Environmental advocates launch Clean Energy Action Now

In an effort to raise awareness of the health, economic and climate benefits of an equitable clean energy future for the state, a number of top environmental agencies and advocates announced Tuesday they are launching the Clean Energy Action Now campaign.

The campaign, which will be known as CLEAN, aims to support the urgent adoption of policies that encourage and accelerate clean energy solutions, such as establishing a state target in law of 100% clean electricity by 2035. It also will work toward finding an equitable, affordable pathway to upgrade New Jersey’s homes and buildings to clean energy and highly efficient appliances such as heat pumps.

The following organizations are founding members of CLEAN:

  • Acadia Center;
  • Environmental Defense Fund;
  • Natural Resources Defense Council;
  • New Jersey Conservation Foundation;
  • New Jersey League of Conservation Voters;
  • ReThink Energy NJ;
  • Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter;
  • New Jersey Progressive Equitable Energy Coalition;
  • MnM Consulting.

To read the full article from ROI-NJ, click here.

Advocates want to limit how utilities pay for ‘political activities’ in Mass.

When you pay your monthly electric or gas bill, you give your utility money for a lot more than just the energy you use.

You pay for the cost of building and maintaining electrical wires or pipelines.

You pay for operating expenses like employee salaries and renting office space.

You pay for the state’s energy efficiency program.

And, experts say, you might also help pay for some of your utility’s attempts to influence climate policy or advance its other political goals.

Several environmental groups in the state like GreenRoots, Acadia Center and Slingshot also say they also support the effort.

“I think specific statutory rules would be beneficial for Massachusetts,” Kyle Murray of Acadia Center said. “Rules that increase transparency and ease the regulatory burden on ratepayers are always welcome.”

To read the full article from wbur, click here.

Connecticut Joins States Across the Region, Announcing Plans to Adopt Live-Saving Clean Cars and Trucks Standards

PRESS RELEASE – July 26, 2023

Hartford — Today, Governor Lamont and the Connecticut Department of Energy and the Environment announced that they are moving forward with plans to adopt the Advanced Clean Cars (ACCII), Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) and Heavy-Duty Omnibus (HDO) programs this year. This announcement sets the state on a path to lower vehicle emissions and a healthy transition to electric vehicles and cleaner air.

The transportation sector contributes 38% of the state’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other sector. Tailpipe pollution is also responsible for 67% of the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), a key component of smog that causes increased risk of asthma, lung disease and cancer. In Connecticut specifically, 4 out of 8 counties received F grades from the American Lung Association due to high ozone days.

Heavy-duty trucks and buses make up just 6% of all on-road vehicles across the states, but are responsible for over 50% of all NOx pollution and 45% of the diesel soot, also known as fine particulate matter, which finds its way deep into the lungs resulting in early death attributed to cardiovascular diseases, like heart attacks and strokes, as well as lung cancer, reproductive and developmental harm, and even diabetes and dementia.

“I am heartened by the announcement of these proposed regulations to help curb transportation emissions by the Lamont Administration and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection,” said Jayson Velazquez, Climate and Energy Justice Policy Associate, Acadia Center. “Measures like these will strengthen Connecticut’s position as a leader in climate action. I look forward to continued collaboration between the administration and our coalition partners to achieve equitable and timely emissions reductions.”

To read the full press release from Electric Trucks Now, click here.

Heat pumps are key to a clean-energy future, but how do they work?

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday is scheduled to vote on a program that seeks to decarbonize buildings by switching space and water heating from fossil fuels to electric heat pumps. While many clean-energy advocates support the project, critics argue the switch will increase demand on the electric grid and require expensive upgrades that could cost utility customers more. But the average New Jersey resident might not know what heat pumps are, how they work or even why people are urged to switch.

What are heat pumps?

Heat pumps are an energy-efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioners in living or commercial spaces. Heat pumps use electricity to transfer heat from a cool space to a warm space. In the summertime, they remove heat from the air inside and push cooled air back into the room. In the cooler months, they do the opposite, drawing heat energy from the air outside and moving it into the home, according to the Acadia Center.

Heat pumps do not generate heat; they simply transfer it.

Are heat pumps really cost-efficient?

When entire units are replaced, annual savings are around 3,000 kilowatt hours (or $459) as compared to electric resistant heaters and 6,200 kWh (or $948) as compared to oil system, according to a study by the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships.

An Acadia Center report also said New Jersey residents could save hundreds of dollars annually on their energy bills. But how much residents can save depends on prior fuel sources, weatherization, local utility rates and ongoing fluctuations in the energy market, according to the Energy Efficiency Alliance of New Jersey.

To read the full article in NJ Spotlight News, click here.

Massachusetts is phasing out natural gas. Why is it expanding in Douglas?

There’s not a whole lot to do in the tiny Central Massachusetts town of Douglas. There are state forests, a couple of pizza shops, and the water slides of the Breezy Picnic Grounds — it’s more Norman Rockwell than Downtown Crossing.

It also happens to be among the state’s 91 cities and towns with no natural gas service, a distinction that has led climate advocates to believe such communities are sure bets for converting quickly and easily from dirty fuels like oil and propane directly to climate-friendly electricity.

So they were dismayed recently to learn that Douglas officials and one of the state’s biggest gas utilities worked in the shadows for several years to bring gas service to the town and deliberately concealed the plans from climate advocates and others who might intervene.

“It sounds like this was an attempt to keep this out of the public eye, to keep the public less informed,” said Kyle Murray, director of the Massachusetts program at the clean energy advocacy nonprofit Acadia Center. “It’s incredibly depressing.”

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

RGGI funds may help decarbonize building sector

The Murphy administration plans to devote most of its investments from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to pay for decarbonizing buildings and electrifying the transportation sector in environmental-justice communities.

In its second, three-year strategic plan for determining where hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent, the administration says it will use the investments to advance Gov. Phil Murphy’s goals to slash emissions contributing to climate change and to transition to clean energy.

The strategic plan, released Friday, targets where funds raised by RGGI will be targeted between 2023 and 2025. The initiative is a cap-and-trade program that raises money from the power sector, which produces greenhouse gas emissions. In the past three years, $342 million in RGGI funds were allocated to various projects to reduce emissions and fund clean-energy projects.

Highly efficient, all-electric homes can help New Jersey households save money. A recent Acadia Center report demonstrates that New Jerseyans in an average insulated home can save anywhere from 4% to 41% on their annual energy bills by adopting heat pumps.

To read the full article from NJ Spotlight News, click here.

Climate advocates respond to RGGI Strategic Funding Plan on building electrification

Trenton, NJ —- Today a coalition of climate advocates responded to the second iteration of New Jersey’s RGGI Strategic Funding Plan, which allocates funding to invest in equitable solutions to accelerate New Jersey’s clean energy future across multiple sectors. Included in the announcement is funding to invest in projects that increase energy efficiency and reduce energy burdens for low-income households, accelerate the adoption of all-electric, pollution-free homes, and boost workforce readiness to help New Jerseyans upgrade their homes with clean energy.

This announcement takes an important step toward meeting Gov. Phil Murphy’s goal to deploy heat pumps in 400,000 homes and 20,000 commercial properties by 2030.

Highly efficient, all-electric homes can help New Jersey households save money.

A recent Acadia Center report demonstrates that New Jerseyans in an average insulated gas-heated home can save anywhere from 4% to 41% on their annual energy bills by adopting highly efficient electric appliances such as heat pumps, and up to 69% in a typical drafty home if paired with weatherization. That yearly energy savings puts thousands of dollars in people’s pockets for groceries, prescription costs, childcare, and other daily necessities.

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

Massachusetts Considers Legislation to Ban Gas in New Buildings

The Massachusetts Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy (TUE) held hearings last week on several bills that would expand the state’s 10-municipality demonstration project allowing cities and towns to ban fossil fuels in new buildings and major renovations.

The TUE Committee also took public testimony on a range of bills promoting building electrification and targeting fossil fuel consumption in buildings more broadly as the state looks to cut building sector emissions and meet its statutory climate goals.

Climate, public health and environmental justice advocacy groups spoke in favor of bills promoting electrification, while they opposed bills that would promote the use of biomethane or blended hydrogen in buildings.

Ben Butterworth, director of climate, energy and equity analysis at the Acadia Center, argued that blending biomethane — also known as renewable natural gas (RNG) — and hydrogen into the gas network “would significantly impair the state’s ability to cost-effectively decarbonize the building sector.”

Citing the “optimistic” estimates of the American Gas Foundation, Butterworth said biomethane from waste sources could cover only about 5% of current U.S. gas demand.

“Increasing RNG production beyond this level would require the use of highly controversial resources including energy crops and gasification of agricultural and forest residues. These forms of RNG production that rely on the intentional production of methane simply shouldn’t be on the table,” Butterworth said, citing the “lack of any clear GHG-reduction benefit and tradeoffs associated with land, water use and food production, to name a few.”

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

The Canadian Wildfires Ominously Messed Up a Clean Energy Power Line

The Quebec forest fires that have recently contributed to some of the worst smoke days in American history are also wreaking minor havoc on the electric grid.

Observers of electricity markets were puzzled Wednesday evening when grid operator ISO-New England announced that “due to an unanticipated transmission outage and higher-than-forecast consumer demand,” the New England grid would be calling on reserves “to balance the regional power system.” Demand that day did not seem particularly or unexpectedly high, nor were there any obvious supply issues in New England, so why was ISO-NE having trouble? More illumination came Thursday, when it specified there was a transmission issue with its imported power.

On the other hand, as Joe LaRusso of the Acadia Center, a New England clean energy group, pointed out to me, transmission is also what saved the day when Quebec’s imports were shut off, as imports from New York picked up the slack.

“It serves as a demonstration not that transmission is a weak link, but that it’s the principle means of enabling balancing authorities like ISO-NE and NYISO to rely on one another to make up for variations in capacity.” That’s as true of “unplanned generator and transmission outages” as was the case in Quebec, as it is for more predictable fluctuations in solar and wind power.

To read the full article from Heatmap, click here.

Massachusetts has vast solar potential, according to new state report

Last year, the state unveiled a climate plan that made clear Massachusetts needs vast amounts of clean energy to reach its 2050 net-zero target.

But when it came to solar, many clean energy advocates and state officials worried that reaching the state’s lofty target would be difficult due to a shortage of places to put large numbers of solar panels.

Now, a new, detailed analysis puts some of those fears to bed, concluding the state has ample room to dramatically expand solar energy, enough to support some 52 gigawatts of electricity — double what the climate plan called for to be in place by 2050 — and possibly much more if sites with potential downsides such as adverse environmental impacts were put to use.

Even when connections are available, there can be another vexing obstacle: long delays by the state Department of Public Utilities, which must grant regulatory approval for certain solar projects.

That process can drag on for years and “end up making this big, long interconnection backlog at the DPU,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director at the clean energy advocacy group Acadia Center.

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