Environmental groups, governor ‘not giving up’ on TCI in Connecticut as pressure mounts on Massachusetts to drop deal

Pressure is mounting in Massachusetts to drop a controversial plan to cut vehicle emissions in the Northeast as Connecticut’s governor and environmental groups say they’re “not giving up” yet.

“Connecticut is not pulling out of (the Transportation Climate Initiative),” said Amy McLean, state director and senior policy advocate at the Acadia Center, which supports the deal. “We are working every angle and not giving up passing TCI this session in Connecticut.”

She said recent statements by the legislative leaders are “misleading in regards to the status of Connecticut’s involvement in TCI” and noted they only have authority to approve the deal, not pull the state out entirely.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, too, “remains committed to the program and to action on the climate crisis,” according to a spokesman.

Read the full article in the Boston Herald here

Advocates say Maine needs to expand time-of-use rates to hit climate goals

Maine clean energy advocates say it’s time to revisit and ramp up time-of-use rates, and the state’s major utilities and several other stakeholders agree.

Meeting the state’s climate goals could add significant load to the state’s grid as drivers switch to electric cars and buildings abandon fossil fuels for heating.

Unless some customers can be persuaded to put off drying clothes, running dishwashers or charging vehicles until nighttime, that new demand could force expensive upgrades to the system and make it harder to eliminate fossil fuels.

That’s where time-of-use rates come into play. Unlike traditional flat rates, time-of-use rates charge customers different prices at different times of the day. Often this means customers pay a relatively expensive rate during the busiest hours of the day and less expensive rates during off-peak hours.

State legislation introduced this year, as well as a recent report on the future of Maine’s electric grid, called on state regulators to investigate how to roll out time-of-use rates on a broader scale than what’s currently offered.

“We’ve been, in Maine, interested in convening a conversation around grid modernization for a while,” said Rob Wood, director of government relations and climate policy for the Maine chapter of the Nature Conservancy, which convened a stakeholder group last September to build on the recommendations of an energy-focused working group within the Maine Climate Council.

The 35-member group, which the Nature Conservancy convened in partnership with the Great Plains Institute, included renewable energy developers, clean energy and consumer advocates, state government officials and representatives from both of Maine’s investor-owned utilities. Its final report, issued in April, included nine broad recommendations to advance the state’s grid modernization efforts. (The report received funding from the Barr Foundation, which also provides funding to the Energy News Network.)

….

Jeff Marks, the Maine director at Acadia Center and a stakeholder group member, said a time-of-use rate should include an opt-out option. On the one hand, this option adds a layer of protection for customers who often have limited means and schedules that don’t allow flexibility to change their electricity use. At the same time, automatically enrolling all customers and allowing them to opt out if they choose almost certainly guarantees higher uptake than trying to get customers to sign up on their own.

Read the full article from Energy News Network here.

Acadia Center President Daniel Sosland on Great.com

In this episode of Swedish podcast Great.com, an educational podcast featuring leaders making a positive difference in the world, Acadia Center’s President Daniel Sosland champions the advancement of clean energy solutions for a liveable climate and equitable economy. Give it a listen!

Is it a plan to fight climate change or is it a gas tax? The TCI is facing fierce pushback

In the annals of Connecticut’s legislative brawls, this one has the makings of tolls 2.0.

The new transportation effort that is grazing the guardrails is the Transportation and Climate Initiative, TCI. It’s a climate change-combatting concept that seeks to replicate through the motor vehicle sector what the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) accomplished through the electric power sector — cutting greenhouse gases and other emissions while raising money to cycle funds back into related climate-change programs. In the case of TCI, it could also cycle funds into the state’s dwindling transportation fund.

….

Only the broad outlines of TCI exist at this point. Enabling legislation needed to start the process of designing an actual plan, specific for Connecticut, has been hit with pushback rarely seen in Connecticut on matters related to climate change. Normally bi-partisan affairs, this measure made it through the environment committee on a party-line vote. And full-bore PR campaigns by supporters and opponents can make it tough to tell if the two sides are even talking about the same bill.

….

In the meantime, a large coalition of supporting groups including environmental and social justice advocates such as Transport Hartford/Center for Latino Progress has been quietly fanning out around the state over the last couple of years, educating those likely to feel most of the impacts and picking up support in some unlikely places. The group has its own social equity coalition and a host of major corporations working through Ceres, which works with investors on multiple sustainability issues.

“The way the opposition wins is by scare tactics,” said Amy McLean, Acadia Center’s Connecticut director. “The way we win is putting together constituencies.”

Read the full article in the CT Mirror here

Connecticut Business Leaders: “TCI is Good for Business”

Rep. Cotvriend leads effort to implement Transportation and Climate Initiative Program

Portsmouth Rep. Terri Cortvriend and Sen. Alana M. DiMario are introducing legislation to implement the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P) in Rhode Island.

In December, former Gov. Gina Raimondo, along with the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut and the mayor of Washington, D.C., signed a memorandum of understanding to join the bipartisan Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P), which will cut greenhouse gas pollution from motor vehicles in the region by an estimated 26% from 2022 to 2032, generate a total of more than $3 billion dollars over 10 years for the participating jurisdictions to invest in equitable, less polluting transportation options and to help energize economic recovery.

….

The bill has drawn support from a host of community and environmental groups, including Acadia Center, Green Energy Consumers Alliance, Clean Water Action, Climate Action Rhode Island, Environment Council of Rhode Island and the Coalition for a Better Business Environment.

“Acadia Center applauds Rep. Cortvriend and Sen. DiMario for their leadership on the TEAM Community Act. This legislation is a critical first step to ‘Build Back Better’ in our transportation network and prepare for the future with long-term, sustainable funding of over $20 million per year. Automakers have announced a major shift towards electric vehicles; people are walking and bicycling at record levels; and, public transportation helps reduce traffic congestion and commuting costs for workers. Making strategic investments in clean mobility options will strengthen our economy, create good jobs, and deliver over $100 million in annual health benefits from cleaner air and healthier communities,” said Hank Webster, Rhode Island Director of Acadia Center, in a statement.

Read the full article in The Newport Daily News here

Legislation Would Start Rhode Island Down Path to Reduced Transportation Emissions

PROVIDENCE — A pair of state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would kick-start Rhode Island’s participation in a regional agreement to reduce transportation emissions.

Rep. Terri Cortvriend, D-Portsmouth, and Sen. Alana DiMario, D-Narragansett, recently introduced matching legislation to enact the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) in Rhode Island.

TCI is a regional cap-and-invest program designed to reduce vehicle emissions 26 percent by 2032. Former Gov. Gina Raimondo, President Joe Biden’s new commerce secretary, signed a memorandum of understanding in December to join the initiative with Connecticut, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

Titled the Transportation Emissions and Mobile (TEAM) Community Act in both houses, DiMario introduced bill S0872 on May 5 and Cortvriend introduced bill H6310 on May 7.

The TEAM Community Act would provide funding for cleaner transportation “while drastically reducing pollution that harms public health, particularly in urban, poorer neighborhoods that disproportionately bear the burden of transportation infrastructure like major highways,” the legislators wrote in a joint statement.

….

The TEAM Community Act bills have support from community and environmental groups, including the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, Clean Water Action, Climate Action Rhode Island, the Environment Council of Rhode Island and the Coalition for a Better Business Environment.

The legislation is a “critical first step” for the state’s transportation network, according to Hank Webster, Rhode Island director of Acadia Center, a regional advocacy organization for renewable energy.

“Automakers have announced a major shift towards electric vehicles; people are walking and bicycling at record levels; and, public transportation helps reduce traffic congestion and commuting costs for workers,” Webster wrote in a statement. “Making strategic investments in clean mobility options will strengthen our economy, create good jobs, and deliver over $100 million in annual health benefits from cleaner air and healthier communities.”

Read the full article in EcoRI News here

Legislation Filed to Cut Vehicle Emissions

PROVIDENCE — The next debate over climate policy in the General Assembly is poised to begin with the introduction of legislation this week to implement a regional cap-and-invest pact aimed at slashing road emissions.

The bill, introduced in the Senate on Wednesday by Sen. Alana DiMario and set to be filed in the House on Thursday by Rep. Terri Cortvriend, comes after then-Governor Gina Raimondo agreed in December to make Rhode Island a founding member of the Transportation and Climate Initiative along with Massachusetts, Connecticut and the District of Columbia.

While Raimondo signed a memorandum of understanding with the other jurisdictions to join the agreement that would be the first program of its kind to cut carbon emissions from cars and trucks, legislation must get through the General Assembly and be signed into law by new Governor Daniel McKee for the program to be implemented in Rhode Island.

….

State environmental groups also see Act on Climate as fundamental to the state’s efforts to slow down the warming of the planet, but organizations like the Acadia Center and Climate Action Rhode Island say that much more must be done to reach its goals. Cutting down on carbon pollution from vehicles, which makes up about 40 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the state, is key.

Read the full article in the Providence Journal here.

Eversource’s new CEO talks future of natural gas

As Joe Nolan prepares to take on the role of Eversource Energy’s chief executive on May 5, he is facing the challenge of transitioning New England’s largest utility to be carbon neutral in operations –— and potentially, carbon neutral for its customers.The plans clash with the goals of the state’s new climate law, as well as the new climate-driven mission statement for the state’s Department of Public Utilities. But new orders that specify how to wean utilities off fossil fuels are needed before agencies enforcement can happen.

He has worked for the utility for 35 years, and 25 of those years were spent growing Eversource’s renewable energy portfolio. He is leading the utility’s joint venture with Danish offshore wind company Ørsted to start building three wind farms in the Northeast. Nolan will take over the CEO position from Jim Judge.

Nolan, 58, told NetZero Insider he wants to double down on achieving carbon neutrality for Eversource’s buildings and vehicle fleets as CEO.

But Massachusetts, one of the states Eversource operates in, recently passed comprehensive climate legislation that includes a legally binding commitment to reduce the state’s carbon emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2030. President Biden’s proposal to cut emissions in half by 2030 only strengthens state mandates like Massachusetts’s new climate laws.

….

Energy experts like Amy Boyd, director of policy at the Acadia Center, say that the money utilities put into natural gas systems is “buried money and stranded costs” that will fall on low-income and environmental justice communities without the same access to renewable energy options. As a result, those communities will experience higher utility rates.

From a physics perspective, it is “always more thermodynamically effective to just use electricity directly,” Boyd added.

Hydrogen molecules are also smaller than methane. If methane is leaking in the existing natural gas pipe system, then hydrogen will surely leak as well.

“We certainly don’t need to be wasting energy,” Boyd said.

Read the full article in RTO Insider here.

As Biden’s Climate Summit Approaches, Carbon Pricing Remains Uncertain

President Joe Biden is inviting world leaders to join him later this week for a virtual climate summit, where the president is expected to announce a new, lower target for U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The reduction is seen as essential for slowing climate change. Biden has also pledged to adopt new regulations for fossil fuel producers but, so far, he has not signaled support for carbon pricing, which some say ought to be part of the package.

For years, the fossil fuel industry has argued that any kind of carbon tax would be the kiss of death for the economy. Then last month the American Petroleum Institute, the leading oil and gas lobbying group, said it could support putting a price on carbon emissions as a substitute for regulating greenhouse gases.

Environmental groups called the about-face “self-serving.” Members of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby welcomed it with open arms.

….

“I would say that both are necessary. Carbon pricing is not a silver bullet. We need that price and that market signal but we also need regulations,” says Jordan Stutt, the carbon programs director for the Acadia Center, a nonprofit that works on clean energy solutions across New England. “I’m glad to see some strange bedfellows starting to embrace the notion of carbon pricing. But we need to make sure that we’re doing it in a sensible, responsible and equitable way.”

Stutt says he’s encouraged to see states like Massachusetts focused on accelerating the transition to electric vehicles. Bay State Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has proposed banning the sale of new combustion engines by 2035.

Read the full article in the Maine Public here