Carbon compact supporter reflects on Pennsylvania’s departure
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, Nov. 24, 2025…..Pennsylvania has chosen to walk away from the nation’s longest-running carbon reduction compact, but in Massachusetts the Senate’s top energy policymaker says the state should use the moment to double down on the cap-and-trade approach.
Clean energy advocates offered a starkly different assessment.
The Acadia Center called Pennsylvania’s exit a “short-sighted decision” that will cost the state nearly $20 billion in revenue over 12 years and deprive communities of public-health protections and affordability investments.
“This is a grave setback for Pennsylvania’s energy, climate, and affordability policies,” the group said, arguing the withdrawal comes as RGGI’s benefits “are most urgently needed.”
To read the full article from the State House News Service, click here.
Josh Shapiro Ditched the Same Climate Pact That Abigail Spanberger Is Joining
At the same time that congressional Democrats were trying to wrangle their way out of the weekslong government shutdown impasse on Capitol Hill, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) faced his own standoff in Harrisburg.
Environmental groups have criticized his capitulation on RGGI, as well as his failure to live up to his green campaign promises in areas like fracking. The Acadia Center, a clean-energy advocacy group, estimated that the state has lost more than $5 billion in estimated RGGI allowance revenues since 2022. Due to legal challenges filed almost immediately after Wolf signed his executive order joining the pact, Pennsylvania never generated any revenues, since the state never participated in the carbon credit auctions.
To read the full article from the American Prospect, click here.
New Massachusetts bill undermines state progress towards clean energy
The Massachusetts House Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy released passed a bill this week that would undermine the state’s 25 year track record of moving us away from our reliance on dirty and unsafe energy towards a goal of 100% renewable, clean, safe, and eventually cheaper energy sources like solar and wind.
The bill, H4744, “An Act relative to energy affordability, clean power, and economic competitiveness” is currently before the House Ways and Means Committee where we are encouraging them to make significant changes to the bill to embrace our transition to clean energy not derail it.
Provisions in H4744 that we oppose, because they threaten to slow or reverse our progress toward clean energy:
- Cuts and restrictions to MASS Save. MASS Save, as you know, is a program funded by ratepayers that helps households and businesses reduce their energy use through weatherization, energy-efficient products and tools, and the purchase and installation of clean energy appliances like electric heat pumps. According to the Acadia Center, since 2012, MASS Save programs have delivered over $55 billion in total lifetime benefits to households and businesses across the state, providing $3.40 in benefits for every $1.00 invested in the programs. The bill cuts the program by $500 million dollars and caps it at its 2022-2024 level. Additionally the bill limits access to MASS Save for the municipalities pursuing fossil-free building codes, which is an effort we should be promoting, not penalizing.
To read the full article from MassPIRG, click here.
Pennsylvania exits RGGI to pass budget
Pennsylvania exited the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) as a concession by Democratic lawmakers to finalize the state’s long-delayed budget for the coming year.
“We needed to focus on a budget that helps people make ends meet. We also recognize the reality of divided government and the need for compromise,” state House of Representatives majority leader Matt Bradford’s (D) office said on Thursday.
Governor Josh Shapiro (D) on Wednesday signed a bill, HB 416, repealing regulation that allows Pennsylvania to participate in the northeastern power plant CO2 cap-and-trade program. The state’s exit from the program was part of a deal reached by lawmakers to finalize Pennsylvania’s budget for the coming year, a process that had been ongoing for a few months.
“RGGI was seen as a political liability with certain voting blocs in the current affordability environment,” said non-profit Acadia Center senior director Jamie Dickerson and senior policy and data analyst Paola Tamayo.
To read the full article from Argus Media, click here.
Massachusetts bill would undo climate goals and cut efficiency spending
Massachusetts lawmakers have advanced an energy-affordability bill that opponents say would undo years of work on policies to fight climate change and promote energy efficiency, all without actually saving consumers much money.
“The best you could say is that it is going after short-term affordability at the expense of long-term affordability,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for climate-action nonprofit Acadia Center. “Unfortunately, because it misunderstands the actual drivers of cost, it will drive up costs for ratepayers.”
Advocates also question the logic behind the plan to make the state’s 2030 climate goals nonbinding. Cusack argues the move is necessary to prevent lawsuits against the state, should it not meet its targets, especially in the light of obstacles being thrown up by the Trump administration. Murray, however, finds this contention unconvincing: The likelihood of a successful lawsuit is too low to justify unravelling years of climate progress, he said.
To read the full article from Canary Media, click here.
Top Mass. House Members Seeking Major Rollback of Climate Laws
Top Massachusetts House members are pushing an expansive energy bill that would scale back several major climate initiatives and programs and give the state immunity from legal challenges that result from missing its 2030 climate targets.
While the bill appears to have almost no chance of passing in the Senate, the legislation marks a significant change in the House’s approach to climate and energy policy. The bill has drawn immediate outcry from climate and consumer advocates. And it sets the stage for a high-profile clash between environmental advocates and industry groups that historically have opposed climate policy.
Kyle Murray, the Acadia Center’s Massachusetts program director, said the bill fails to “meaningfully address many of the largest real underlying energy cost drivers,” including gas volatility, spending on gas distribution pipe replacements, electric transmission costs and utility profits.
To read the full article from RTO Insider, click here.
Proposed bill takes aim at the state’s climate goals and Mass Save
For decades, Massachusetts has passed increasingly proactive laws aimed at addressing the climate crisis and driving the clean energy transition, making the state a leader in tackling greenhouse gas emissions.
But a soon-to-be proposed bill in the Massachusetts House would take a step in the opposite direction, weakening the state’s 2030 climate mandate to lower greenhouse gas emissions by making the target nonbinding.
The bill would also gut aspects of the state’s energy-efficiency program, Mass Save, in an attempt to save people money on their energy bills. It would do that by lowering the program’s budget, paid for by ratepayers, in addition to other cost-saving measures, according to a copy of the bill viewed by The Boston Globe.
That could result in short-term savings, but critics of the bill say it’s a long-term loser.
The bill “is a five-alarm fire,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for the advocacy group the Acadia Center, who is among the many climate and clean energy advocates in the state dismayed by the proposed legislation.
To read the full article from Boston Globe, click here.
‘We will fill the State House’: Advocates gird for a showdown over House plan to dial back climate commitments
Any Democrat in Massachusetts eyeing ways to slow down the state’s ambitious commitments to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels knows they’re asking for trouble with environmental advocates.
That’s exactly what’s already playing out as a key member of the House prepares to advance a plan to ease 2030 climate targets and cut the budget for the state’s energy efficiency program.
Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the nonprofit group Acadia Center, said in a statement that while the state must adapt to new roadblocks posed by the federal government, policymakers should “redouble efforts” to meet the climate targets.
“Simply put, weakening targets is essentially granting the state permission to fail, and failure is not acceptable – certainly not five years before a deadline,” he said.
To read the full article from Commonwealth Beacon, click here.
Newport Officials Lukewarm on Proposed Moratorium on New Natural Gas Hookups
NEWPORT, R.I. — After rejections from Middletown and Portsmouth, city officials are skeptical of a proposed Aquidneck Island-wide ban on new natural gas hookups.
On Wednesday, City Council members and members of the city’s Energy and Environment Commission held an information workshop at City Hall. The goal was to become informed on the pros and cons of an island-wide moratorium as proposed by the state Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB).
Environmental groups — the Conservation Law Foundation, Acadia Center, and Green Energy Consumers Alliance — were on hand to answer questions, along with an attorney representing Rhode Island Energy.
To read the full article from ecoRI, click here.
Connecticut and Maine team up to fast-track renewables
Maine and Connecticut are considering working together to build renewable-energy projects faster, a strategy that could be repeated throughout the region as states with ambitious emissions-reduction goals race to take advantage of federal tax credits before they disappear.
“It makes a lot of sense for a state like Maine to piggyback on their efforts and hopefully enter into contracts for a share of the capacity that gets bid in cost-effectively,” said Jamie Dickerson, senior director of climate and clean-energy programs at Acadia Center, an advocacy group.
To read the full article from Canary Media, click here.