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

The New England Wind Fund: a fossil fuel killer

Posted by Larry Chretien on Monday, May 06, 2019 @ 11:05 AM

About twenty years ago, our non-profit organization stepped into the voluntary green power market, hoping to speed up the pace of wind & solar development. A lot has changed for the better since then, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Our programs

What’s New with Drive Green Webinar Overview

Posted by Devan DiLibero on Friday, February 15, 2019 @ 04:00 PM

Did you miss the “What’s New with Drive Green” webinar, but still want to know what’s new with Drive Green? We have you covered. Below is a brief overview of what we went over during our February 12th webinars.

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Tags: Electric vehicles/Transportation, Our programs

Why We Traveled 724 Miles for an Electric Car

Posted by Holly and Rich Reid-Shaw, Guest Bloggers on Friday, January 25, 2019 @ 02:51 PM

Edited by Mal Skowron


Holly Reid and Rich Shaw live in North Carolina.  They have driven a Prius since 2006, but their ever-growing interests in reducing energy consumption drove them to consider purchasing an all-electric vehicle.  They heard about the Drive Green program from their daughter, Indy, who worked at Green Energy Consumers Alliance in 2018. 

Holly and Rich explored their options using the Drive Green webpage and decided to purchase an EV—even if it meant traveling up to New England to complete the deal and driving it back to North Carolina.  And although their small town hosts six EV charging stations, the Reid-Shaws' plan to charge their vehicle at home using solar energy from the rooftop panels they installed on their historic home (ca. 1795). 

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Tags: Electric vehicles/Transportation, Guest blog/Member spotlight, Our programs

A Tax Break for You and Your Mother (Earth)

Posted by Larry Chretien on Tuesday, January 15, 2019 @ 01:10 PM

The tax man cometh. But if you participate in our Green Powered program, you can take a break. It’s a small one, but well deserved.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Our programs

A few words about Tesla

Posted by Larry Chretien on Wednesday, October 17, 2018 @ 11:00 AM

Given the work that we do on green energy, people frequently ask us what we think about Tesla and Elon Musk. Because there’s so much to Tesla and its main man, we have several separate but related points to make.

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Tags: Electric vehicles/Transportation, Our programs

Why We Changed Our Name

Posted by Larry Chretien on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 @ 02:33 PM

Here’s some news!  Our organization has legally changed its name to Green Energy Consumers Alliance, Inc. This single new name better reflects our nonprofit mission: to harness the power of energy consumers to speed the transition to a low-carbon future. 

By way of history, Mass Energy Consumers Alliance (Mass Energy) and People’s Power & Light were once two separate nonprofit organizations. Mass Energy actually began as the Boston Fuel Consortium in 1982, while People’s Power & Light started in 2002. Pursuing similar missions, we merged in 2006 as Energy Consumers Alliance of New England, but continued to operate with separate brands in each state until this week.

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Tags: Our programs

Are you getting greenwashed by your electricity supplier?

Posted by Erin Taylor on Tuesday, August 07, 2018 @ 10:17 AM

Been hearing from "green electricity" suppliers like CleanChoice Energy? You want to support the generation of electricity from renewable sources, but how do you know if a green power program will use your dollars to speed our transition to clean energy? How would you know whether your purchase of green power is actually contributing to shifting the mix of electricity that powers our electric grid away from fossil fuels?

These are valid questions that we, as a non-profit energy organization working in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and offering a program that allows you to make the switch to renewable energy, get asked every day. So here it is: Green Power Bootcamp, in a blog.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Electricity and the grid, Our programs

Landfills become solar power zones in northern Rhode Island

Posted by Yaima Braga on Tuesday, July 24, 2018 @ 10:25 AM

Solar projects have been popping up all over Rhode Island. This has been due to the enhancement of the Renewable Energy Standard and the Renewable Energy Growth program, as well as a recent call from Governor Gina Raimondo to have 1,000 Megawatts of renewable energy within the state by the end of 2020. We are excited about the possibilities these policy measures create for new, properly-sited projects.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Rhode Island, Our programs

Introducing "Shave the Peak": A New Way to Green the Grid

Posted by Kai Salem on Thursday, June 28, 2018 @ 12:57 PM

At Green Energy Consumers, we talk a lot about the importance of energy efficiency and conservation. But, for a few hours every year, reducing our energy usage becomes especially important: on the hottest and coldest days of the year, energy use is the highest and electricity is dramatically more expensive and polluting. These high-demand days are called peak days, and we’re calling on our members to help us Shave the Peak by taking straightforward steps to reduce energy usage for a few hours on these days.

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Tags: Electricity and the grid, Our programs

Where are the new renewables coming from?

Posted by Yaima Braga on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 @ 03:48 PM

If you’ve looked at our local resources map recently you’ve noticed that Mass Energy/People’s Power & Light is now supporting more renewable energy sources than ever before. This has been made possible thanks to the contribution of our members who made the switch to green electricity, and to the commitment of seven (7) communities that wanted their electricity to come from local, clean energy resources and made it happen through a process called Green Municipal Aggregation.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Our programs