Electrifying our vehicles is a critical tool for cleaning up the air we breathe and improving our public health. The public health effects of pollution from gas and diesel vehicles are widespread but are unequally centered in areas where Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) groups live. Electric vehicles (EVs) offer consumers cleaner and more efficient means of transport than gas cars.
In the fight against climate change, figuring out efficient and clean ways to heat water for showers, laundry, and dishwashing is a crucial part of reducing emissions. For the average New England household, domestic water heating accounts for 17% of the home’s annual energy usage. Replacing water heaters is also one of the most frequent and costly maintenance tasks that many property owners and landlords must face. Most hot water storage tanks last about 10 years, meaning that property owners might replace their water heating systems two or three times more frequently than their furnaces or boilers. This makes water heater conversions an important opportunity for cutting our region’s carbon footprint.
We are happy to announce our new-and-improved used EV Finder, a tool to help you find the pre-owned electric vehicle (EV) model that meets your driving needs and budget.
Vehicle prices (of all kinds, not just electric) are higher than ever; 20% of new-car buyers are now paying more than $1,000 a month for their vehicle. A pre-owned EV is a great choice if you want to pay less up front and save on fuel and maintenance, all while reducing air pollution.
The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee seems to be close to advancing the controversial energy House Bill 4744. This would keep Massachusetts dependent on fossil fuels by cutting Mass Save’s budget, subsidizing gas equipment, and opening the door to putting the cost of new gas pipelines on the backs of electricity ratepayers.
The Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4) has approved the final 2025 Climate Action Strategy (CAS) and will send it to the General Assembly and the Governor’s office. The final plan falls short of being a strategy. Unfortunately, we had low expectations after reading the draft executive summary.
In 2024, third-party “competitive” electric suppliers increased residential electric rates by $80.7 million, according to data from the Energy Information Administration and Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.
We are reporting here a continuation of a pattern in which retail electricity suppliers who sign up individual customers greatly overcharge them compared to what the customers would pay if they received supply service from either their utility (Eversource, National Grid, or Unitil) or their municipal aggregation if it was available.
These companies did this by signing up residential customers, often by promising to lower their electric bill, and then charging their customers an average of 2.1 cents more per kilowatt-hour (kWh) than customers would have paid had they stayed on either their utilities’ basic service rate or their community’s municipal aggregation program (if it had one).
Our friends at theBuilding Electrification Accelerator asked us to present information about legislation, House Bill 4744, now working its way through the Massachusetts House of Representatives. This blog is an adaptation of the presentation.
Rhode Island is at a crucial juncture in taking meaningful action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Climate Action Strategy (CAS), which is a plan required of the state under the Act on Climate, is scheduled to be released to the public on Monday, December 15th, and the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory released by the Department of Environmental Management has been updated for 2023. These two reports provide context for where the state’s emissions are and what ought to be done to achieve the 2030 GHG reduction mandate. Prior to the release of the final CAS, the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4) – Rhode Island’s interagency organization tasked with coordinating climate change efforts – released a draft executive summary for the Climate Action Strategy which claims that the state will be able to meet the 2030 Act on Climate (AOC) with the current policies RI has on the books, e.g. the Renewable Energy Standard, Advanced Clean Cars II, and Advanced Clean Trucks regulations (currently under litigation), current incentives for electric vehicles and heat pump, etc.
Most of Rhode Island is served by one utility, Rhode Island Energy, and they have a monopoly over the distribution of electricity (poles, wires, meters, billing), but not over the supply of electricity. This leaves residents of Rhode Island with three choices as to who to buy their electricity supply from: “Last Resort” power from the Rhode Island Energy, their city or town through municipal aggregation (if the community has a program), or from a third-party, sometimes called a competitive supplier.
On Monday, those of us who were working to defeat a proposal in the Mass. House of Representatives that would roll back our climate commitments and decimate Mass Save were thrilled to learn that the House decided to postpone action on the bill pending further review by the House Ways and Means Committee.
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