New England states’ renewable energy push blasted as too costly by free-market advocates

Conservative think tanks in New England are taking aim at state energy policies that promote zero-carbon energy to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Staggering Costs of New England’s Green Energy Policies,” a report released Tuesday by the Denver-based organization Always On Energy Research, and signed onto by free-market advocacy groups in New England, says ratepayers’ bills will double, to $4,610 by 2050, as a result of state policies, or “mandates,” to promote green energy.

Environmental advocates blasted the report, calling it inaccurate and misleading. The Acadia Center, a climate and clean energy advocacy group, said the report “overlooks enormous costs borne by ratepayers under today’s fossil grid.”

The Acadia Center acknowledged the costs of shifting to zero-carbon energy. “Let’s be candid: There will be significant costs from the energy transition (and significant benefits as well),” it said.

But economic growth as carbon emissions decline “belies the canard that New England state climate policies spell doom for the regional economy,” the Acadia Center said.

The report “ignores the impossibly high cost of business-as-usual,” it said. New Englanders withdraw billions of dollars from the region’s economy each year to purchase fossil fuels sourced outside New England. Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine spend $8.2 billion annually importing fossil fuels, the Acadia Center said.

In addition, the cost of ignoring climate-driven storms, heat waves, flooding and other disasters is the loss of human life and billions of dollars in property damage, it said.

To read the full article from the Portland Press Herald, click here.

New report claims New England emissions goals may mean higher electricity costs

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A report from a group of conservative and free market New England think tanks warns that increased use of wind and solar energy could lead to increased electricity costs and rolling blackouts in the region.

The nonprofit Acadia Center, which is focused on clean energy solutions, is rebutting the report, saying it fails to withstand “basic analytical scrutiny.”

To read the full article from WMUR, click here.

Report warns of huge costs from green energy mandates in New England, but critics cry foul

A new report commissioned by seven conservative-leaning organizations and free-market think tanks paints Massachusetts’ and New England’s devotion to renewable energy as failed policy that will cost residents more than $815 billion, won’t meet electricity demand, and result in rolling blackouts.

The nonprofit Acadia Center, which is focused on cutting carbon emissions, said the report presents a “deeply flawed analysis” and a “distorted view of the region’s future energy outlook.”

Job growth from renewable projects that end the region’s reliance on spending billions to import fossil fuels, along with the steep cost of rebuilding areas after natural disasters due to climate change, are reasons cited by the Acadia Center to support a renewable-energy path.

The transition will be expensive, said Acadia, but “using intentionally misleading information to fearmonger on behalf of the fossil fuel industry and advance its interests does not serve the best interests of New England ratepayers.”

To read the full article from Telegram & Gazette, click here.

Report On Costs Stirs Clean Energy Debate

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, NOV. 19, 2024…..New Englanders may experience yearly spikes in their electricity bills compounded by rolling blackouts during the winter as the region continues to embrace renewable energy sources, according to a new report from conservative-leaning think tanks.

The Acadia Center, a Boston-based nonprofit focused on clean energy solutions, rebuked the report, alleging it offers an “inaccurate picture” of infrastructure investments, and overlooks the “enormous” cost ratepayers are currently facing “under today’s fossil grid.”

While the AOER report claims electricity rates will double for New England residents and businesses, the Acadia Center says forecasts produced by Massachusetts energy officials show rates will increase through 2030 and then decrease. The expanded use of electrified transportation and heating systems is also supposed to save Bay State households money, according to the state’s clean energy and climate plan.

“Let’s be candid: there will be significant costs from the energy transition (and significant benefits as well) – Acadia Center has been clear-eyed about this reality and what it means for our public policymaking,” the center said. “However, using intentionally misleading information to fearmonger on behalf of the fossil fuel industry and advance its interests does not serve the best interests of New England ratepayers.”

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

Energy battles intensifying ahead of Trump swearing-in

BOSTON (SHNS) – There is a clean energy bill sitting on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk and Beacon Hill’s calendar for this week includes an array of energy-related events and reports. But there are also mounting indications that the federal government could change course on energy policy under the administration that President-elect Donald Trump is assembling.

“The most difficult thing is going to be continuing to try and meet emissions targets. We know this incoming administration is going to press heavily on oil and natural gas and the expansion of those, so that does obviously present a major challenge going forward as we try to curtail those,” Kyle Murray, senior advocate and Massachusetts program director at the Acadia Center, said. “Massachusetts is taking some fairly nascent first steps towards limiting the expansion of the gas system in the state, and there are fed efforts that could potentially undermine that work.”

Murray said the incoming Trump administration “could put up some major roadblocks and make life difficult” for renewable energy industries, including offshore wind. But he also noted that many of the large oil and gas companies have already begun to diversify and invest in renewables.

“There’s a world you could envision where those companies are pressing for investment in all of the above — oil, natural gas, offshore wind, solar, all of those things. There is a potential opportunity there,” Murray said. He added, “The energy transition is big business and there’s a lot of money involved in it. So there’s some hope that that train has left the station too much. That being said, there’s always the caveat that you never know.”

To read the full article from WWLP, click here.

Compromise Climate Bill Finally Approved by Mass. Legislature

After nearly two years of debates, negotiations, and last-minute stalling by Republicans in the state House of Representatives, the Massachusetts Legislature has sent a wide-ranging climate bill to the desk of Gov. Maura Healey, who has indicated she will sign the legislation.

Kyle Murray of the Acadia Center said the bill is a “major win for the Commonwealth, for ratepayers, public health, climate resiliency and for our clean energy future,” adding that the gas reforms “will provide the Department of Public Utilities with the needed tools to save ratepayers money on imprudent investments, stranded assets and leaky pipes.”

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

Massachusetts passes bill to speed clean energy and slow gas expansion

Yesterday, Massachusetts lawmakers made major moves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition the state to clean energy. Legislators approved a long-awaited climate bill that will limit gas pipeline expansion, make it easier to site and build renewables, and allow utilities to use geothermal energy — instead of fossil fuels — to heat and cool homes. Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law in the coming days.

“The Legislature and the Healey-Driscoll Administration are taking tangible steps to drive the Commonwealth’s clean energy future forward in the wake of the federal Election outcome,” the Acadia Center said in a press release following the vote. Massachusetts is the first state to take action on climate since Trump’s re-election; the new federal landscape could spur more state lawmakers to try and advance climate legislation.

In 2021, the DPU updated its mission to include promoting equity and greenhouse gas emission reductions, in addition to safety, security, reliability, and affordability. ​

“I think this DPU takes that mission seriously. And so I’m confident they will take these updated provisions seriously,” said Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at the Acadia Center.

To read the full article from Canary Media, click here.

After drawn-out battle, sweeping climate bill passes Mass. Legislature

A wide-ranging climate bill, including provisions to curb natural gas and speed up permitting for more green energy, is heading to Governor Maura Healey for signing after passing through the House on Thursday afternoon.

The bill’s passage arrived later than planned, several months after the close of the formal legislative session, but it is a shot in the arm to environmental advocates who have feared a breakdown for climate progress in the wake of the presidential election.

“It was a bitter fight at every step of the way,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for the advocacy group the Acadia Center. “And yet, at the end of the day, we got a pretty ambitious climate bill out of it.”

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

As Rhode Island considers future of gas, advocates call for ‘realism’ on cost, availability of RNG

As a state committee studies ways to wean Rhode Island off of natural gas, several of its members want the group’s final report to dismiss one potential pathway as wholly unrealistic.

Switching to renewable natural gas or other alternative fuels appears to be neither a feasible nor a financially viable solution at this time, say multiple stakeholders who have commented on a draft outline of a report a consulting group prepared for Rhode Island regulators.

Ben Butterworth, director of climate, energy and equity analysis for the nonprofit Acadia Center, told ENN his organization would like to see Rhode Island prioritize much of what is in the Massachusetts strategy: a focus on electrification and energy efficiency, disincentivizing further expansion of the gas system, and pilot programs focused on the strategic decommissioning of the gas system.

The PUC must also consider how to fund the transition, Butterworth noted. Vermont and Massachusetts are pursuing a clean heat standard as a funding mechanism for climate goals, while New York is pursuing a cap-and-invest approach.

“Finding that mechanism is critical, and the report should include at least those options,” Butterworth said.

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

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.