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Executive Director of Green Energy Consumers Alliance
The Baker Administration just released its Clean Energy & Climate Plan (CECP) as required by the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA). They claim that the Commonwealth is on pace to meet our GWSA requirement of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25% by 2020 and that we will reach that number if certain things fall into place. It’s worth reading in full, but here’s a bit of a reality check.
As readers of the blog are aware, on October 26 I voted against the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Three-Year Plan for 2016-2018. I did so primarily because the plan represented a retreat on energy savings in the Commercial and Industrial (C&I). Compared to every other resource, savings from that sector is the cheapest by a country mile.
Back in November 2014, I wrote about how Mass Energy has joined with the Conservation Law Foundation in a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection had not written regulations required by the Global Warming Solutions Act. The regulations are about ensuring that we meet the law’s requirement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2020, an important milestone on the way to the ultimate requirement of 80% by 2050. On Friday, January 8, oral arguments in the case were presented to the Supreme Judicial Court. I’m happy to report that the attorney on our side, Jenny Rushlow of the Conservation Law Foundation, did an outstanding job of presenting our argument and answering good questions from the justices.
Many cities and towns around Massachusetts are getting into municipal aggregation, a community-wide, bulk purchase of electricity. But the City of Melrose and the Town of Dedham have taken the concept a step beyond all others. With the guidance of their consultant, Good Energy, Melrose and Dedham will be supplied with 16% local, post-1997 renewable energy instead of the 11% required by state law. That important 5% additional increment will be supplied by Mass Energy. The increase from 11% to 16% is actually a 45% increase in the amount of renewable energy!
In Massachusetts, three-year plans for energy efficiency are developed by the utilities with input and oversight from the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC). Right now, the next plan’s final draft is filed with the MA Department of Public Utilities for approval, accompanied by a recommendation from the Council. As a member of the EEAC, representing the Mass. Nonprofit Network, I was the sole vote on October 26 against the plan for 2016-2018. This post will explain why.
On October 6, the Federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected that heating your home with oil will cost 25 percent less than last year and heating your home with natural gas will cost 10 percent less due to a nice combination of lower prices and a forecast for warmer weather. Temperatures for each month from October through March are expected to be higher than the 10-year average. For heating oil customers, this winter could cost $500 or $1000 less than last winter.
For some time now in Massachusetts, you have been able to choose green power for your home or business. And for some time, your community has been able to choose an electricity supplier to serve the entire town. Today, we can put the two ideas together: renewable energy by community choice.
Heating oil prices are surprising everyone, including the major oil producers such as the Saudis and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Last week, we learned that National Grid and NSTAR decided to withdraw their commitment to purchase electricity from the Cape Wind project. Many of us were looking forward to seeing Cape Wind become the first offshore wind project in the United States. Now that seems unlikely. Without the contracts with NSTAR and National Grid, Cape Wind will find it extremely difficult to get financing.
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