are All People’

Pennsylvania residents awaiting news on a crucial environmental legal battle might want to continue holding their breath — in more ways than one.

RGGI-participating states, which have successfully reduced carbon pollution by 47%, according to a report by the nonprofit Acadia Center, demonstrate the effectiveness of the initiative, and the delay only prolongs the state’s struggle against the health impacts of air pollution.

Pennsylvania’s participation in RGGI had been projected to result in fewer health cases involving asthma, bronchitis, and hospital admissions, and public health benefits totaling up to $6.3 billion by 2030, reports the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

To read the full article from the Cool Down, click here.

Opinion: Through EV policy, Connecticut can right its past air pollution wrongs

As the old saying goes, you can’t design your future without understanding your past. When it comes to charting the course for the future of Connecticut’s transportation system, we must look to our state’s history and learn lessons about the infrastructure that surrounds us and the vehicles that drive through our communities.

Environmental justice issues related to air pollution, including the pediatric asthma crisis in Connecticut’s Black and Latino communities, can be better understood through our state’s troubled history of redlining, urban renewal programs, highway construction, and residential segregation.

In the 1930s, the Federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) constructed “residential security” maps that color-coded neighborhoods based on the desirability and safety of capital investments. The HOLC made decisions about neighborhood classifications based on race, economic class, and ethnic composition. Neighborhoods that were deemed “riskier” were “redlined” as they were comprised of Black, immigrant, and low-income communities. Redlining set the standards for racial segregation and concentrations of urban disparities, industrial zoning, and future highway construction. Industrial zoning placed heavily polluting facilities, such as industrial plants, major trucking roadways, and shipping ports, in and around redlined neighborhoods.

The Housing Act of 1949 and the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act subsidized the construction of highway projects such as the Oak Street Connector in New Haven, where federal money was used to build a mini-highway through downtown and The Hill, destroying the Oak Street neighborhood. The destruction of the Oak Street neighborhood for the development of a mini-highway displaced around 3,000 people, or about 880 families.

The burden of displacement was placed disproportionately along the lines of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Before redevelopment, Oak Street was home to vibrant Black Americans and Jewish, Italian, and Puerto Rican immigrant enclaves. Through the destruction caused by the decisions to develop the Oak Street Connector, many of those displaced moved to The Hill neighborhood, where they continued to fight redevelopment projects.

Displacement for highway construction and industrial development across Connecticut divided communities and laid the groundwork for the entrenchment of some of the nation’s most significant wealth gaps and income inequality. In Hartford, redlining and urban renewal contributed to the deliberate placement of highway I-84 in the North End neighborhood, home to large concentrations of Black and low-income residents.

As neighborhoods were leveled for the development of highways, low-income enclaves and communities of color became subject to decades of airborne pollution from gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles that transport commuters and goods within and beyond Connecticut. Neighborhoods alongside and downwind of transportation corridors that support industrial facilities are forced to breathe exhaust from the dirtiest vehicles, driving up health disparities.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, big trucks and buses make up just 6% of all on-road vehicles in Connecticut but are responsible for more than half of all smog-forming NOx tailpipe pollution.

As attempts to remedy the injustices caused by redlining, urban renewal, and highway construction are underway, such as the City of New Haven’s Downtown Crossing Project and the Hartford 400 plan, addressing the harms to public health caused by tailpipe pollution must remain a key priority. To ensure less pollution in neighborhoods near highways and industrial transportation corridors, our legislators must adopt strong clean cars and trucks standards — Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II), Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT), and Heavy-Duty Omnibus (HDO) — that have already been adopted by nearly every other state in the region. These clean transportation policies would ensure that sales of new vehicles increase gradually toward 100% zero-emission by 2035.

Clean cars and trucks are not a silver bullet for correcting the injustices of the past and present. Congruent efforts such as promoting reliable and fair transit access, free K-12 transit fares, rail, buses, pedestrian infrastructure, and other forms of mode-shift and mobility to reduce total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) from single occupancy and passenger vehicles, have benefits that would only be amplified by the increased availability of zero-emission and electrified light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles that ACCII and ACT would introduce.

The ACC II and ACT regulations only affect the sale of new cars — roughly 75% of people buy used.

While the cost of new and used EVs continues to drop year-over-year, affordability concerns are being tackled through the CHEAPR program, which provides incentives on new and used zero-emission vehicles, with additional rebates available for income-eligible individuals. Combined with the $7,500 federal tax credit, Connecticut residents can save up to $11,750 on the purchase of a typical EV.

As a state with a long history of forcing tailpipe and industrial pollution into vulnerable communities, Connecticut has a generational chance to start righting these wrongs by joining with states that are leading the global transition to zero-emission vehicles.

To read the original article from the CT Mirror, click here.

How does Rhode Island’s new community choice aggregation program work?

Today, we’re taking a look at Rhode Island’s new energy program, community choice aggregation, and unpacking what it means for consumers.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.

Last summer, I got a letter in the mail, welcoming me to the Providence Community Electricity Program.

If you live in Rhode Island, there’s a decent chance you got some version of this letter, too. That’s because last year, seven towns in Rhode Island launched brand new energy programs, called community choice aggregation.

Cameron Leo: To learn more, we talked to Emily Koo, who was Providence’s Director of Sustainability when the city started developing this program.  She says community aggregation has two main goals: lower prices, and more renewable energy.

Emily Koo: In contrast, an investor-owned utility, on the other hand, also has its own bottom line and fiduciary obligations to consider.

To listen to the full podcast from the Public’s Radio, click here.

Mass. Lawmakers Aiming for an Omnibus Climate Bill in 2024

Top legislators in Massachusetts this year hope to pass a major climate and energy bill, which could bring significant permitting and siting reform, and boost transportation and heating electrification.

“It’s going to be a really interesting time,” said Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at the Acadia Center, a climate-focused nonprofit. Murray praised the steps taken in the previous two bills but added that “we’ve got so many areas we still need to cover.”

Murray of the Acadia Center stressed the importance of securing funding for public transport in the state. According to a recent assessment by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the state would need to invest an additional $2 billion annually through 2036 just to make all the necessary repairs for the existing system. This excludes any potential expansion, resilience or modernization efforts to help the state meet its climate goals.

“We need a more stable funding source for the MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority]. I really do think we need to address that at some point in the very near future,” said Murray, while acknowledging the added difficulty of the state’s current financial troubles. Gov. Healey recently proposed a $375 million budget cut to stave off an impending shortfall.

To read the full article from RTO Insider, click here.

Connecticut program aims to alleviate cost barriers to utility oversight process, but challenges remain

Connecticut’s utilities commission is the latest to begin offering payments to help environmental justice and ratepayer groups participate in regulatory proceedings.

The Stakeholder Group Compensation Program was required to take effect this month as part of an energy consumer protection bill passed by the state legislature last year. It seeks to encourage more diverse engagement in proceedings on utility regulation, which can set direction for grid resiliency, rate relief, clean energy development, corporate accountability, storm response and more.

“The process of engaging with proceedings at public utility commissions across the nation is historically exclusive,” wrote Jayson Velazquez, the climate and energy justice policy associate with the nonprofit Acadia Center, in comments on the PURA docket creating the new program. “Compensation can play a significant role in ensuring diverse stakeholders are included in proceedings, specifically at PURA.”

In the Acadia Center’s comments on the new program’s docket, Velazquez said PURA should also begin a broader look at equity and inclusion across all of its work, similar to a docket now underway in Hawaii.

To read the full article from Energy News Network, click here.

RGGI 62nd Auction and 2023 in Review: An Additional $411 million Raised for Clean Energy

For Release: December 22, 2023

BOSTON, MA – On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, the eleven states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) released the results of the 62^nd auction for 2023. Emissions allowances were sold for $14.88 each, generating $411.5 million for clean energy investments in participating states.

“The incredible success of this auction speaks volumes—$411.5 million raised brings RGGI’s cumulative total to a staggering $7.16 billion,” stated Paola Tamayo, Policy Analyst at Acadia Center and co-author of the organization’s RGGI Third Program Review Report. “What’s even more exciting is that both the proceeds from allowances and the clearing price hit record highs in this 62nd auction, marking a historic moment for RGGI as the program nears the conclusion of its Third Program Review.”

The allowance price for the RGGI program is the highest in 2023 and remains above the historical average. The Cost Containment Reserve (“CCR”), a market mechanism that releases extra allowances beyond the cap which are sold if prices exceed predetermined levels, was triggered in this auction. The Trigger Price of $14.88 per ton of CO₂ was met, and 5,565,291 CCR allowances were sold in the auction. The Emissions Containment Reserve (ECR) retains allowances for additional emissions reductions if prices fall below the trigger price of $6.87 in 2023. Notably, the ECR remains well below the average 2023 price and has historically not been triggered.

Higher RGGI allowance price is good for climate, clean energy investment

The clearing price of $14.88 in 2023 marks a continuation of the upward trend observed in recent years. This clearing price represents a 15% increase from the clearing price in December 2022. In total, the average 2023 auction price is only 0.2% higher than the average 2022 auction price. The positive trajectory witnessed in the 2023 auctions holds promising implications for the RGGI program. Having higher allowance prices seen in 2022 and 2023 means that the RGGI program is sending a stronger incentive to produce electricity from carbon-free sources, like wind and solar. Recent auctions demonstrate the growing significance of the CCR – this recent auction was the first time since 2021 that additional allowances were released because of triggering the CCR. The triggering of the CCR results in an influx of additional allowances into the market, which means that it’s potentially lowering the overall stringency of the emission reduction targets.

Since the program launched, the vast majority of RGGI proceeds have been invested in energy efficiency and clean energy projects, as detailed in the most recent report on RGGI investments in 2021, released in June of this year.

The $411.5 million in proceeds generated in this auction brings the cumulative to-date total to $7.16 billion. The 2023 auction results underscore RGGI’s significance as more than a regulatory framework, emphasizing its influence on the shift towards sustainable energy. RGGI states show the practicality of a collaborative, market-driven strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, this year’s proceeds are 81% higher than the combined proceeds from 2019 and 2020 and stand 6% higher than the proceeds recorded in 2022.

RGGI Third Program Review Offers an Opportunity to Direct Proceeds Towards Clean Energy Investments that Directly Benefit Environmental Justice Communities

Since its establishment, RGGI’s priorities have centered around reducing pollution from fossil fuel power plants and achieving climate solutions for RGGI states. Every five years or so, RGGI undergoes a program review, giving the participating states the opportunity to consider the program’s performance and make various changes, including the equitable disbursement of the program’s proceeds. RGGI’s Third Program Review is happening now and will likely conclude early next year. In 2023, RGGI held two public meetings and two public comment periods to discuss and seek feedback on various aspects of the program. Acadia Center, other stakeholders, and the public at large await any responses from the states to public input on setting the cap and improving overall program design and operation.

Navigating the world of watches just got easier –  replica patek aquanaut  is your premier online destination for leaders in watch craftsmanship.

As discussed in more detail in Acadia Center’s most recent RGGI Report, there are many different ways in which RGGI can start to ensure that environmental justice communities are heard and are actively involved in the development of strategies for an equitable transition to a carbon-free economy. Regardless of how strongly the Third Program Review does or does not prioritize environmental justice, it should remain a priority for individual states to consider the recent auctions, the history of investments across the states, the need to benefit environmental justice communities directly, and other mechanisms associated with the cap-and-invest program.

Acadia Center remains closely involved in RGGI policy conversations across the RGGI states and will continue to advocate for program reforms that drive equitable investment and climate action.

Media Contacts:

Ben Butterworth, Director: Climate, Energy, and Equity Analysis
bbutterworth@acadiacenter.org, 617-742-0054 x111

Paola Moncada Tamayo, Policy Analyst
ptamayo@acadiacenter.org, 860-246-7121 x204

Technology to “Get more out of” electric grid attracts support

BOSTON, Mass. (SHNS)–Clean energy trade groups lined up Thursday in support of a new proposal from legislative Democrats that would embrace lower-cost, easy-to-install options for boosting the performance of the electric grid.

Bills filed by the House and Senate point people on energy and climate reforms, Rep. Jeffrey Roy and Sen. Michael Barrett, won praise as “commonsense” changes that could help the state move closer to its clean energy future without the same kind of major investment that other reforms will require.

“Put simply, grid enhancing technologies are often incredibly cost-effective technologies that help us maximize our existing infrastructure,” added Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director with the Acadia Center.

To read the full article, click here.