General Assembly moves likely to expand solar development in R.I.

“I don’t see how anyone can say this is a good outcome,” said Erika Niedowski, Rhode Island director for the Acadia Center, a regional environmental group. “The prospect of another year without good strategies for smart siting is really disappointing.”

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Grow Smart said in an email that the stripped-down bill “fails to achieve any solar siting reforms.” And in a recent letter to Sosnowski, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture, the Acadia Center, Save The Bay, Audubon and other environmental groups argue that controls on development are critical.

Read the full article from Providence Journal here.

Critics say Massachusetts’ $1 billion clean energy bill not bold enough

The plan, known as GreenWorks, was first laid out in broad strokes by House Speaker Robert DeLeo in February. The announcement sparked excitement because the House has traditionally been unwilling to take bold action on climate change issues, said Deborah Donovan, Massachusetts director of the Acadia Center, a nonprofit that advocates for solutions to climate change.

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This uncertainty is not good enough, Donovan said.

“We’re working with the Legislature to make it clear that we need more than an empty bag that could maybe get filled,” she said.

Read the full article from Energy News Network here.

New Housing Issue Complicates R.I.’s Solar-Siting Plans

The solar-siting bills have created a rift among environmental groups, many of whom serve on the OER’s solar advisory board. They are at odds over the loss of open space and forests and the need for renewable energy to curb climate emissions. The Conservation Law Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, the Northeast Clean Energy Council, and the Acadia Center see the bill as much-needed action this year that will stem the loss of woodlands.

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But the Acadia Center say communities are overwhelmed with solar projects and urgently need help to address the deluge of projects.

“We’re still very much urging more comprehensive action on solar siting this year,” said Erika Niedowski, Rhode Island director for the Acadia Center. “The status quo is not serving anyone well.”

Read the full article from ecoRI News here.

What’s The Significance Of Connecticut’s New Commitment To Offshore Wind?

This hour we take a look at some of the environmental bills the Connecticut General Assembly passed this legislative session, including a new commitment to offshore wind power. We learn what this renewable energy source means for the state’s power grid—and its economy.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Emily Lewis – Director of the Climate and Energy Analysis Center at the Acadia Center, based in Hartford (@elewisobrien)
• Dr. Julie Klinger – Assistant Professor at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies. She’s the co-director of BU’s Land Use and Livelihoods Initiative, and the author of Rare Earth Frontiers: From Subterranean Soils to Lunar Landscapes
• Dr. Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie – David H. Smith Conservation Researcher at the University of Maine, and lead author on a recent paper about native wildflower loss in New England (@CaitlinInMaine)

 

Listen to the full episode from WNPR here.

Hydro power is good, but safeguards needed

Massachusetts is also seeking to diversify its low emitting energy resources by contracting for additional supplies of hydropower from Quebec. Acadia Center data indicate that if Massachusetts and the region continue their over-reliance on natural gas, it will be impossible to meet their long-term goals for emissions reductions. Studies conducted in Quebec conclude that Canadian hydropower from the existing system of dams is a low-carbon energy source. Acadia Center’s EnergyVision 2030 study shows that hydropower can play an important role in the Northeast’s shift away from fossil fuels, growing to be about 20 percent of the region’s energy supply by 2030 and allowing local clean energy sources to grow even faster. But hydro’s contribution is only of value if energy deliveries grow and occur in a way that results in verifiable carbon reductions.

Read the full article from CommonWealth Magazine here.

Offshore wind energy closer to sweeping into Connecticut

Emily Lewis, director of climate and energy analysis at Acadia Center, pointed to the environmental and climate change benefits. “Offshore wind is a critical piece of the puzzle to reducing emissions in the northeast, and Connecticut is now poised to join its neighbors in harnessing this resource and benefitting from growth of this new clean energy industry,” she said in a statement.

Read the full article from The Middletown Press here.

Connecticut House saves net metering, for now, but green groups want more

Green groups in Connecticut were pushing for a 100% carbon free mandate, protections on pipeline methane leaks, stronger energy efficiency programs and reducing fossil fuel reliance, but “none of that was taken into consideration,” in this bill, Senior Policy Advocate and Connecticut Director at Acadia Center Amy McLean Salls told Utility Dive.

“The industry really feels that any cap on virtual net metering is not okay. So that’s one of the things that didn’t go the way I think that the advocates would have liked,” said McLean Salls.

Read the full article from Utility Dive here.

Proposed wind farm clears another hurdle

The agreement won the support of the Acadia Center and other environmental groups, as well as unions, the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Energy Council of Rhode Island, which represents some of the largest electric users in the state.

Read the full article from the Providence Journal here.

Once again, it’s not easy being green

Amy McLean Salls of the advocacy group Acadia Center has been working to retain net metering since the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection first began floating policy to end it more than two years ago.

She said for the state to move ahead with renewable energy like rooftop solar, good policy must be in place. “This will get us going in the right direction,” she said, noting that the committee leadership had worked very hard to craft a compromise. “I’m not thrilled – but it’s better than nothing.”

Read the full article from the Connecticut Mirror here.

Activists Push Back Against Utilities to Brighten Solar Energy’s Prospects

One organization that signed the letter was the Acadia Center, a non-profit organization focused on developing a clean energy economy. Amy McLean Calls, its Connecticut director and a senior policy advocate, notes that Vermont has installed four times more distributed solar — or rooftop solar — per person than Connecticut. Massachusetts has nearly two times more per person.

“The higher deployment rates in nearby states indicate that Connecticut’s in-state solar industry could expand but it has to be supported by effective solar policies, which is why we’ve been working so hard to make sure that we don’t go backwards and end up killing our solar industry,” she said.

No one is arguing that the system should not be fair everyone, she said.

“But what we are saying is, it doesn’t exist right now, so we need to not kill it,” she said. “We need to ramp it up.”

Read the full article from NBC Connecticut here.