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

Mass. Court Ruling Hurts Case for Pipeline

On May 17, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) issued a unanimous opinion confirming that the landmark 2008 climate protection law, the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), requires the state to take enforceable action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on an annual basis in order to achieve the law’s mandate. Basically, they said “limits are limits”, the targets are binding, more needs to be done to achieve the emission target for 2020, and the law is unambiguous. 

State High Court Rules in Favor of Global Warming Solutions Act

Unambiguous. That’s the word the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court used in it's unanimous decision to describe a requirement of the Department of Environmental Protection to write regulations ensuring that we see “declining aggregate emissions” of greenhouse gas emissions over time.  As a coplaintiff in this case, Mass Energy is  thrilled with the SJC’s order. We support the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), which requires greenhouse gas emissions of 25% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 (both compared to 1990). And the GWSA clearly states that the Department must write regulations to get the job done. We hope that the Department will move quickly to write strong regulations that will get us to the important first milestone of 25% by 2020.

Kinder Morgan on hold indefinitely, but the specter of Spectra still looms

 

Solar Panels, SRECs, Double-counting, Oh My!

Thanks to New England’s relatively strong solar policies, many of our members have gone solar – by owning panels, leasing panels, or participating in community solar programs. To those of you who have gone solar – congrats! However, even though you’re generating solar power, you’re probably not consuming the solar power you generate. In other words, even if you have solar panels or are participating in community solar, you cannot necessarily make the claim that you’ve reduced your personal greenhouse gas emissions as a result.

Taxing Electricity to Pay for a Gas Pipeline Makes No Sense

On February 25, the Mass. Department of Public Utilities (DPU) held a public hearing on a petition filed by Eversource that permits the company to charge electricity ratepayers for a 20 year contract to source fracked gas from New York and Pennsylvania. The gas would come to Massachusetts through the proposed Access Northeast gas pipeline. This is the first of three such cases. National Grid has filed a similar petition with the DPU and is seeking permission to charge its electricity ratepayers for the Access Northeast and Northeast Energy Direct gas pipelines.

A Reality Check on the Massachusetts Clean Energy & Climate Plan

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.

Solar in the Ocean State: A Review of Rhode Island's Solar Incentives

2016 is looking good for solar in Rhode Island. People’s Power & Light (PP&L) is still looking into options to launch our own solar program, but in the meantime we want to share some resources that you can use to install solar this year.

Validation from the AG’s Study: More Gas Pipeline Capacity Not Needed

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.

Climate Change Had Its Day in Court

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.

Why Buying New England Class I RECs is the Only Way to Make the Switch

The average home uses electricity all day long and most of us don’t even think about it. You may have heard that you can use your energy dollar to demand 100% clean renewable electricity instead of your utility’s dirty resource mix. Programs aimed at helping you green up the grid are numerous in this country, but many don’t deliver the intended results. However, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, there is one way to ensure that your green power payments are making a difference:  by purchasing Class I or “new” Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

The subject matter in this blog is still relevant in 2019, but for a more current blog on the same topic, click here.