The $500 million cut to Mass Save budget is ‘short-sighted,’ climate activists say

After gas bills spiked across Massachusetts, state officials are reducing the proposed budget for the Mass Save energy efficiency program by $500 million – a move environmentalists call “short-sighted” and argue will increase costs for residents in the long run.

The Department of Public Utilities approved a budget of $4.5 billion for Mass Save – which helps homes and businesses become more energy efficient through projects paid for by a surcharge on electricity and gas bills – for the next three years, after originally proposing a $5 billion budget. The reduction is expected to save residents and businesses about 25 percent on their gas bills and 15 percent on their electric bills, though exact amounts will vary, according to DPU officials.

“This plan, as ambitious as it is, actually only gets us to about half or less than half of the greenhouse gas reduction that we need to have according to our clean energy and climate plan,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the Acadia Center, a non-profit research and advocacy organization dedicated to combatting climate. “Even this plan is a compromise in itself.”

The sticker shock of the high gas bills is partly due to an unseasonably cold winter and the fact that Mass Save only increases its rate once every three years, Murray said. The increase in the Mass Save budget barely keeps up with inflation, he added, noting that the cuts were “disappointing” and “short-sighted.” (In the previous three-year plan, the program had a budget of $3.94 billion.)

Several environmental and climate leaders, including Murray, have advocated for alternative ways of funding the program but acknowledge the challenge of funding the program through the Legislature, particularly in an environment where federal funding for climate projects is at risk.

To read the full article from Commonwealth Beacon, click here.

Energy efficiency program skimmed to deliver utility rate relief

New RI report takes step towards reducing energy usage, emissions of large buildings

A new report by the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources is hoping to create an inventory of large buildings and their energy sources to assess how the Ocean State can lower emissions.

The report, titled the “Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council Report on Building Energy Benchmarking and Performance Standards,” was released on Feb. 10. When creating the report, the OER consulted over 13 government agencies, labs and utilities organizations, among other groups.

Kislak and Emily Koo, senior policy advocate and Rhode Island program director at Acadia Center, shared similar concerns. But both affirmed that despite financial uncertainty, progress is still possible.

“I fully anticipate that whatever plan we make will take into account available funding sources,” Kislak said.

“I don’t think (financial uncertainty) should, in any way, impact our commitment to tracking our own energy usage and reducing building emissions in the state,” Koo added.

To read the full article from the Brown Daily Herald, click here.

Progressives Say They Want Clean Energy. They Held Up This Hydro Project for Years.

On a bright, sunny Monday in the summer of 2016, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker sat outside the Bay State’s gold-domed statehouse to sign a bill designed to ensure that “Massachusetts and New England can remain a leader in clean and renewable energy production.” The bill sought to curtail the region’s carbon emissions without driving up electricity bills. To that end, the Baker administration was authorized to coordinate the purchase of clean electricity generated from, among other potential sources, wind turbines planned for the shallow water off the state’s southern coast and hydropower generated by dammed rivers in Canada. But because Massachusetts did not share a border with Canada, the new hydropower would have to travel through a neighboring state. And that, many quickly realized, would add several complications.

The concessions had a powerful political impact, inducing the Conservation Law Foundation and the Acadia Center, both leading environmental groups, to endorse the venture. It gave Mills cover to come out publicly in support as well, her endorsement helping to convince the state’s Public Utility Commission to grant the project a certificate of public convenience and necessity in April. By then it seemed as though the whole thing was settled.

To read the full article from Politico, click here.

Mass. residents will see lower gas bills for March and April, regulators say

State regulators are forcing natural gas companies to temporarily reduce total gas bills by at least 5% next month after public outcry over skyrocketing rates from Eversource, National Grid and other companies.

Experts and advocates say a “perfect storm” this winter caused the dramatic spikes. That includes a colder winter, economic pressures for volatile fossil fuel sources and a gas pipeline system within a monopoly of utility companies. And most of the cost comes down to the utilities’ delivery charges.

The GSEP was created in 2014 to accelerate the replacement of leak-prone gas pipes.

“That was a safety issue as well as a climate issue. So [the state] determined it was worth repairing or replacing,” said Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at Acadia Center.

Costs have mushroomed, even as gas leaks continue, and Murray says it could cost a total of $40 billion by 2039 to completely address.

Part of consumers’ bills also fund the Mass Save program, which offers rebates and incentives for residents to make their homes more energy efficient. The program’s costs continue to rise: it’s about to enter its next three-year cycle, and has asked the Department of Public Utilities to allocate $5 billion — a jump of $1 billion over the prior cycle. Those costs go back to ratepayers, too.

“It’s still awaiting approval of the DPU. And you know, that is a big jump,” said Murray, who added it’s keeping with inflation.

To read the full article from GBH, click here.

Another year, another decarbonization bill. And more angst about a deadline.

A new report commissioned by the Rhode Island General Assembly offers a laundry list of problems — and up to $1.4 million in annual costs —  preventing the state from collecting energy and emissions information from large privately owned buildings.

Yet the city of Providence has already managed to pull off its own version of a building energy benchmarking program, with one half-time employee and a $28,000 city budget, according to information from Priscilla de la Cruz, city sustainability director.

The OER estimated an initial $600,000 cost to expand an energy benchmarking program beyond state-owned buildings, rising to $1.4 million for technical support to implement performance standards around emissions.

Emily Koo, senior policy director and Rhode Island program director at Acadia Center, was unconvinced the problems were as big, or costly, as the report suggested.

 “Providence has already done the work to stand this kind of program up,” said Koo, who previously worked as the city’s sustainability director. “This is the absolute lowest-hanging fruit.”

To read the full article from the Rhode Island Current, click here.

Mass. orders gas utilities to slash delivery fees for residential customers

Financial relief for natural gas ratepayers in Massachusetts is coming — though the changes won’t take effect until March.

On Thursday, the Department of Public Utilities ordered the six gas utilities in the state to slash delivery fees, by enough to reduce the average customer bill at least 5% over the next two months. The utilities can collect the deferred costs when the weather is warmer and gas bills tend to be much lower, DPU officials said.

Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the nonprofit Acadia Center, said the rate cut could make a meaningful difference for people in Massachusetts.

“I appreciate the Department’s announced steps to lower energy costs for consumers, he wrote in an email. “These measures will begin to provide much-needed relief to households that have been struggling with persistently high heating bills”

To read the full article from wbur, click here.

Frustrated by high heating bills? On Facebook, energy customers are venting together

When Elijah DeSousa noticed a spike in his energy bills, he turned to social media to see if others were experiencing the same thing.

“I have thousands of examples of customers who have been really monitoring their usage and their usages have been lower,” said DeSousa, who lives in New Bedford. “The crux of it is the delivery charges, and when you look at the prices, I mean, nobody understands what they’re looking at.”

He created a Facebook group called Citizens Against Eversource, where customers discuss their energy bills.

“The vast majority of the delivery charge is the vast pipeline network that we have,” said Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at clean energy research and advocacy organization Acadia Center. “Unfortunately, maintaining this sprawling gas pipeline network that we have is very expensive and unlikely that costs are going to go down in the near future.”

He added that “it’s important that the state do everything in its power to kind of transition off of the gas system as soon as we can for heating.”

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

Mass. DPU Proposes Major Shift in Gas Line Extension Policies

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has proposed requiring customers who request new gas service to cover the full cost of any needed line extensions, which effectively would end the gas utilities’ practice of spreading these costs across their rate base.

The proposal is the latest step in the department’s docket focused on aligning gas regulations with the state’s statutory decarbonization requirements (DPU 20-80).

Ben Butterworth, of the Acadia Center, called the draft policy “a pretty big deal,” adding that it likely will result in “a significant reduction in terms of the growth of the system.”

“Obviously those three variables are open to interpretation by the commission, but my interpretation is the vast majority of projects would have an extremely hard time meeting those criteria,” Butterworth said.

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

Gas utility cancels networked geothermal pilot in Lowell

National Grid has canceled a major geothermal heating project in Lowell.

The decision is a blow for environmentalists, who hope geothermal networks will help Massachusetts meet its ambitious climate goals quickly and equitably.

Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the nonprofit Acadia Center, said that while it’s “disappointing” that National Grid pulled the plug on the Lowell project, he doesn’t think the whole model of utility-led networked geothermal is doomed.

“Part of the reason the commonwealth is currently pursuing them as pilot projects is exactly so that we can pace progress accordingly and learn lessons,” he said. “Doing new and innovative things is hard and things don’t always go smoothly.”

To read the full article from wbur, click here.