The race for clean energy is local

The U.S. power grid is at a critical crossroads. Electricity generation, like every other industry, needs to rid itself of fossil fuels if the country is to play its role in combating the climate crisis — a transition that will have to happen even as energy providers scramble to meet what they claim is an unprecedented spike in electricity demand, attributed to the rise of AI.

“There can be an extreme imbalance between the different parties who might be participating in these proceedings,” said Oliver Tully, the director of utility innovation and reform for the Acadia Center, a nonprofit advocating for clean energy across New England.

In Connecticut, one of the states where Tully works, it took a natural disaster to usher in change. Hurricane Isaias left some 750,000 people without power in August 2020, some for more than a week. The state’s utility commission, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, ultimately issued millions of dollars in fines over utilities’ slow response or lack of preparation. The storm, Tully said, got state leaders thinking seriously about how those utilities are governed.

“That was the catalyst that got a lot of legislators talking about the need for change within the world of utility regulation,” he said.

It’s not a shift utilities are often fond of, and their powerful lobbying efforts can be a major obstacle. The resistance in Connecticut was so vehement, Tully said, that lawmakers in Maine abandoned a similar bill.

“This is a perennial risk of these kinds of proceedings,” he said. “It represents a threat to the status quo of how utilities have been operating for many, many years.”

The Connecticut commission is still working on how it will implement performance-based regulation, and the other changes are relatively new as well, so their impact is still “to be determined,” Tully said. But he and his colleagues were encouraged that the advisory councils have pushed PURA to consider equity.

While a hurricane kickstarted change for Connecticut, it also took a lot of advocacy — both “up and out,” said Jayson Velazquez, one of Tully’s colleagues based in Hartford. The group and its allies lobby “up,” working to get lawmakers and commissioners on board with passing reforms. And they also work “out,” communicating their findings and the issues before the commission to the public and engaging environmental justice groups and community members.

“A lot of the work that we’re doing is bridging that gap between environmental justice groups and our regulators,” Velazquez said. “You kind of have to raise the collective consciousness of the groups before you can really get into effecting change.”

To read the full article from Grist, click here.

In the race for clean energy, a couple hundred overlooked officials control the US power grid

The U.S. power grid is at a critical crossroads. Electricity generation, like every other industry, needs to rid itself of fossil fuels if the country is to play its role in combating the climate crisis — a transition that will have to happen even as energy providers scramble to meet what they claim is an unprecedented spike in electricity demand, attributed to the rise of AI.

“There can be an extreme imbalance between the different parties who might be participating in these proceedings,” said Oliver Tully, the director of utility innovation and reform for the Acadia Center, a nonprofit advocating for clean energy across New England.

In Connecticut, one of the states where Tully works, it took a natural disaster to usher in change. Hurricane Isaias left some 750,000 people without power in August 2020, some for more than a week. The state’s utility commission, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, ultimately issued millions of dollars in fines over utilities’ slow response or lack of preparation. The storm, Tully said, got state leaders thinking seriously about how those utilities are governed.

“That was the catalyst that got a lot of legislators talking about the need for change within the world of utility regulation,” he said.

It’s not a shift utilities are often fond of, and their powerful lobbying efforts can be a major obstacle. The resistance in Connecticut was so vehement, Tully said, that lawmakers in Maine abandoned a similar bill.

“This is a perennial risk of these kinds of proceedings,” he said. “It represents a threat to the status quo of how utilities have been operating for many, many years.”

The Connecticut commission is still working on how it will implement performance-based regulation, and the other changes are relatively new as well, so their impact is still “to be determined,” Tully said. But he and his colleagues were encouraged that the advisory councils have pushed PURA to consider equity.

While a hurricane kickstarted change for Connecticut, it also took a lot of advocacy — both “up and out,” said Jayson Velazquez, one of Tully’s colleagues based in Hartford. The group and its allies lobby “up,” working to get lawmakers and commissioners on board with passing reforms. And they also work “out,” communicating their findings and the issues before the commission to the public and engaging environmental justice groups and community members.

“A lot of the work that we’re doing is bridging that gap between environmental justice groups and our regulators,” Velazquez said. “You kind of have to raise the collective consciousness of the groups before you can really get into effecting change.”

To read the full article from WABE, click here.

Massachusetts legislation looks to remove barriers to the state’s shift from natural gas

Nearly a year after Massachusetts regulators laid out a vision for the state’s evolution from natural gas distribution to clean energy use, lawmakers are coalescing around legislation that would start converting principles into policy.

The wide-ranging climate bill includes several provisions that would allow utilities to explore alternatives to gas and empower regulators to place more limits on the expansion and continuation of natural gas infrastructure, changes that supporters say are critical to a successful transition away from fossil fuels.

“A lot of people were skeptical we’d get a bill at all, but I’m happy with where this bill ended up,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for climate nonprofit Acadia Center. “It shows a step toward that needed urgency.”

Another major element of the bill would reform the state’s Gas System Enhancement Plans program, which encourages utilities to repair or replace pipes in the state’s aging and leak-prone natural gas distribution system. Clean energy advocates have often argued that these plans are problematic, investing billions of ratepayer dollars into shoring up a system that is increasingly obsolete. The climate bill would allow utilities to choose to retire segments of pipe rather than fixing them.

“For the first time ever they are able to look at a pipe and say, ‘You know what, this is not worth the cost,’” Murray said. “We don’t want ratepayers shouldering the burden for a lot of stuff that’s not going to be useful in five to 10 years.”

To read the full article from Energy News Network, click here.

Coalition of 28 organizations files brief in support of continued net metering in Puerto Rico

A coalition of 28 organizations, including leading U.S. and Puerto Rican nonprofits, solar and battery companies, filed a brief in federal court to stand against changing Puerto Rico’s net metering policy.

The Amicus brief was signed by the following organizations: Acadia Center, Astrawatt Solar, Bright Ops, Bright Panel, Carpe Diem Developers PR, EarthSpark International, EDPR NR DG, Elders Climate Action, Enphase Energy Inc, FranklinWH, Freedom Forever, GRID Alternatives, IREC, Mechanical Contractors Association of PR, Para la Naturaleza, Power Solar, Pytes, SMA, Sol-Ark, Solar and Energy Storage Association (SESA), Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), SolarEdge Technologies Inc, Sunnova, and Teksol Integration Group, Inc.

To read the full article from PV Magazine, click here.

State agency wins half million dollar federal grant aimed at reducing emissions at New Bedford port

A Massachusetts economic development agency has won a half million dollar federal grant aimed at reducing emissions and measuring air pollution at the New Bedford port, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday.

The money for the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal — an offshore wind facility being developed by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center — is one of 55 grants awarded by the EPA as part of the Biden administration’s nearly $3 billion Clean Ports initiative.

Boston environmentalist Kyle Murray — a policy director at the clean energy nonprofit Acadia Center — told GBH News that he is hopeful that Massachusetts officials will do more to decarbonize aspects of marine shipping around Boston. He has been calling for local leaders to address the region’s growing shipping industry.

“I am quite disappointed with this outcome,” Murray said.

To read the full article from GBH, click here.

New Mass Save Plan Receives Support from Healey-Driscoll Administration and Stakeholders

Boston — The Healey-Driscoll Administration today announced that the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC), which is chaired by the Department of Energy Resources, unanimously voted to approve a resolution to support the draft 2025-2027 Three-Year Energy Efficiency Plan for Massachusetts’ nation-leading energy efficiency programs. The Three-Year Plan guides the Mass Save® program. Over the last year and a half, DOER, the EEAC, and the Mass Save Program Administrators (PAs) collaborated to develop the draft Three-Year Plan.

Kyle Murray, Director, State Program Implementation and Massachusetts Program Director, Acadia Center

“With each recent iteration of the Three-Year Energy Efficiency Plan, the Commonwealth has taken significant steps forward toward a decarbonized future. This plan is no exception. It delivers upon long-requested improvements to the customers journey and provides record funding for investments in equity. I am proud to have been a part of this process.”

To read the full press release from mass.gov here.

Growing cruise ship industry splits a Maine island town and worries Boston residents

Hundreds of thousands of cruise ship passengers head to the small town of Bar Harbor, Maine, from May through August, swamping the quaint streets and infusing local shops with cash.

Residents concerned about air pollution from the ships and the crush of tourists brought forth a ballot initiative two years ago meant to slash the number of visitors to 1,000 a day. Though lawsuits from local businesses stymied much of that effort, village officials now hope a compromise bill limiting numbers to 3,200 will be approved on Nov. 5.

As environmentalist Kyle Murray watched tugboats muscle the 3,660-passenger ship Enchanted Princess to the wharf at Flynn Cruiseport recently, he questioned the push for such massive ships here.

“Because [the cruiseport] is pushed off to the side, not as visible, people aren’t as aware of how big [the ships] are and how much how much pollution it contributes,” said Murray, who directs state policy at the Acadia Center, an environmental and clean energy advocacy nonprofit based in Boston. “It’s just not sustainable to keep going bigger and bigger.”

To read the full article from GBH, click here.

Massachusetts again leads on climate change. The state (finally, almost) has a sweeping climate bill.

Months after the close of the formal legislative session, when lawmakers on Beacon Hill came oh-so-close to passing significant reforms only to fall short at the 11th hour, House and Senate negotiators announced a comprehensive bill on Thursday that addresses the climate crisis and promotes more clean energy adoption. The legislation would again put Massachusetts near the front of pack of state houses fighting climate change.

Thursday’s announcement was met with an outpouring of support from advocates and activists.

Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for the advocacy group the Acadia Center, called it a “major win for the Commonwealth: for ratepayers, public health, climate resiliency, and our clean energy future.”

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

Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month Event Identifies Challenges, Celebrates Leaders

Hartford, CT – Tuesday morning, 40 environmental justice advocates, community leaders, legislators, and supporters gathered at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford for a roundtable discussion in celebration of Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month, hosted by the Connecticut Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity, and Opportunity (CWCSEO) and Save the Sound. Conversation centered around the environmental challenges faced by Connecticut’s Latine communities, and the impactful work of Latine leaders advocating for environmental justice in the state.

“As intersectional as our communities are, so are our environmental and energy justice challenges. At a time when Connecticut communities are experiencing some of the highest energy costs in the country, Black and Latine communities are disproportionately impacted,” said Jayson Velazquez, Climate and Energy Justice Policy Associate at the Acadia Center. “Energy burden, which is the percentage of income a household pays for energy, is extremely high in our communities. We must ensure our programs, such as the state’s energy efficiency programs, are deeply invested in to meet the needs of folks who could benefit the most as we continue our clean energy transition. We are missing the mark, and as leaders with access, proximity, and power in processes, we cannot leave each other behind.”

To read the full press release from Save the Sound, click here.

Power Sharing Pitched To Ease Clean Energy Transition

OCT. 9, 2024…..Policymakers across the northeastern United States and eastern Canada are grappling with the best way to navigate a complicated transition to clean energy, and a group of experts wants them to consider sharing power more directly across the border.

Clean energy advocates and academics laid out a case Wednesday for embracing a “bidirectional” approach, which would split Canadian hydropower and New England offshore wind energy for the two countries depending on fluctuations in availablity and demand.

“Adopting a bidirectional planning approach affords us the opportunity for the region’s whole to become greater than the sum of its parts, which otherwise might look like the states and provinces and their respective system operators acting by themselves,” said Jamie Dickerson, senior director of climate and clean energy programs at The Acadia Center.

But turning that concept into reality requires more work, Dickerson and other experts said at a discussion hosted by the Environmental League of Mass., the New England for Offshore Wind coalition and the Acadia Center.

New England governors, including Gov. Maura Healey, and eastern Canadian premiers last month announced they would revive a cross-border energy committee with a goal of boosting regional collaboration and planning.

“It’s happening in pieces, and now it’s about stitching it all together,” Dickerson said.

To read the full article from State House News, click here.