Why electricity prices are rising unevenly across New England

You may have noticed that your most recent electric bill is higher than usual — and if that change hasn’t happened yet, it’s probably coming this fall. These price spikes are occurring across New England, but bills are rising more in some places than others.

Some ratepayers in New Hampshire saw the price of electricity double this summer, resulting in bills up to $70 higher, while many in Massachusetts are only paying an extra $11 per month.

If it seems unfair, blame the energy markets. And if it’s confusing because everyone in New England shares an electricity grid, well, read on.

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“We just have a physical constraint of how much gas we can deliver through the pipeline system to New England,” said Ben Butterworth, director of climate, energy & equity analysis at the Acadia Center.

Read the full article at WBUR here.

High bills, blackout risks: Grave winter energy forecasts drawing lines across New England

During a media briefing Tuesday, clean energy advocates targeted perceived longtime messaging from the region’s grid operator ISO-New England that natural gas and reliability go hand in hand, a mindset they feel has kept renewable energy off the grid and ratepayers subject to the volatility of a global commodity.

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Ahead of the forum, representatives from Acadia Center, Northeast Clean Energy Council, Slingshot, Conservation Law Foundation and Advanced Energy Economy said more natural gas is not the solution to the region’s reliability issues, and that ISO-New England should stop putting “too many eggs in one basket.”

Melissa Birchard, director of clean energy and grid reform at Acadia Center, said federal energy officials, state leaders and ISO-New England are all worried about keeping the lights on this winter.

Read the full article in The Providence Journal here.

New England for Offshore Wind Coalition Announces Agreement on Transmission Principles

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 6, 2022

Contact:
Jennifer Delony, New England for Offshore Wind jdelony@ne4osw.org, 603-320-7043
Melissa Birchard, Acadia Center mbirchard@acadiacenter.org, 857-276-6883

New England for Offshore Wind Coalition Announces Agreement on Transmission Principles
Coalition Urges Lawmakers, Developers to Adopt Principles

BOSTON – September 6, 2022 – The New England for Offshore Wind (@NE4OSW) coalition, in collaboration with coalition member Acadia Center, today released a set of Transmission Principles to help advance new transmission investments critically needed for offshore wind. The Transmission Principles establish a shared direction for transmission planning and development to bring offshore wind from New England’s coastal waters to its communities, providing maximum benefit with minimum impact.

The New England for Offshore Wind coalition finds that new electric power infrastructure is essential for decarbonization. To reach the goal of net zero by 2050, some studies have found the U.S. must double if not triple its transmission infrastructure. While the impacts are much less formidable than those of climate change, they must be minimized through effective planning and community engagement that prioritizes environmental justice populations.

The coalition’s Transmission Working Group, led by Melissa Birchard, Director of Clean Energy and Grid Reform at Acadia Center, developed the Transmission Principles to establish shared goals for transmission among diverse coalition members and to advance six core principles that should become the “B.A.S.I.C.S.” for transmission planning and development in the region. The shared goals include building the transmission we need without delay, encouraging coordination between state and regional decision makers, and ensuring holistic and transparent planning processes that further important goals, including environmental justice, environmental protection, and labor standards.

The coalition’s six Transmission Principles are:

• Benefit impacted communities – Target benefits to affected communities to help offset impacts, such as setting aside protected green space, cleaning up brownfields and investing in the local workforce and economy, in accordance with community input (see further below).
• Avoid, minimize and mitigate environmental impacts – Minimize the overall amount of new infrastructure needed through optimized, well-planned systems while avoiding or minimizing impacts on ecosystem services, considering cumulative environmental impacts and mitigating unavoidable impacts.
• Secure environmental justice – Avoid and minimize new impacts on already overburdened and historically disadvantaged communities whenever possible, while strengthening equity in planning processes and weighing the cumulative environmental, economic and health impacts of any new infrastructure proposed in or near environmental justice communities.
• Inclusive and early stakeholder engagement – Consult stakeholders, including communities in potentially impacted areas, in the early stages of planning when alternatives are still being considered and new alternatives can still be identified.
• Coordinate on transmission investments – Serve as many needs across the region as possible with each transmission investment in order to increase consensus and reduce overall impacts and costs.
• Supply local jobs and economic development – Lift up workers and communities by providing high-quality, local union jobs and training via registered apprenticeships and project labor agreements, while driving workforce and supplier diversity and encouraging a domestic supply chain for the expansion and maintenance of our region’s electric grid.

Widespread observance of these fundamental principles will help to ensure the electricity generated from offshore wind can be delivered to New England’s homes and businesses soon and that transmission is developed responsibly to benefit communities.

We urge government agencies and transmission developers to integrate the B.A.S.I.C.S. principles into their planning and decision-making for the common good of the region and its progress to decarbonization.

Susannah Hatch, Environmental League of Massachusetts Director of Clean Energy Policy and New England for Offshore Wind Regional Lead, said: “Expanding our electric transmission system will be critical to our ability to unlock the full potential of offshore wind and combat climate change. These principles demonstrate a vision for transmission development reached by a broad base of organizations that government and developers can adopt to ensure successful and beneficial outcomes. We are proud to demonstrate this consensus on these key principles, particularly in a region where transmission has very recently been a contentious issue. We are thrilled that the states have moved forward with a joint request for information (RFI) for transmission and urge them to ensure these BASICS guide the solicitation process as it unfolds.”

Melissa Birchard, Director for Clean Energy & Grid Reform, Acadia Center, said: “The agreement of dozens of groups on the BASICS principles for transmission planning reflects a growing movement to get serious about transmission. We can’t decarbonize our communities without new transmission lines to carry clean energy to our homes. At the same time, transmission lines need to be planned with more input and more community benefits or they won’t get built. These principles are a step forward – developers and planners should listen up.”

Cindy Luppi, New England Director, Clean Water Action, said: “These principles appropriately assert the need for environmental justice communities to be protected from further harm as the transmission system expands. Low-income communities and communities of color have borne the brunt of health damage from the fossil fuel economy for decades and deserve relief as the offshore wind power era launches.”

Tim Burgess, Assistant Business Manager, IBEW Local 104, said: “IBEW Local 104 constructs and maintains high-voltage electrical infrastructure. Offshore wind as well as any other type of new electrical generating source creates the need for maintenance, improvements and new construction of electrical infrastructure. The new green energy opportunities will help advance our goals of creating long-term careers with great wages and benefits for both current and future members. We are looking forward to being part of this new energy market, showcasing our skills and 120 years of experience building and maintaining the power grid.”

Rebecca Schultz, Senior Advocate for Climate and Clean Energy, Natural Resources Council of Maine, said: “According to Maine statute, electricity is a ‘basic human necessity,’ and as we work to reduce emissions and lower energy costs by electrifying transportation and heating, that fact will be even more palpable. These consensus principles can help set a course for a future in which we design, build and operate this vital public resource transparently and holistically to rationalize costs and benefits, instill public trust and expedite the clean energy transition for our region.”

Charles Rothenberger, Climate and Energy Attorney, Save the Sound, said: “Improving our regional transmission grid is essential for ensuring that we have the infrastructure to support increased renewable energy resources that will be necessary to power an increasingly electrified future, and to move that energy to where it is needed. This effort can only be successful if undertaken in a deliberate, coordinated and collaborative manner by the New England states.”

Sherrie Trefry, Energy Market Leader at VHB, said: “The speed the offshore wind industry can develop is connected, literally and figuratively, to required grid upgrades. Near-term, regionally approved transmission solutions are essential.”

Regional Planning
On Sept. 1, five New England states jointly released a request for information to inform an initiative to integrate offshore wind and other clean resources onto the regional power grid in a cost-effective, reliable and efficient manner.

“New England for Offshore Wind is thrilled that five of the six New England states have come together to issue this request for information and explore investment options for the transmission infrastructure needed to integrate clean resources, including offshore wind, onto the regional power grid,” Hatch said. “The coalition is looking forward to participating in the RFI process. Transmission is a critical challenge that needs to be addressed for us to seize the opportunity offshore wind presents the region.”

In June, 38 organizations from across New England sent a letter to the New England governors urging them to issue the joint RFI for electric transmission solutions for offshore wind. The letter represents the first time this diverse group of organizations has come together to advocate for transmission infrastructure.

About

New England for Offshore Wind

New England for Offshore Wind is a broad-based coalition of businesses and associations, environmental and justice organizations, academic institutions, and labor unions committed to combatting climate change by increasing the supply of clean energy to our regional grid through more procurements of responsibly developed offshore wind. We believe that responsibly developed offshore wind is the single biggest lever we can pull to address the climate crisis while also strengthening our regional economy, protecting ratepayers, creating high quality jobs and improving public health by reducing pollution.

Acadia Center

Acadia Center is a non-profit organization with offices across New England that works to advance bold, effective, and equitable clean energy solutions for a livable climate and a stronger, more equitable economy. Acadia Center accomplishes this through technical research, policy advocacy, and partnerships with diverse organizations and communities.

To Avoid Winter Blackouts, New England Must Reduce Dependence on Methane Gas, Ramp Up Clean Energy, Says New Explainer

September 1, 2022

Contact:
Melissa Birchard, mbirchard@acadiacenter.org
Shannon Van Hoesen, shannon.vanhoesen@sierraclub.org

BURLINGTON, VT – A coalition of advocates and energy experts released a new explainer today, titled New England’s Winter Electricity Challenges Call for a Clean Energy Solution, that details how New England’s overreliance on gas creates a risk of blackouts on the electricity system in severe winters. The explainer identifies clean energy solutions as the best way to help reduce the chance of blackouts in upcoming winters and ultimately to solve the problem for good.

Key findings of the explainer are that the region already has clean energy at hand that can help solve electric system reliability problems now, including distributed energy like rooftop solar paired with battery storage, energy efficiency, and the smart management of consumer demand. The explainer also lays out how more wind and solar, together with energy storage and the strategic management of electrification, can create a reliable, lower cost electric system long term. It finds that offshore wind in particular can help substantially reduce reliance on gas during cold winters.

“By deploying clean energy tools we already have on hand to help reduce the chance of blackouts, we can provide more security right now for New England families and lower costs. Our energy leaders need to sit down and make a plan to mobilize clean energy solutions to help keep the lights on,” said Melissa Birchard, one of the lead authors and Acadia Center’s Director of Clean Energy and Grid Reform. “Everyone wants to avoid the small but real chance that the lights could go out during prolonged cold weather – and clean energy can help solve that problem quicker and more cheaply than anything else.”

In recent years New England has drastically increased the amount of gas used to generate electricity – from 15% of the region’s electricity in 2000 to 53% in 2021. Gas is also used to heat many homes. This heavy overreliance on gas creates a risk of blackouts on the electric system when there is not enough gas for all heating and electricity generation at the same time, or when gas power plants or gas supply facilities go offline for other reasons. New England’s overreliance on gas also results in major price risks for New England families and businesses, who are facing unprecedented utility bills due to this overreliance on gas combined with price spikes connected to international instability.

“Energy consumers in New England are paying more for their energy bills despite the fact that there are serious concerns about whether their lights and heat will stay on when winter weather turns extreme,” said Casey Roberts, the other lead author and Sierra Club’s Senior Attorney for the Environmental Law Program. “It doesn’t need to be this way, and there are clear steps that grid operators and state and federal decision makers can take to transition to clean energy sources to ensure New England energy consumers can stay warm during cold, harsh winters and also tackle climate change, which is driving the increase in extreme weather.”

The explainer recommends concrete actions energy leaders can take today and over coming years to make the energy system both clean and reliable, including tailoring clean energy programs that already reduce stress on the electric system in the summer to help meet grid needs in the winter too. The authors recommend swift action to deploy more clean energy to help keep the lights on all winter even during extreme cold spells, and to set the region on a sustainable and cost-effective long-term path.

“Now is the time to roll out near-term and long-term clean energy solutions that benefit our communities, including disadvantaged families who are hurt worst by blackouts, price spikes, and the climate crisis,” Birchard concluded.

The organizations that jointly released today’s energy explainer are Acadia Center, Sierra Club, the Sustainable FERC Project, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Natural Resources Defense Council. It is being released ahead of a New England Winter Gas-Electric Forum convening next week by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in Burlington, Vermont to discuss electric system reliability in the region with state and regional energy leaders.

Maine court finds part of referendum blocking transmission line to Massachusetts unconstitutional

An embattled transmission corridor considered critical to Massachusetts’ climate effort was given new life Tuesday, after a ruling by Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court seemingly brought it back from the dead.

The project, which would bring hydroelectric energy from Quebec, through the wilds of western Maine and into Massachusetts, is a key piece of how Massachusetts plans to convert its energy grid from fossil fuels to clean energy.

But a vote in Maine last year to block the project left the transmission line on life support, all but dooming a major piece of Massachusetts’ plan to rapidly clean its power grid and likely setting the state’s climate efforts back by years.

The ruling Tuesday is far from a full green light for the project. The judges found that part of the Nov. 2021 referendum was unconstitutional, sending the case back to a lower court to decide its future. It will be up to that court to decide whether enough of the project had been completed prior to the vote that stopping it now would be unconstitutional under Maine law.

But many clean energy advocates were heartened.

“Like everyone, we were waiting with bated breath to see what the court would say, and it wasn’t clear which direction they would go,” said Daniel Sosland, president of the clean energy advocacy group the Acadia Center.

Read the full article in The Boston Globe here.

How to decarbonize your home, with help from the Inflation Reduction Act

Where to start?

To begin, consider getting a home energy audit — an assessment of your energy consumption. It’s free through the state’s Mass Save program and also covered by new federal tax incentives. Then seal and insulate your home to reduce the amount of energy it takes to heat and cool it, said Ben Butterworth, senior manager of climate and energy analysis at the Acadia Center, a clean energy advocacy organization.

Read the full article in The Boston Globe here.

Electric vehicle incentives are getting a total makeover

Thinking of buying an electric car? Two huge new climate policies — the Inflation Reduction Act that President Biden signed last week, and a major bill that Governor Charlie Baker signed Aug. 11 — include subsidies intended to make them more affordable.

The federal bill includes tax credits of up to $7,500 for new electric or fuel-cell vehicles, extending the previously existing tax incentives. Some plug-in hybrids qualify, too.

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The new Massachusetts bill will increase rebates for new fully electric cars and fuel-cell cars from $2,500 to between $3,500 and $5,000 — the exact amount is yet to be determined — with an additional $1,500 rebate for low-income residents and an extra $1,000 for those who trade in an internal combustion vehicle.

But the state bill doesn’t include a timeline for implementing any of these changes. And it’s not clear how the new program will be paid for: The new climate bill sets up an Electric Vehicle Adoption Trust, but doesn’t actually fund it. (The money could come from a separate economic development bill, but the Legislature failed to complete it before the session ended last month, so the timing and outcome remain uncertain.)

For now, the old program is still open and funded until the middle of 2023, according to Kyle Murray, Massachusetts senior policy advocate at the Acadia Center.

Read the full article in The Boston Globe here.

RIPTA introduces new electric bus

PROVIDENCE – It runs quietly and has a green color scheme, but if there’s still any doubt about what powers the newest addition to the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s bus fleet, just look at the sign splashed across the side.

“I’m electric,” it declares. The million-dollar electric bus purchased with federal funds and unveiled Tuesday is set to go into operation before the end of the year on RIPTA’s busiest route, the R-Line, which runs from Cranston through downtown Providence and on into Pawtucket.

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The current investments in cleaner vehicles represent a good start, said Hank Webster, Rhode Island director of the Acadia Center, a regional environmental group. “Some of these investments are going to take time to ramp up, but I think we’re doing a considerable amount in the near term,” he said. “The strategy of prioritizing routes that go through communities overburdened by pollution is a sound one.”

Read the full article in The Providence Journal here.

‘Electrify Arlington’ in step with new climate law

A new climate bill signed last week by Gov. Baker contains a provision aiming to change the carbon landscape in Massachusetts: 10 communities in the state can participate in a pilot program that bans the use of fossil fuels in new buildings and major renovations.

“Ultimately, we need to stop building with fossil fuels, and the easiest way to decarbonize our buildings is for them not to be carbon-full from the beginning,” Amy Boyd, policy director of the clean-energy advocacy group Acadia Center, told The Globe. “The more we keep building with fossil fuels, the harder it’s going to be.”

Read the full article in your Arlington here. 

Ten cities and towns are poised to ban fossil fuels from new buildings