This blog is about the rising cost of natural gas. We hope that it reaches those who blamed this past winter’s rising cost of gas on the cost of energy efficiency programs.
Let’s start with this graph, courtesy of Reuters, showing that the price of natural gas has risen almost 50% nationally in the last few years for residential consumers.
We have an exciting update for Massachusetts households since we last wrote about heat pump rates in July: Starting November 1st, all three investor-owned electric utilities (Unitil, National Grid, and Eversource) will launch new, lower winter electricity rates for homes that heat either partially or fully with heat pumps.
On average, Heat pump users can expect to save around $540 on their heating bills this winter, compared to what they paid in past winters. That’s roughly a 17% discount—a true game changer for clean heating in Massachusetts.
It’s no secret that we are big fans of electric vehicles (EVs) here at Green Energy Consumers Alliance – they have lower operational costs over their lifetimes, and they are central in curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Yet, many prospective EV buyers have not made the switch because of concerns about charging, especially when it comes to long-distance travel. While DC Fast Chargers have been deployed at unprecedented rates, some people are concerned about the impacts of fast charging on battery health. Below, we will dispel some of the most common concerns about DC Fast Charging and share some pointers for preserving your EV’s battery.
Widespread adoption of heat pumps is essential to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, and the important interim greenhouse gas reduction goals by 2030. However, for many households, high electricity costs remain a barrier to making the switch. To address this, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has ordered the state’s three investor-owned utilities (IOU’s - Unitil, National Grid, and Eversource) to introduce seasonal heat pump rates, offering discounted electricity for heat pump users during the winter months, a concept Maine has already implemented.
As part of our Shave the Peak program, we’ve been aggregating data released by ISO-New England, the non-profit Independent System Operator with a responsibility to maintain reliable electricity to the six New England states. Every day, we track various stats, including when and what the peak demand was, when and what the most expensive price of electricity was, how high CO2 emissions reached, what the fuel mix looks like, etc.
From time to time, we report on how municipal aggregation is going in Massachusetts – and soon, Rhode Island. It’s that time again. For about 90% of the customers in each state, consumers have three choices for their electricity supply – the utility’s Basic Service, municipal aggregation if their community has adopted that model, or retail service from a (often predatory and greenwashing) competitive electricity provider. All of these customers receive delivery service (poles, wires, metering, billing) from regulated investor-owned utilities; the difference lies in the electricity supply. The remaining 10% of customers receive power supply from municipal utilities.
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Larry Chretien
andMikaela Hondros-McCarthy
As summer approaches, thousands of our followers prepare to “Shave the Peak.”
Shave the Peak is our program designed to inform people, via text and email alerts, how and when to reduce power use on days when electricity demand is significantly higher than usual. As we begin to see temperatures rise above 90°F this summer, skyrocketing demand on the power grid leads to an increase in fossil fuel consumption and wholesale prices (which ultimately get passed onto retail customers – us).
In Massachusetts, third-party electric suppliers, also called “competitive suppliers”, are allowed to sell electricity directly to residential customers of Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil (although the cost of delivering the power is always charged by the local utility). While the idea behind allowing these companies to operate was that they would increase competition and bring down electric prices, this is not how things have worked in practice.
Clean energy makes society better. It’s affordable. It’s healthy. It creates good-paying jobs and choices for consumers. And that’s the truth.
Climate change is the greatest threat to natural landscapes, marine ecosystems, and fishing industries in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Narragansett Bay has already warmed by nearly 3°F since 1960. Sea levels off the coast of Newport have risen 10 inches since 1930, and projections show they could rise as much as 9 feet in the next 75 years. These changes will drastically alter the fishing industry and the economy. Offshore wind is one of the most powerful tools we have to safeguard these vital resources.
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