Make the Next Decade Count

Accelerate Comprehensive Climate Planning

To provide a roadmap for climate action, Acadia Center has for years developed analyses and reports that offer recommendations at the state, community, and regional levels. Its EnergyVision 2030 analysis is the latest example of a comprehensive framework designed to shape an achievable vision for the future. With the urgency of climate science in mind, Acadia Center will expand and accelerate state and regional action according to EnergyVision 2030, new analyses, and external resources to achieve deep reductions in emissions. It will influence and participate in a robust approach to regional climate planning, supporting processes that effectively prioritize input from many stakeholders to shape climate policies. And it will require that climate goals are accounted for in the laws and regulations used by states, cities, and regional authorities to make public utility rulings, energy siting and land use decisions, transportation plans and investments, energy choices, and other plans that will otherwise continue to be barriers to a rapid transition to clean energy.

Reduce Emissions from the Largest Sources 

85% of climate pollution in the Northeast stems from three sectors: transportation, buildings, and power generation. Acadia Center will accelerate progress in all three.

Invest in a Cleaner, Modern Transportation System

The Northeast’s transportation system is its largest source of climate pollution, contributing about 40% of total climate emissions in the region while burdening public health and our pocketbooks. Power sector emissions have declined sharply in recent years, but transportation emissions have been level or growing. The region’s economy and health are suffering because its mass transit system is outdated and underfunded and transportation options in rural communities and many lower income neighborhoods are limited or non-existent. To address these interconnected challenges, the region needs a coordinated campaign that brings together all affected stakeholders. Acadia Center has played a leadership role in launching and advancing efforts to implement a regional cap-and-invest program for the transportation sector, the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI). This program — if designed properly — can significantly reduce CO2 and co-pollutants while generating funds to invest in an equitable, modern, low-carbon transportation future. Acadia Center analysis shows that the economic potential for this policy is immense  — in Massachusetts alone this policy could generate $5.5 billion in new funds to invest in modernizing the transportation infrastructure, creating 52,000 long-term jobs.

Improve the Quality of Buildings

Building heating, cooling, lighting, and operations are responsible for over a third of total emissions in the Northeast. Acadia Center is advancing policies that will reduce these emissions by supporting the transition to all-electric buildings, focused on clean electric heating and expansion of energy efficiency. Acadia Center will break down barriers to accelerating the transition from fossil fuel heating by working to expand markets for clean electric heat pumps. If all the homes currently burning oil in the Northeast switched to clean electric heat today, CO2 emissions would be reduced by about 19 million metric tons annually — equivalent to taking about 4.1 million cars off the road for a year. And Acadia Center will advocate for expanded investments in energy efficiency and building weatherization. Since 2010, energy efficiency has avoided 87 million metric tons of carbon pollution while bringing consumers $35.7 billion in economic benefits — as programs expand, these numbers will only grow.

Accelerate the Shift to Clean Power Generation

The Northeast’s power sector has been getting cleaner. In the last decade, the region has reduced emissions through policies that increase renewable energy supply and through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the country’s first multi-state cap-and-invest program, which limits carbon emissions from power plants and reinvests revenue from pollution allowances in clean energy improvements. Many states across the Northeast have committed to large-scale clean energy, particularly offshore wind, and expanded community based clean energy resources like solar. Acadia Center will work to advance clean, no- and low-carbon power generation options like offshore wind.

Outdated regulatory barriers stand in the way of growth in clean energy. Thanks to new technologies, the Northeast can have a power grid that is clean, flexible, and consumer-centered. Unfortunately, many state and regional policies sustain utility and energy investment models that fail to treat clean energy options fairly — particularly building and community-scale energy options. As a result, they cannot expand at the speed and scale necessary to slow climate change, and so these policies act to advance fossil fuels like natural gas. Acadia Center will build awareness about how outdated policies hamper the region’s ability to adopt clean energy, meet climate goals, and realize the best value for consumers. Acadia Center will develop and advocate for utility reform that invests in a modern, flexible grid and reforms utility finances and planning. While many government bodies have the power to make decisions critical to addressing climate change, state public utility commissions and federal regulators have an especially significant say in how and whether clean energy can advance. Acadia Center will work to remove entrenched power market barriers, design policies that capture and meet community needs, set smart principles for siting new projects and align regulatory agencies so they consider climate impacts alongside short-term rates and bills.

Phase Out Fossil Fuels and Make the Case Against Natural Gas Expansion

The Northeast is heavily reliant on fossil fuels for energy production, heating, and transportation and will continue to be if it remains committed to the false promise of natural gas and outdated rules and regulations that prefer fossil fuels. Renewable power generation, transportation powered by electricity, and clean electric space and water heating and cooking appliances can rapidly curb dependence on natural gas and other fossil fuels. But well-funded fossil fuel interests proliferate claims that the region needs more natural gas to maintain its current quality of life.

Acadia Center will make it clear through analytic materials that natural gas is not a bridge fuel—it is a fossil fuel — showing decisionmakers and the public that relying on natural gas will defeat climate goals. Acadia Center will offer ambitious but realistic solutions to replace natural gas with clean energy. It will counter misinformation from sources that profit from fossil fuels, seek to shift those business models, and work to ensure that people across the region have full access to clean energy options and the quality of life, economic, health, and climate benefits that they bring.

Shift the Public Discourse to Embrace Solutions that Make a Difference

Climate progress requires a widespread preference for a clean energy economy over a fossil fuel future. Today, fossil fuel proponents have an outsized impact on the region’s energy narrative. That can change. Data and policy analysis can illustrate a path forward that empowers the Northeast to meet its energy needs and stop depending on fossil fuels. To build popular support, Acadia Center engages audiences through targeted research, innovative communications, partnerships, and coalitions. It demonstrates the benefits of clean energy for consumers and the climate in order to shift public narratives and build enthusiasm for an economy that relies on clean energy. Its Climate and Energy Analysis (CLEAN) Center produces thought-leading materials that connect clean energy and climate progress with issues of concern to the public and their daily lives. Together the CLEAN Center and Acadia Center’s Public Engagement work will help people throughout the region envision a clean energy economy as a viable and preferable path forward.

Acadia Center is dedicated to advancing the clean energy future to benefit all. The clean energy future can  strengthen the region’s economies, improve quality of life for all residents, and protect us from climate change. Acadia Center is excited to redouble its efforts and work with many partners to Make the Next Decade Count_TM.