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

The Texas power problem – our perspective

Posted by Larry Chretien on Tuesday, February 23, 2021 @ 11:35 AM

Our hearts go out to Texans. The cold, snow, ice, power outages, and water shutoffs have gone way past inconvenient for people there. It’s caused death and misery.  Although we’re not experts on the Texas grid system as much as we are in New England, we’ve noticed a lot of confusion and deliberate misinformation surrounding the blackouts

The confusion about the power system is understandable; it's complicated and largely operates behind-the-scenes. It’s only until there’s a major crisis that we take a look behind the curtain. Unfortunately, the grid’s complexity makes it a ripe opportunity for the financially and politically motivated to spread “alternative facts.”  

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Tags: Renewable energy, Energy policy & advocacy, Home heating

Get Excited for these upcoming Energy webinars

Posted by Adrianna Lovegrove on Monday, February 08, 2021 @ 06:46 AM

In addition to our BIG DEAL panel on Phasing Out Gasoline later this month, we've got awesome webinars coming up on climate policy, installing solar, and electric cars. And they're all free!

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Tags: Renewable energy, Energy policy & advocacy, Electric vehicles/Transportation, Climate change

How good is the Mass. Clean Energy and Climate Plan for cleaning up the grid?

Posted by Larry Chretien on Thursday, January 28, 2021 @ 07:45 AM

The Baker administration released their ten-year Clean Energy & Climate Plan (CECP), which is open for comment through February 22. The comment period for the CECP is an excellent opportunity to set the Baker Administration on course to tackle climate emissions within multiple sectors of the economyYou can read the whole plan here. 

We’re working on our formal comments on the whole plan and will share them soon. Meanwhile, here are our comments on how the plan would treat the electricity sector. 

February 12 Update: The deadline for submitting comments has been extended to March 22, 2021, but Green Energy Consumers Alliance submitted our feedback early. Read it here. 

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Tags: Renewable energy, Energy policy & advocacy, Massachusetts

Going Beyond 100% Green Power

Posted by Larry Chretien on Monday, January 04, 2021 @ 01:34 PM

As wind and solar projects proliferate and people acknowledge the benefits of renewable energy, more consumers are voluntarily choosing 100 percent green power. Some have done that through our Green Powered program and others through their city or town municipal aggregations (also known as community choice programs). If you are in that growing minority, we applaud you. But please consider going above and beyond 100%. This blog explains why and how easy it is to do.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Green municipal aggregation, Climate change

Getting to 100% Renewable Energy in Rhode Island

Posted by Kai Salem & Larry Chretien on Monday, September 28, 2020 @ 07:38 PM

In January 2020, Governor Raimondo signed an Executive Order setting a goal of meeting Rhode Island electricity demand from 100% renewable sources by the end of the decade. Back in January, we wrote that we’re skeptical that another study will result in the action we need. Over six months later, where does Rhode Island stand on 100% renewable electricity?

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Tags: Renewable energy, Energy policy & advocacy, Rhode Island, Climate change, Phasing out fossil fuels

Q&A with Rhode Island energy leaders: Highlights from our May 18th Spring Meeting

Posted by Priscilla De La Cruz on Wednesday, May 27, 2020 @ 03:35 PM

This is the first blog of a three-part series focused on renewable energy development and climate progress in Rhode Island. 

Keep reading for highlights from our virtual Spring Meeting on May 18.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Energy policy & advocacy, Green municipal aggregation, Rhode Island

Where's the peak in the era of COVID?

Posted by Kai Salem & Yaima Braga on Thursday, May 21, 2020 @ 09:28 AM

Over the past two months, the world’s daily patterns have changed drastically. As we know from Shave the Peak, even small changes to routines, especially during peak hours, can have an outsize impact on the emissions, costs, and fuel mix of our electricity system. So it’s no surprise to see that the pandemic and the subsequent stay-at-home orders have shifted many aspects of the electricity mix, here in New England and beyond. In fact, the average cost of electricity during March was the lowest in market history, in large part because of the pandemic.

So what’s going on in our electricity mix, and why? And perhaps most importantly, what lessons from the pandemic’s impact on the electric system should we be taking into the future?

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Tags: Renewable energy, Energy policy & advocacy, Electricity and the grid

How To Avoid Getting Greenwashed

Posted by Erin Taylor on Friday, April 03, 2020 @ 09:08 AM

Have you been hearing from "green" electricity suppliers like CleanChoice Energy? You might want to support renewable energy, but are skeptical if your money will actually go toward shifting our electricity away from fossil fuels.

This is a valid concern, and (because of our awesome Green Powered electricity program) one we hear often. That's why we address it pretty regularly on our blog.

Blog: Are You Getting Greenwashed?

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Tags: Renewable energy, Electricity and the grid, Climate change

New Renewable Energy Projects Spotlight

Posted by Yaima Braga on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 @ 10:08 AM

Have you taken a look at our map of resources lately? There are so many projects in it that it’s been challenging for our graphic designer to fit some of them in. Over the last year, we’ve been busy adding more impactful Class I projects to our list thanks to the support of Massachusetts and Rhode Island residents, along with small businesses that have taken the initiative to green their electricity through our Green Powered program and Green Municipal Aggregation.

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Tags: Renewable energy, Green municipal aggregation

Renewable Energy Is Affordable – Look At These Off-Shore Wind Prices

Posted by Yaima Braga and Larry Chretien, with contributions from Patrick Knight of Synapse Energy Economics on Monday, February 24, 2020 @ 07:30 AM

Emissions from the New England power grid have fallen significantly in the last several years and that’s obviously a good thing. But it’s even better when we can see that the wholesale price of electric energy has been holding fairly steady during this period of environmental progress. The transition to clean energy is producing benefits at a lower cost than might have been projected several years ago.


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Tags: Renewable energy, Climate change