Summer Legislative Update: Maine

After the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly halted the 2020 legislative session, the 130th Maine Legislature roared back to life in 2021 and had one of the “most productive environmental and energy legislatures in more than 30 years!” according to one veteran of Maine’s environmental advocacy community. Acadia Center was at the center of the session, testifying on 25 bills, supporting new PUC Commissioner Patrick Scully, engaging in dozens of strategy meetings, and achieving key victories across the buildings, power, and transportation sectors. For example, Acadia Center conceived and led successful passage of legislation that requires the Maine Public Utilities Commission to include achieving the state greenhouse gas reduction targets as a primary mission. The bill also opens the door for state agencies to take actions that consider equity and environmental justice goals in all state policy, programmatic, and regulatory decisions.

Acadia Center was a lead actor in the Maine Climate Council by developing recommendations to reduce emissions and address the impacts of climate change on residents, communities, industries, forests and ecosystems. We worked to implement Climate Action Plan goals like eliminating HFCs, promoting offshore wind, setting appliance standards, and increasing weatherization funding. We made a data-driven case to expand electrification for building heating and transportation. Acadia Center worked to advance bills to incentive renewables, energy storage, microgrids, and other non-wires alternatives in Maine’s electricity grid.

Acadia Center deployed its analytic, policy expertise and coalition partnerships to advance its goals, including prioritizing Climate Action Plan strategies and using our research and analyses to make the case to policymakers. We served on the Steering Committee and on the Leadership Team of Climate Maine, a broad-based coalition to support strong Maine state climate action and the legislative steps necessary to implement. Acadia Center elevated our PUC reform bill as one of four priorities by the Maine Environmental Priorities Coalition and steered advocacy to passage in the Legislature. Acadia Center earned media in the Portland Press Herald, Maine Public Radio and other outlets and placed op-eds on transportation, utility and regulatory reform, and building heating.

Even with the legislature wrapping up in July, our work is not finished. Acadia Center will be actively involved in the process for the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) to begin incorporating equity considerations in decision making at the Department of Environmental Protection, the Public Utilities Commission and other state agencies, including defining key terms like “environmental justice,” “environmental justice populations,” and “frontline communities.” The Legislature and Administration will also grapple with building codes for new construction, transportation emissions, energy efficiency, and other issues. Acadia Center will prioritize and engage accordingly.

Acadia Center Releases 2020 Annual Report

Today, Acadia Center released its 2020 Annual Report – “Pathways to Possibilities” – an interactive microsite that highlights the organization’s 2020 stories of impact and progress and hopes for its future. As with so many people and organizations, 2020 was a year of unexpected changes and major shifts in perspective. However, the Annual Report’s opening quote from writer and environmental activist Rebecca Solnit states, “Inside the word ‘emergency’ is ‘emerge;’ from an emergency, new things come forth.” This has certainly been true for Acadia Center. We built on the foundation of our vision of expanding a clean energy future for all and intensified our resolve and dedication to justice. Our commitment to seizing new opportunities with partners and charting the course toward sustainable change has never been stronger.

None of this would be possible without generous individuals and foundations who enthusiastically support Acadia Center’s work. With leadership from our Board of Directors, and our dedicated and passionate staff, we can accelerate the change communities urgently need. Thank you for your unwavering encouragement and partnership.

Read the full report HERE

PUC Regulatory Reform in Maine: Putting the ‘Action’ in Climate Action Plan

Reforming Maine’s PUC is a key step to meeting the state’s climate goals

On December 1, 2020, the Maine Climate Council launched “Maine Won’t Wait, A Four-Year Plan for Climate Action,” which outlines an ambitious set of pathways for Maine to meet is climate requirements and make significant cuts in economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The legislature, governor, and state agencies are now turning the Plan’s priorities and strategies into action. A key step will be to ensure that the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is well-positioned to help the state meet its climate goals.

One significant barrier to implementing pathways laid out in the Climate Action Plan is the fact that Maine has not explicitly empowered key agencies that impact carbon emissions – including the PUC – to prioritize climate and equity in their decision-making. Today, the PUC is limited by its mandate to reduce the costs of energy, ensure reliability, and guarantee utilities the opportunity to earn a profit on their business. The PUC cannot regulate utilities in alignment with state climate targets or make decisions that prioritize reducing greenhouse gases.

The decisions that Maine’s PUC makes over the next few years will determine the type of energy infrastructure that gets built over the next few decades. Those decisions will play a significant role in determining whether the state meets its 2030, 2040, and 2050 climate targets. Maine’s PUC must prioritize climate and equity in its decision-making today and must stop making decisions that are inconsistent with Maine’s climate goals. The PUC should be more empowered to support a rapid transition to clean energy resources and to move away from default approvals for fossil fuel investments. By reforming the PUC’s enabling statute, legislators can give the PUC the tools to effectively carry out the Plan’s vision and strengthen its role as a key partner in support of Maine’s climate goals.

An Act to Require the Public Utilities Commission to Consider Climate Change and Equity in its Decision-Making

The Act to Require Consideration of Climate and Equity Impacts by the Public Utilities Commission (LD 1682) will reform the PUC’s mandate to require it to consider greenhouse gas reductions and compliance with Maine’s climate statute, alongside equity and environmental justice, in its decision-making. Aligning the PUC mandate with Maine’s push for dramatic emission reductions will enable consideration of the full costs of energy investments in all decisions and require the PUC to minimize climate impacts. This will allow utility regulators to make decisions that support greenhouse gas reductions and that appropriately value climate justice issues, societal health impacts, job creation, reliability, and other quantifiable benefits. This screen will minimize long-term costs to ratepayers from climate and other impacts that now fall outside the scope of the PUC’s responsibility in just keeping the cost of energy low. By prioritizing climate, equity, and environmental justice, Maine’s PUC will be better positioned to act on climate and meet the goals of the Climate Action Plan.

For more information:

Jeff Marks, Maine State Director, jmarks@acadiacenter.org, 207.236.6470 ext. 304

Oliver Tully, Policy Strategist, otully@acadiacenter.org, 860.246.7121 ext.202

Overcoming Barriers to Home Weatherization in Connecticut: A Success Story

For over a decade, Acadia Center has been working to ensure that energy efficiency is available to the most vulnerable residents of Connecticut, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made the need for these services even more stark. One significant barrier to installing needed weatherization and efficiency services is that about 23% (almost ¼) of all homes that go through an audit in the programs are deferred and not served due to what are known as “health and safety barriers” such as mold, asbestos or vermiculite, and knob and tube wiring, which are rampant in older and neglected housing stock. What’s worse, the housing with such health and safety barriers are likely the homes most in need of weatherization and treatment by the programs to address their old and leaky spaces. Since repairs to fix these health and safety barriers are not funded through the efficiency programs, that means that no further efficiency work can be done in those homes, at least not without a major investment of funds that homeowners lack. The lack of weatherization is costing residents  of those homes at least an additional $1,000 a year in higher heating bills (and potentially more than $2,000 for homes using oil or propane).

In 2013, Acadia Center participated in a study with other stakeholders exploring the need for energy efficiency to be available to the most vulnerable residents in the state, which resulted in 7 recommendations, including providing funding and financing to resolve the health and safety barriers that would cause eligible households to be deferred from weatherization. However, this study didn’t lead to change at the time.

Through holding a position as Vice Chair of the Energy Efficiency Board (EEB) in Connecticut, Acadia Center was able to keep this issue as a top concern and over the past year, Acadia Center staff worked extensively with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)  to organize two workshops to discuss the issue of health and safety barriers. One idea that emerged from these workshops is to use federal funds from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to address health and safety remediation in targeted homes. Acadia Center asked DEEP to reach out to the Department of Social Service (DSS) to enable this policy change, and in early April, the LIHEAP board voted to allow $2M in funding to address these barriers, beginning in January 2022. This is the first time that LIHEAP funds have been allocated towards health and safety barriers, hopefully setting a precedent that can be followed for years to come.

 

 

 

“Have you heard the one about Maine’s electric grid?”

A regulator, an environmentalist, and a utility executive walk into a bar…and come out with an agreement “to plan, build, and operate the electric grid that is needed to meet Maine’s climate and energy requirements.”

A bad joke, but a good result! After six months of deliberations, a high-level stakeholder group of investor-owned utilities, current and former PUC Commissioners, environmental groups, renewable energy companies, municipalities, and state agency officials coalesced around a set of strategies, that if implemented, could change Maine’s electricity grid for the benefit of energy consumers.

The Maine Utility/Regulatory Reform and Decarbonization Initiative (MURRDI) was convened in the fall of 2020 by The Nature Conservancy and the Great Plains Institute and charged with developing strategies to:

  1. plan, build, and operate an electricity grid, that
  2. meets the State’s aggressive climate and energy requirements, while
  3. maintaining a safe, reliable, secure, and affordable grid.

In the spring of 2021, the participants emerged with a verdict that could set Maine on a course to modernize the grid while achieving major climate, energy, economic, and equity benefits for everyone.

Acadia Center was honored to be chosen for a seat at this table, joining experts from Efficiency Maine Trust, Governor’s Energy Office, Public Utilities Commission, the Public Advocate, Maine’s two investor-owned utilities (CMP & Versant), representatives of the state’s biggest cities, and a handful of our environmental and renewable partners. Together, MURRDI advanced discussion and strategies designed to achieve the following outcomes:

  • Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050;
  • Increased renewable resources to account for 80 percent of electric sales by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050;
  • Accelerated deployment of electrified transportation and buildings, distributed generation, load flexibility, and renewable electricity supply resources, including grid-scale wind and solar;
  • Regional electricity market integration that harnesses innovation and emerging technologies;
  • Enhanced focus on consumer needs related to climate requirements, equity and environmental justice, safety, reliability, resiliency, and other quantifiable benefits.
  • Siting of distributed and grid-scale renewables and storage where they bring the greatest benefits to the grid and least adverse impacts to Maine’s natural resources; and
  • Much, much more.

Acadia Center is especially excited about two of the nine recommendations it helped develop:

  1. To investigate, adopt, and implement an all-encompassing, long-term, strategic grid planning process, with an eye toward phasing out fossil fuels and separating utility planning from ownership.
  2. To expand the PUC’s decision-making framework to consider Maine’s climate requirements, equity implications, and impacts on environmental justice communities to enable consideration of the full costs and benefits of energy investments in all decisions.

Acadia Center supports the entire report, including the seven other recommendations to:

  1. Endorse the New England States’ Vision for a Clean Affordable, and Reliable 21st Century Regional Electric Grid and extend it with regard to distributed energy resources and demand participation, comprehensive integrated system planning, and state policy objectives.
  2. Move toward a more dynamic grid with more granular load flexibility capabilities in a concerted manner, including time of use rates and/or other dynamic rate structures that more accurately reflect the cost of producing and delivering power, and take into account how time-varying rate designs could help to meet the state’s climate and energy requirements.
  3. Explore the opportunities, challenges, benefits, and drawbacks of establishing a market framework at the distribution level, including through pilot projects.
  4. Identify and implement temporary measures to advance new EV fast charger (including DC fast charging and clustered Level 2 charging) deployment in the near term.
  5. Provide useful, accessible, transparent, and dynamic hosting capacity information to developers and customers, including enabling greater understanding of the data, tools, and processes required.
  6. Explore opportunities to enable using ratepayer dollars to pay for innovation investments in return for PUC oversight.
  7. Support development of transmission that is carefully sited to avoid and minimize environmental impacts.

Acadia Center is deeply engaged in this topic with a wide array of allies and stakeholders and will be moving forward to help implement plans to reform rates, incentives, and resource planning to create a reliable, affordable, and clean energy system in Maine. For example, in 2021-22 Acadia Center will monitor Power Sector Transformation Stakeholder group to explore the transformation and planning of Maine’s electric sector to help achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions. Acadia Center will use, complete, and apply recommendations from its UtilityVision and Next Generation Energy Efficiency frameworks to inform policymakers and stakeholders on energy efficiency; electrification; GHG reductions; utility structure; load management; non-wires alternatives; distributed energy resources; and other solutions necessary to change existing statutes and regulations to achieve climate, energy, and equity objectives. Finally, Acadia Center will continue to push a bill in the 130th Legislature to add climate and equity to the PUC’s responsibilities, empowering it to value emissions reductions and environmental justice in all policy, programmatic, and regulatory decisions.

The MURRDI report deserves a standing ovation clean energy, zero carbon, and equity for all. Who knew?

 

Rhode Island Adopts Mandatory, Enforceable Climate Targets

On April 10th, Governor Daniel McKee signed the landmark Act on Climate bill into law, updating Rhode Island’s climate goals with mandatory, enforceable targets which scientists indicate are necessary to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis. The law updates the 2014 Resilient Rhode Island Act which set aspirational goals and will ensure the state takes actions necessary to reduce carbon emissions below 1990 levels by 45% by 2030, 80% by 2040, and to net-zero levels by 2050. With the strokes of 5 ceremonial pens, Governor McKee added Rhode Island to the growing number of states in the region that have committed to reducing carbon pollution.  As a result, Rhode Islanders will see benefits from cleaner air, healthier homes, increased investment in the local economy, and a more independent and resilient energy system. 

This law puts Rhode Island at the forefront of a changing regional economy that is actively reducing its dependence on polluting, imported fossil fuels by transitioning to local, clean, and renewable sources of energy.
– Hank Webster, Acadia Center’s Rhode Island Director and Staff Attorney

The Act on Climate law requires the state to update its greenhouse gas reduction plan by the end of 2022 with another update in 2025 and every five years thereafter. At the signing ceremony on historic Bowen’s Wharf in Newport, Governor McKee instructed his cabinet to “ramp up the strategic planning and outreach needed to put together plans and meet the targets under this act, and do it quickly.”

Acadia Center will continue to be a key stakeholder in those discussions and on Monday, Acadia Center’s Rhode Island Director, Hank Webster, convened leaders in the business community to discuss opportunities to work together to achieve these important environmental goals for the benefit of all Rhode Islanders. “This law is really about making sure Rhode Island prepares itself for an energy transition that we know is occurring on a global scale. It will ultimately help create and sustain jobs, improve our energy resiliency, and attract new businesses and workers. Rhode Island was the birthplace of the American industrial revolution and with this significant commitment to a clean energy economy, we can recapture that legacy of innovation.”

The Future: One Day at a Time

President Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a  time.” It’s also true that the present has often been built one day at a time through incalculable numbers of small and large actions. Acadia Center supported passage of Rhode Island’s initial climate legislation in 2014 and has been a lead organization in the annual efforts to strengthen Rhode Island’s commitment to clean energy, working in collaboration with other advocates as part of the Environment Council of Rhode Island, the Climate Crisis Campaign, the Energize Rhode Island Coalition, and Climate Jobs RI Coalition—a partnership between environmental and labor organizations. Acadia Center provided regular climate and energy briefings to legislators, demonstrating the health and economic benefits of climate action for their constituents, such as lower rates of asthma, cardiovascular disease, and even premature death.

Acadia Center and its partners conducted several virtual webinars throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and the transition to a new governor and House leadership in 2021. Acadia Center worked with legislative sponsors to strengthen the law and testified in support of the latest versions of the Act on Climate in 2020 and 2021. In recent weeks, Acadia Center played a key role in correcting a steady stream of disinformation coming from fossil-fuel aligned opponents to climate action.

Acknowledging the longstanding efforts of advocacy groups like Acadia Center, State Representative Lauren Carson, lead sponsor of the law in the House, said, “To the environmental advocates, I say years and years of work in the legislature have culminated in a bill that has moved a tremendous percentage of voters in the state of Rhode Island.” Attorney General Peter Neronha said, “I want to recognize the advocates that pushed elected officials—people like me—to do what is best for the people of the state of Rhode Island and around the country. The time to act is now.”

With the Act on Climate now in statute, Acadia Center is urging the state to implement key findings from numerous state-led energy studies, including the recommendation to plan a heat pump conversion effort outlined in the Heating Sector Transformation process and to implement the bipartisan, regional Transportation and Climate Initiative, as recommended by the state’s Mobility Innovation Working Group.

Climate Change Already Impacting Rhode Island

General Assembly leaders in attendance at the bill signing ceremony spoke about the importance of Rhode Island developing plans to address climate change and the ongoing energy transition away from fossil fuels. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio told the crowd, “climate change is happening more rapidly than we anticipated. We have a number of pieces of legislation in the Senate and House that we will be addressing this year to make significant changes to our policies. Obviously, we are looking to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.”

Senate Environment & Agriculture Committee Chair Dawn Euer, the lead sponsor of the legislation in her chamber, noted that Rhode Island is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, recalling that the site of the ceremony was underwater during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. “I think that we’ve seen the effects of climate change have been increasing and the reality is that the energy transition is coming.”

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi spoke about the moral imperative of climate action: “My colleagues in the House came to me and said we need to do this. We need to do this for the future of Rhode Island. We all have to do our part and we have to leave this state better than we found it.”

Indeed, Governor McKee noted that “With 400 miles of coastline, the Ocean State is on the front lines of the climate crisis.” McKee also told the crowd of supporters that climate change threatens the “tourism industry and the countless small businesses it supports. This is especially true right here in Newport.” Governor McKee also touted the economic opportunities Rhode Island could seize by taking steps to address climate change, referencing efforts at the federal level to advance a federal infrastructure plan. “Rhode Island must seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This means growing green jobs and promoting resiliency.”  

Next Steps

With the Act on Climate now in statute, Acadia Center is urging the state to implement key findings of the organization’s EnergyVision 2030 Roadmap and from numerous state-led energy studies. As part of the state’s initial climate action plan due by the end of 2022, Acadia Center will urge state policymakers to develop a heat pump conversion program as outlined in the Heating Sector Transformation process, to implement the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative recommended by the state’s Mobility Innovation Working Group, and to update the state’s Renewable Energy Standard to 100% by 2030. 

For more information:

Hank Webster
Rhode Island Director & Staff Attorney
hwebster@acadiacenter.org
401.276.0600 ext.402 

Fossil Gas, a Bridge Too Far

In a major milestone for the federal and New England electric grid, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced on March 8th that it had completed the required final environmental impact statement for Vineyard Wind, the nation’s first industrial-scale offshore wind (OSW) facility, to be located off the coast of Massachusetts. Slated for completion by mid-2024, this 800 MW project will power the equivalent of 400,000 homes with renewable energy, and it represents just the beginning for a burgeoning clean energy industry. The Biden administration recently announced plans to develop 30,000 MW of OSW by 2030 in the Northeast.

The emergence of a homegrown clean energy economy provides Massachusetts with an opportunity to end our long-running dependency on natural gas (more accurately called “fossil gas”), reduce the amount of money sent out-of-state, and build a strong and local engine for economic growth. Massachusetts has recognized the vital role that OSW will play in the gas-less future. The Commonwealth recently published its Energy Pathways Roadmap,  a planning and analysis process to identify cost-effective and equitable pathways to reaching the 2050 target of reducing emissions by at least 85% by 2050, a target that was recently enshrined into law. The analysis notes that “offshore wind is the backbone of decarbonized electricity generation in Massachusetts,” with all modeled pathways requiring at least 15 GW of regional offshore wind by 2050.

Due to significant land constraints and the potential for delays in siting projects and transmission that limit onshore renewable development in the region, OSW will be a crucial resource for decarbonizing Massachusetts’ electric grid. OSW will displace polluting and dangerous gas infrastructure, which is currently the dominant energy resource on the grid (over 50% of electricity was generated from gas in 2020 regionally). With increased wind at night and winter, when demand for heat is highest, OSW will be able to meet peak demand for electric home heating.

According to the Massachusetts 2050 Roadmap, in all modeled scenarios, gas demand in the electric power sector needs to decrease drastically in the next 10 to 15 years. The graph below shows that regardless of the scenario in the Commonwealth’s modeled analysis – including one where it adds new pipelines — if we wish to meet climate targets, production of electricity from in-state fossil gas power plants must fall from roughly 70% of generation today to 37% by 2025 and 15% by 2030, finally decreasing to less than 10% between 2040 and 2050. Massachusetts’ modeling indicates that now is the time to decarbonize the grid, rather than in some distant future. Acadia Center, in our recent public comments on the Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2030, made similar points that now is the time to reduce our dependence on gas and make this decade count.

To better understand the strategy behind this rapid decline in gas demand and how this will impact our chances at reaching net-zero economy-wide by 2050, it helps to think of what the Commonwealth needs to do between now and 2050 in ten-year increments.

2021 to 2030 – Use Offshore Wind to Push Out Gas Generated Electricity

Between 2021 and 2030, Massachusetts must focus on decarbonizing the electric sector through a rapid and sustained buildout of offshore wind, in addition to hydropower imports from Canada, while continuing successful utility and distributed solar, onshore wind, and energy efficiency programs. Decarbonizing the electric sector will serve as the low-carbon backbone for a broader decarbonized economy. As more OSW comes online, the less gas Massachusetts and the region will need. In the words of former Massachusetts utility regulator Paul Hibbard, “the less offshore wind there is, the more generation from gas-fired, carbon emitting power plants there will be. It’s almost a 1-to-1 offset.”

2030 to 2040 – Electrify, Electrify, Electrify

In the following decade, as the electric grid is increasingly low-carbon, it will be necessary to aggressively electrify home heating and vehicles. While there are serious and successful efforts underway right now to electrify these sectors in New England, by 2030 the region will have the low-carbon grid ready to reap the climate, public health, and consumer benefits of a decarbonized grid. According to the 2050 Roadmap’s modeling, high-efficiency electric air-source heat pumps need to overtake fossil gas heat in residential buildings by 2034 and in commercial buildings by 2036. For light-duty vehicles, the 2050 Roadmap predicts that electric vehicles could overtake fossil fuel vehicles sometime in the mid-to-late 2030s. During this time, the region will continue to add OSW and other renewable resources, as well as battery storage and flexible demand response, increasingly pushing out gas generation.

2040 to 2050 – Sustaining the Zero Carbon Economy

In the last decade before mid-century, it will be crucial to continue to build on the success of the previous decades through continued investment in renewable energy and electrification while working to fully retire the remaining gas resources in the region. Even as late as 2045, the Commonwealth projects that gas will rely on between 1% to 5% of total electric demand during periods of peak demand. Massachusetts and other New England states project that the region will infrequently run its fleet of fossil gas generation in the region through 2050 to balance the operational needs of the grid, while providing backup to renewables.

Conclusion

While the natural gas industry claims that gas is a “bridge fuel” to a cleaner future, much of Massachusetts’ planning documents rely on polluting and dangerous gas resources through 2050. It is time for policy makers to realize that for our region, gas is a bridge too far, one that the region needs to get off as soon as possible by decarbonizing the grid, shifting to all-electric homes, electric vehicles, and continuing to invest in energy efficiency and innovative demand-side technology solutions.

We know that polluting and dangerous fossil gas resources are more likely to be in environmental justice communities. It is necessary then to invest in renewables and electrification while deploying long-term energy storage, dynamic load management, and smart grid transmission technologies in order to eliminate demand for gas and to shut down polluting plants. Making full use of decarbonization technologies will help wean our state off its addiction to fossil gas and shorten the fossil gas bridge.

 

 

How Massachusetts Can Make this Decade Count: Acadia Center Weighs in on the Interim CECP

Overview

As the decade opens, Massachusetts is breaking new ground in climate policy with stronger, legally binding carbon emission targets and an ambitious 10-year plan that will set the course for a just, equitable, and decarbonized economy by 2030. These advances are the outcome of several years of focused advocacy, analysis, and stakeholder engagement. Acadia Center is pleased to have been a leader in this process through ACES coalition engagement, as an original member of the Implementation Advisory Committee, and by drafting and organizing comments on the Interim Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP) for 2030.

Overall, Acadia Center believes that the interim Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP) provides the Commonwealth and its stakeholders a solid basis upon which to advance climate policy. Acadia Center provided extensive detailed comments to the Plan, including several overarching points:

  • With the passage of S.30 into law on March 26, 2021, Acadia Center recommends EEA update its Roadmap Modeling scenarios and issue a final 2030 CECP that accounts for the more stringent, science based 50% economy-wide target and the new statutory requirements related to all major carbon-emitting sectors; and
  • Acadia Center urges EEA to refine the final CECP’s specificity regarding how the state will achieve the components of the plan. This should include: establishing the timing for each action in the plan, identifying the agency or department responsible for overseeing the action, estimating any additional funding necessary, and determining the need for additional statutory or regulatory authority to fully implement all actions in the plan.

The bulk of Acadia Center’s comments focused on buildings and energy supply.   Acadia Center is committed to supporting the effective implementation of the final CECP for 2030 through engagement with the Executive Office for Energy and Environmental Affairs and other responsible agencies and the many interested and affected stakeholders seeking to ensure that Massachusetts reaches its 2030 climate goals and set the state on a path to reaching a net-zero economy.

Transforming our Buildings

As Massachusetts prepares to implement an unprecedented policy program to reach zero net emissions by 2050, the targets included in the interim CECP for the buildings sector are appropriately ambitious. Acadia Center commends the Commonwealth for recognizing the critical role that a decarbonized commercial and residential building stock will play in reducing overall emissions. Buildings account for nearly a third of the Commonwealth’s annual emissions, and rapid building electrification is the only reasonable way to eliminate these emissions.

Acadia Center presented a number of recommendations for the interim CECP’s approach to building electrification, including:

  • The creation of a specific framework for electrifying one million homes and 300-400 million square feet of commercial real estate by 2030;
  • The necessity of a regulatory or legislative target to ensure rapid progress and jump-start the marketplace for zero-emissions-ready technologies in buildings;
  • Address Mass Save program’s design and cost-effectiveness accounting methods that may limit electrification;
  • Prioritize weatherization, supported by strong education and awareness campaign and implemented through expanding workforce development and jobs;
  • Use solid data to carefully track the progress of the deployment of the measures in buildings;
  • Fully prepare for the challenges in electrifying and weatherizing older, substandard housing;
  • Target improving housing in environmental justice communities and make it possible for renters to participate in weatherization and electrification programs; and
  • Revisit electric rate design to ensure that electric rates reflect and support the Commonwealth’s electrification policy goals.

Transforming our Energy Supply

Similarly, Acadia Center reviewed the interim CECP’s plans to achieve the 2030 target through strategies aimed at the state’s Energy Supply.  A successfully decarbonized electric grid will serve as the backbone to economy-wide decarbonization efforts in the building and transportation sectors. Acadia Center’s comments on the Energy Supply sector focused on the need to ensure continued progress in meeting the Commonwealth’s renewable energy procurement targets while ensuring proper siting and equitable outcomes. The comments also reinforced the need for significant reforms of both the regional market and the distribution-level system.

Acadia Center detailed its concerns regarding the interim CECP’s lack of commitment to further deployment of clean energy generation beyond what is already planned in anticipation of future market reforms. Those regional reform processes, particularly at the ISO-NE level, are likely to take years, and this should not be a justification to pause or curtail renewable generation procurements in the meantime.

Acadia Center’s comments presented a range of recommendations about Energy Supply, including:

  • Expand solar power while protecting farmland and forests, incentivizing development on contaminated and brownfield sites, and providing stakeholders with clarity, predictability, and technical assistance to address siting challenges;
  • Extend the applicability of the state’s climate and clean energy policies to include Municipal Light Plants;
  • Require that future imported energy under the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) be subject to stringent attribute accounting procedures and tracking systems;
  • Explore using existing and possibly new transmission resources in a bi-directional method to employ existing Canadian hydropower as a form of pumped storage; and
  • Exclude additional buildout of hydroelectric impoundment dams in Canada and elsewhere from eligibility in procurements and other clean energy policies.

Acadia Center-led Coalition Comments on the Future of Gas

Acadia Center was the lead author and coordinator of coalition comments focusing on the need for the CECP to address the use of natural gas in buildings. The Commonwealth continues to use gas in buildings for space heating water heating and other uses, contributing to more than 18% of the state’s emissions as of 2016.  Yet gas companies continue to build new pipelines and solicit new customers, who install new gas equipment, which in turn increases emissions, damages public health, and locks in more stranded assets each year.  Acadia Center and 37 co-signers urged the Commonwealth to add clarity to the goals of the CECP as they relate to gas, so future planning will take into account the Commonwealth’s targets.  The specific recommendations include:

  • Creating a cross sector infrastructure plan that addresses both the increase in demand for electricity through electrification and winding down of gas use in buildings;
  • Retaining an independent consultant to support EEA’s capacity to address the public’s needs and as a counterbalance to the gas companies’ consultants engaged in the DPU’s inquiry into the future of gas companies;
  • Focus on electrification rather than alternative fuels like hydrogen and renewable natural gas to reduce emissions in buildings;
  • Require accurate accounting for methane leakage from the gas pipeline and distribution system
  • Design the next Mass Save 3 year plan with the gas phase out in mind;
  • Accurately and holistically account for the costs of the health impacts cause by maintaining or expanding gas infrastructure; and
  • Provide realistic and well-publicized pathways away from gas for low-income and other marginalized households.

Other Joint Coalition Comments

Acadia Center contributed to and signed on to the following joint comments with a broad range of advocacy and activist groups on both transportation and environmental justice.

Transportation recommendations prioritized a multi-pronged approach to reducing transportation emissions, including tailpipe pollution that disproportionately harms marginalized communities and greater emphasis on public transit.  These provisions include:

  • Expanding public transit service and electrifying transit buses and trains;
  • Ensuring equitable and timely investment through the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program;
  • Increasing EV sales goals to 50% by 2030;
  • Modifying EV rebate programs to accelerate deployment and expand access to electric mobility options;
  • Accelerating the coordinated deployment of EV charging stations;
  • Prioritizing electrification of cars, trucks, buses and private fleets in environmental justice (EJ) communities;
  • Implementing strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT); and
  • Improving and expanding public transportation and biking and pedestrian infrastructure.

Environmental Justice recommendations focused on the need to center and prioritize justice, equity and worker rights in the CECP to address unequal burdens to impacted and vulnerable communities and avoid further harms to those communities as Massachusetts transitions toward a pollution-free economy.  Among the many important recommendations are the following:

  • Improve community engagement and EJ considerations in infrastructure siting
  • Require diverse hiring and workforce development practices across all sectors to achieve quality jobs
  • Not assume that any biogenic feedstocks are “zero emission” or “net zero”
  • Prioritize investments in overburdened and underserved communities
  • Address the environmental justice and low-income needs for public transit, EV incentives, electrification of public transit fleets and school buses, diesel phase out, alternative transportation modes
  • Address heating fuel emissions from existing buildings, and provide funding and other support for LMI and EJ populations
  • Focus Mass Save/Energy Efficiency programs on pre-electrification, weatherization, and electrification
  • Remove MSW and woody biomass from eligibility in clean energy incentive programs
  • Eliminate existing and ban future high heat waste facilities (MSW) and employ zero waste policies
  • Preserve existing trees and plant new trees in urban areas
  • Allocate funds and jobs for climate adaptation projects that benefit EJ populations

Contact for more information:

Deborah Donovan, Massachusetts Director
ddonovan@acadiacenter.org
617-742-0054 ext.103

New England Governors’ Energy Vision: Shifting Power on the Regional Electricity Grid

Acadia Center works at the forefront of the effort to move toward a just, equitable and climate-focused future for New England and the Northeast. Central to that shift is the urgent need to fundamentally reshape the system we rely on to deliver electricity over the regional grid.  We must ensure the region has an electricity grid that can serve the needs of a fully electrified economy while rapidly evolving toward greater reliance on newer, cleaner, and more advanced energy technologies, including renewable generation powered by the wind and sun, energy storage, and flexible energy demand. The region must approach this transformation by putting the needs of customers at the center, especially the needs of those hose communities have borne a disproportionate economic burden of the detrimental impacts of energy, endured the damaging impacts of the fossil-fueled system and are at greatest risk when it comes to climate-driven disasters.

Today, the way the region’s electricity grid is planned and operates neglects to consider the climate crisis and environmental justice priorities while perpetuating our dependence on fossil fuels.  That is largely because the grid is not currently managed to embrace viable clean energy technologies or consider the impacts of its decision on vulnerable communities. Over the last year, Acadia Center, states, and a multitude of stakeholders throughout the region have intensified their commitment to transform the electricity grid through reforms that will reduce the burdens the grid places on consumers and the planet and broaden the universe of stakeholders providing input into goals and priorities for the region. The outcome of these ongoing discussions will have far-reaching implications for achieving state climate policy goals and establishing a clear pathway toward a fully decarbonized economy.

Who’s got the power now?

The Independent System Operator of New England (ISO-NE) is a non-profit entity formed over 20 years ago to oversee the electricity grid that serves all six New England states. It manages the wholesale electricity market so there is sufficient electricity generation capacity to reliably and cost-effectively meet consumer demand at all times. When the ISO was created, electricity mostly came from centrally dispatched plants fueled by nuclear, hydropower, coal and oil, mostly owned and operated by for-profit corporations. Over the last two decades, the region’s energy needs have been increasing met through gas-fueled power plants as fracked gas became increasingly cheap and was perceived as lower-polluting than dirtier coal and oil.

There is one notable success story that demonstrates the meaningful benefits that state clean energy commitments provide to consumers and the climate.  Investments in energy efficiency programs and solar energy have cut the region’s energy use by 15%, and continued expansions of efficiency and solar could result in as much as a 25% reduction, conferring significant savings and carbon reductions.

In many ways, ISO-NE’s decisions are stuck in this out-of-date world centered on fossil fuels. The status quo benefits the owners of today’s fleet of plants and is holding the region back from fully achieving a clean energy future. What’s more, the byzantine, exclusionary decision-making forums dominated by ISO staff, its board, and the powerful incumbent energy companies shut out the people most affected by the decisions that result.

What is needed?

Times have changed and our grid must change with it. Today, access to affordable, clean sources of electricity, and investing in efficiency and emerging technologies will enable us to transform the grid yet again into the grid of the future, one that equitably meets everyone’s needs as we face the climate crisis.  And that means changing the mission of the entity that operates the grid to one that:

  • Prioritizes attaining state policy goals for clean energy and climate emission reductions
  • Supports the expansion of renewable energy resources, including community-based sources
  • Ensures full consideration of the justice and equity implications of the grid’s impacts
  • Makes decisions by accounting for all benefits (reducing carbon emissions) and costs (damaging public health and the climate)

Where’s it going? New England Governors’ Energy Vision of Regional Cooperation

In October 2020, the New England Governors released a Vision Statement expressing dissatisfaction with this status quo, and committing to fully transparent, publicly accessible regional discussion about three major areas of concern:  wholesale energy market design; transmission infrastructure planning; and governance.  After issuing their public commitment to regional cooperation in March 2019, the states have been frustrated with the slow progress and narrow scope of discussions happening behind closed doors between ISO leadership and members of NEPOOL, the regional stakeholder body. The Governors’ October Vision Statement describes in detail the states’ mutual concerns about the inability for the regional market to enable the states to meet their clean energy and climate goals in a timely and optimal way.  Specifically, the statement:

  • Lays out a set of minimum principles necessary to address the fundamental shortcomings of the energy market rules;
  • Articulates the priorities for a significantly re-engineered transmission planning process; and
  • Calls for an update of the ISO’s mission statement, governance structure, and mechanisms for stakeholder participation.

“A clean, affordable, and reliable regional electric grid – together with transparent decision-making processes and competitive market outcomes that fully support clean energy laws – is foundational to achieving our shared clean energy future… To achieve these goals, we need a decarbonized grid capable of supporting the accelerated adoption of more sustainable electric, heating, and transportation solutions for families and businesses.”

— Governors’ Statement on Electricity System Reform

The states committed to holding a series of public forums focusing on the three topics (wholesale energy market design, transmission infrastructure planning, and governance), and are seeking stakeholder input in the form of written comments. Overall, the Governors have set the stage for the region to reach resolution on a range of interrelated issues by putting state climate policy and stakeholder needs at the center of the process. Acadia Center strongly supports and presses for the commitment to reaching consensus solutions, understanding that politically durable progress must begin with states asserting themselves and taking control of the dialogue.  Acadia Center and its coalition partners have attended three forums and have prepared comments on Market Design, Transmission Planning, and Governance issues.  In Acadia Center’s comments, we have raised substantive policy reforms for consideration, including their implications for a just transition.

Thus far, calls for fundamental reforms have been met with strong resistance by the ISO and incumbent stakeholders that dominate the NEPOOL and ISO agendas.  With the states opening the forums up to everyone, this process has the potential to bring about reforms that can bring the region an electricity system that is centered on the states’ climate commitments and protective of all the region’s residents. This process has the makings of a major paradigm shift.

What’s next? The Energy Vision Forum on Equity and Environmental Justice

While Acadia Center applauds the states for launching the Energy Vision initiative, we were concerned about the initial lack of focus on equity and environmental justice outcomes.  It is essential that these values be considered when weighing the range of market design, transmission, and governance reforms. And that can only happen when the voices of front-line communities are part of the conversation from the beginning. After hearing about these concerns, the state organizers agreed to add a fourth forum focusing on environmental justice and equity.

On March 18, 2021, the states convened the fourth and final forum designed to be a dialogue between state policymakers and the public to address equity and environmental justice concerns. The virtual forum was free and presented in both English and Spanish.  A recording of the session is located on the New England Energy Vision website as well as presentations by the speakers.  Stakeholders can join the mailing list to hear about next steps by signing up here. In addition, stakeholders are invited to submit written comments regarding equity and environmental justice perspectives on the regional energy grid. Comments should be sent to Claire.Sickinger@ct.gov by April 29, 2021.

Conclusion

Acadia Center is working to ensure that New England has an electricity grid that can rapidly evolve toward greater reliance on cleaner, safer, and more affordable energy technologies, including renewable generation powered by the wind and sun, energy storage and flexible energy demand. The region’s governors have opened a dialogue on a range of interrelated issues by putting state climate policy and stakeholder needs at the center of the process. As the initiative progresses, Acadia Center will be pressing states to set and meet a high bar when it comes to delivering forward looking solutions that put equity and environmental justice concerns that their center.  Acadia Center will work with allies to unlock the door to a clean energy future while pushing for greater accountability, transparency, fairness, and equity for the communities that bear the worst burdens of our fossil fueled electricity grid.

Additional Resources:

 

Advocating for an Ambitious and Equitable TCI Program in Connecticut: The Power of Coalitions

The Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) project continues to move forward in Connecticut with strong support from the Lamont Administration and many others, attesting to the strength of the TCI Coalition that Acadia Center has been working to build over the past two years. An important milestone occurred on March 8, 2021, when the Connecticut General Assembly’s Environment Committee held a public hearing on Senate Bill No. 884, a governor’s bill that would establish the TCI Program as state policy and require the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to adopt implementing regulations.  The hearing was well attended by numerous and wide-ranging supporters who countered misinformation provided by the fossil fuel industry, spoke to the benefits the TCI Program would bring to the state, and called on state leaders to adopt additional measures to ensure equitable outcomes. Following the hearing, Governor Ned Lamont, legislative leaders and Middletown officials held a press conference on March 17, 2021, to express their support for the program and to highlight the state’s first electric school bus—the type of investment that could be replicated across the state with TCI funds.

Acadia Center has led and coordinated the advocacy efforts of the Connecticut TCI Coalition since 2019.  The TCI Coalition now includes over 50 environmental, transportation, labor, justice and energy policy advocacy groups and businesses. This broad group of stakeholders from across the state has been coordinating virtually over the last year, extending outreach, amplifying campaign messages, and meeting regularly with state agencies to communicate our shared vision.

The success of the legislative hearing is the result of months of preparation on the part of Acadia Center and our coalition partners, sharing regional data and studies with the coalition, and refining a coordinated message. The TCI Coalition coordinated and conveyed a positive narrative that addressed the many benefits of the TCI program, from cleaner air and achieving climate targets to transportation improvements that will help businesses and communities thrive. Testimony from Acadia Center and our allies also called on Connecticut to go above and beyond the terms of the regional agreement by strengthening equity provisions and dedicating more TCI-P funds for investment in the state’s overburdened and underserved communities. Early modeling projects that TCI could save Connecticut over $360 million in public health costs annually by 2032; if implemented equitably, most of those health benefits will occur in the communities hardest hit by transportation pollution.

Staff from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) responded to misinformation about the TCI-P. As in other states, members of the fossil fuel industry exaggerated the program’s costs, ignored its benefits, and offered no alternative to address the climate, public health, and transportation challenges facing Connecticut. Katie Dykes, Commissioner of the Connecticut DEEP, and the other representatives of the Lamont administration gave strong testimony. Commissioner Dykes noted:  “This is an environmental program that will cap greenhouse gas emissions and require the oil industry to pay for the damage it is causing to public health and the climate … I believe that Connecticut, being a leader on addressing climate and air pollution, is going to provide significant benefits to our communities,” Dykes told members of the committee. “I am very confident that if we do move this program forward, that we will see more states joining.”

Senator Christine Cohen, Co-Chair of the Environment Committee, expanded on her testimony by publishing a pro-TCI op-ed in the Connecticut Post. “Turning climate change around is the challenge of our time, and we owe it to future generations to do all we can to mitigate its impacts. We need bold action. I look forward to doing my part, along with my colleagues in the legislature, to ensure that Connecticut enacts legislation to implement TCI.”

Amy McLean, Acadia Center Connecticut Director,  testified that “Connecticut has an opportunity to deliver the clean air and improved transportation options that the state’s residents and businesses deserve. Chronic under-investment—both in marginalized communities and in alternatives to personal vehicles—has resulted in congested roads, inadequate public transit, and neighborhoods lacking access to economic opportunities. At the same time, the imported fossil fuels used to power vehicles remain Connecticut’s greatest contributor to climate change and a major source of the air pollution that disproportionately harms minority residents. It is time to end that toxic combination by passing Senate Bill 884 to advance a modern, equitable, and sustainable transportation future.”

Acadia Center and its TCI Coalition partners look forward to continuing their partnerships to support this program that will bring enormous benefits to all Connecticut residents. The Environment Committee is expected to vote on SB 884 by March 31st, and the conversation will continue from there. For more information on the next steps and how you can support an equitable and ambitious TCI-P in Connecticut, contact Amy McLean, Senior Policy Advocate and Connecticut Director at amclean@acadiacenter.org