The Energy Consumer's Bulletin- a New England energy news blog

Guest Blogpost: Mass Fleet Advisor

Note: At Green Energy Consumers, we know that we need to rapidly electrify all forms of transportation – especially including medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which disproportionately contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and localized air pollution. We're excited to post this guest blogpost from Jenny Kritzler at CALSTART and Kristen Patneaude from PowerOptions, who are working with MassCEC to offer Mass Fleet Advisor. If you have a private or nonprofit fleet that you'd like to electrify, read on!

The New Federal Tax Credit for EVs

What Candidates for RI Governor Think about Phasing Out Gasoline

Last week, the Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI) hosted a forum for candidates running RI Governor to discuss their plans for the environment if elected. The forum covered several of Rhode Island’s most pressing environmental issues, including environmental justice and implementation of the Act On Climate. But one question stood out.

Moderator Ed Fitzpatrick of the Boston Globe asked: To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, should Rhode Island set an end date for the last sales of new gasoline-powered automobiles like some other states?

Introducing QARI Drives Green - 绿色驾驶

In the nearly seven years since we launched Drive Green, Green Energy Consumers has interacted with tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents through a combination of in-person events and online offerings. We have helped nearly 1,000 drivers get an electric vehicle (EV). We’re proud of that work, since we know we need to rapidly electrify transportation to fight climate change and better public health.

We Like the Massachusetts Climate Bill. The Governor Must Sign It.

On Thursday, the Massachusetts House and Senate both passed a major new climate bill, An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind. The legislation now goes to Governor Baker for signature. The bill is basically what we expected: a combination of the House’s emphasis on offshore wind, the Senate’s emphasis on electric transportation, and some new policies in other areas. Overall, we are very pleased with the 96-page bill. Here are our views on some of the key provisions – and what you can do to get this over the finish line. 

A murky future for RI's electric vehicle programs

Rhode Island is in good shape to reduce emissions from the power sector after a successful 2022 legislation session. But it’s slow-going on policy to support vehicle electrification, which is an absolute necessity to displace gasoline use and meet 2030 climate goals.

How to "Shave the Peak" when the electric grid is dirtiest

Peak Alerts! Protect our climate by reducing your electricity use on weekdays from 5-8pm

Starting Tuesday, July 19th, 2022

According to Accuweather, we're headed for a prolonged stretch of hot weather through July 31st. Over the next few days, you might hear from your local utility or our electric grid operator, ISO-New England, that our electricity system will be stressed. If you care about air quality and the cost of electricity, the next two weeks are a time to pay attention to when you're using energy. In this blog, we’ll explain how weather affects the power grid, and how we can collectively try to cope.

The Electric Sector in the Massachusetts Clean Energy & Climate Plan

This blog covers strategies outlined in Massachusetts’ final Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the electric power sector. For more background on the CECP for 2025 and 2030, read this blog.

Thanks to policies like the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) and the Clean Energy Standard (CES), the Commonwealth has made significant progress in cleaning up the electricity supply in Massachusetts. For the rest of this decade, we will need to build on and accelerate that progress to meet the GHG reductions required by the Climate Roadmap bill that passed in 2021. In this blog post, we’ll go over what the Clean Energy & Climate Plan (CECP) has in store for the electricity sector and Green Energy Consumers' thoughts on that plan!

Buildings in the Massachusetts Clean Energy & Climate Plan

This blog covers strategies outlined in Massachusetts’ final Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the buildings sector. For more background on the CECP for 2025 and 2030, read this blog.

Residential and commercial heating and cooling contributed 29.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents to Massachusetts’ emissions in 1990, or about 15% of total GHG emissions. The newest draft of the state's Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP) now calls for a 49% emission reduction by 2030 relative to 1990 in the heating sector (virtually the same percentage decrease as the economy-wide target of 50%).

For the last several years, we have seen emissions fall significantly from within the electricity sector, while building emission reductions have been more stubborn. Here’s what the CECP says we’re going to do about that, and our take on those strategies.

Transportation in the Massachusetts Clean Energy Climate Plan

This blog covers strategies outlined in Massachusetts’ final Clean Energy and Climate Plan (CECP) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transportation sector. For more background on the CECP for 2025 and 2030, read this blog.

Transportation is the largest source of GHG emissions in Massachusetts and the state’s ability to meet its 2025 and 2030 GHG requirements will hinge largely on this sector. The final CECP requires reductions in the transportation sector of 18% by 2025 and 34% by 2030. In 2020, with all the reduced travel due to the pandemic, we reached 22% reductions under 1990 levels. But otherwise, transportation emissions have remained stubborn, as the green bar in the graph below demonstrates.