Q2 Update 2006
Quarter 2 Update
April, May, June 2006
Rhode Island Passes Landmark Energy Package
Advancing Energy Efficiency in the New England Power Grid
ME Governor Signs Energy Bill
Rhode Island Enacts Anti-Idling Legislation
Massachusetts Diesel Campaign
New England Forests and Climate Change: An Economic Opportunity
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Region-wide Outreach
ENE Welcomes New Staff
This quarter, ENE is pleased to report on significant progress advancing climate change solutions, reforming energy policies and working towards cleaner air. The states and region cannot successfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions without making major increases in energy efficiency investments. ENE was therefore very encouraged by advances made at the state and regional level to reform energy policy so that efficiency and other clean resources will have a greater role in our energy future. Particularly noteworthy is the progress in Rhode Island, where the state government adopted sweeping new energy legislation designed to make energy use more consumer and environmentally friendly. At the regional level, we are gearing up to get RGGI rules adopted and working to take advantage of a historic opportunity to advance energy efficiency in the New England power grid’s operations. Our campaigns to reduce diesel pollution moved forward in the region and we moved closer to completion of our Climate Change Roadmap for New England and Eastern Canada, a report that covers 11 jurisdictions in both countries.
Rhode Island Passes Landmark Energy Package
In June, Rhode Island enacted a sweeping new approach to energy planning and energy efficiency that will have significant environmental and economic benefits for the state. ENE, as a founding member of the POWER coalition, worked closely with policy makers to draft language and to provide testimony and technical support in favor of the new legislation, which creates a more sustainable energy system in the state. The RI package sets an important precedent in the region as rising fossil fuel prices and generation costs have turned policy makers’ attention toward capturing efficiency —a local and lower cost energy resource that will provide significant consumer and environmental benefits.
The energy bills include many of ENE's policy priorities:
- A new regulatory approach for energy planning and purchasing called “Least-Cost Procurement” requires distribution utilities to purchase all cost-effective efficiency, distributed generation and renewables before turning to more expensive traditional supply. The investments in efficiency will lower consumers’ bills, keep energy dollars in the state and reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.
- A robust natural gas efficiency program will help natural gas customers make their homes and businesses more efficient and reduce natural gas consumption. For every year that the program is running, Rhode Island customers will enjoy $20 million in lifetime savings.
- A new Office of Energy Resources will be responsible for energy planning and forecasting, increasing energy efficiency and renewables, and engaging in the Least-Cost Procurement process.
- A consumer, business, and environmental ratepayer council will watchdog the Least-Cost Procurement mandate and ensure all cost-effective resources are purchased and the savings are passed onto RI ratepayers.
Advancing Energy Efficiency in the New England Power Grid
An historic opportunity to qualify energy efficiency and other clean energy sources now exists in the regional electricity grid operated by ISO-New England. Building on work started in Connecticut, ENE is coordinating with other regional environmental groups and energy efficiency service companies to influence and participate in the rule development process. The coalition is working to promote rules that would allow efficiency to qualify as a resource for regional energy needs in a $4 billion arena known as the Forward Capacity Market. This new mechanism has the potential to produce substantial new funding for energy efficiency, load management, demand response and distributed generation and to offset the need for new generation facilities. Capturing even 10% of this market could produce an added $400 million for energy efficiency investments in the region. ENE is working with PUC commissioners, business associations, utilities and regulators to develop rules and elicit support from the official voters and rule makers.
ME Governor Signs Energy Bill
During the last legislative session, ENE dedicated its advocacy efforts to two bills promising important advances in energy efficiency. One of the bills succeeded, and on June 1st, Governor Baldacci signed LD 2041, An Act to Enhance Maine’s Energy Independence and Security. It provides authority for the critically important concept of procuring energy efficiency to satisfy the 99% of Maine consumers served by their users -a concept that ENE has been pushing across New England and that was recently adopted in Rhode Island. This new law authorizes the PUC to treat energy efficiency as a resource equal to supply that can be purchased to meet consumer energy needs. It also authorizes the PUC to enter into long-term contracts for energy efficiency and renewable energy, and it calls for the state to increase its renewable energy supply by 10% by 2017.
Rhode Island Enacts Anti-Idling Legislation
Idling diesel vehicles are among the many sources of harmful particulate matter (PM2.5) to which Rhode Islanders are commonly exposed. ENE and its coalition partners drafted legislation that puts strict regulations on idling. We rallied stakeholder and public support and testified in favor of the legislation before both the House and Senate. The anti-idling bill was signed into law on July 10. It calls for the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) to set restrictions on idling for both road and non-road vehicles similar to those currently in effect in Massachusetts and Connecticut. DEM must also investigate and report to the Legislature on all sources of diesel pollution and identify strategies for reducing pollution. DEM plans to convene a stakeholder group to work on this, and ENE and its coalition partners will be active participants.
Massachusetts Diesel Campaign
ENE and other members of the Massachusetts Diesel Advocacy Coalition worked at the grassroots and senior policy levels to expand awareness of the health impacts diesel pollution and the best ways to reduce these emissions. We briefed David Cash, Director of Air, Waste, and Energy Policy at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, to provide information about the health risks associated with diesel pollution in Massachusetts and to discuss possible policy solutions. ENE and other coalition members are working with Cash as they consider how measures for reducing diesel pollution through retrofits might be incorporated into the state’s budget and environmental policy plans. Cash spoke about the emerging state diesel mitigation strategy and also the health risks associated with diesel at a statewide stakeholder meeting that ENE and its coalition partners hosted at the end of June. Each coalition group invited several community representatives to the session, which served as an opportunity for groups to learn more about diesel and coordinate strategies for effective policy. ENE and its partners are also conducting individual local outreach sessions.
New England Forests and Climate Change: An Economic Opportunity
Landowners in northern New England have an opportunity to manage their lands to help meet climate change goals. At the same time they can benefit from new revenue streams created by emerging carbon markets, which may help keep lands in traditional uses. After presenting the results of our forest carbon sequestration study at a Pinchot Institute conference in Washington, D.C. this winter, ENE has been working with the Pinchot Institute and The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands (of Maine) to apply the initial findings of the study to further research and projects including developing a pilot program for forest carbon management strategies and verification and monitoring protocols with fifteen Maine family-forest owners. Using the data from our initial study with Maine Forest Service, ENE will help design the management regimes to be implemented and identify areas for further study. The results will be a useful resource for government agencies and industry representatives interested in the environmental and economic potential of forestry management projects. Such programs could create incentives for landowners to adopt practices that lead to additional carbon sequestration and connect them to carbon exchange markets like RGGI.
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
ENE continues our intensive engagement in the RGGI rule development process, working with state and regional officials and providing extensive analyses and comments to make the RGGI rule as strong and effective as possible. We submitted official comments on the Draft Model Rule (DMR), to state Commissioners and to the RGGI stakeholder group through the spring as they worked to refine the Model Rule. Our recommendations focused on ensuring that the initial cap level is not set too high or inflated by exemptions and also on refining price triggers and offsets policies. ENE staff attended RGGI stakeholder meetings, and we continue to work with other advocates, stakeholders and state/regional officials to develop and implement an environmentally and economically sound rule.
Region-wide Outreach
ENE staff members were invited to speak, lead panels and participate in several conferences this quarter. We met with key policy makers and other advocates and stakeholders at the events, and these were valuable opportunities for ENE to serve as a resource of information on energy and climate issues and to extend and share our advocacy work.
- Executive Director Dan Sosland and Policy Advocate & Staff Attorney Sam Krasnow were invited to speak about energy issues and participate in a panel at the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers annual conference. Krasnow’s speech focused on the potential for and benefits of using efficiency to meet the growing energy demand and increasing renewable energy capacity in the region.
- Sosland and Krasnow also attended a climate meeting of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers in Ottawa in early May, where they were able to share ideas about our climate work and strengthen ties with other climate advocates and policy makers in the region.
- Sosland spoke about state based energy efficiency and energy policy reform at the Council of State Governors Conference in Cambridge, MA.
- At the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners (NECPUC) Annual Conference held in Rockport, ME in June, Director of Government Relations Jessie Stratton joined Gordon Van Welie, President and CEO of ISO-New England, and Anne George, Commissioner of the Connecticut PUC and Pamela Katz of the Connecticut Siting Council on a panel about the development of new generation, fuel sources, and siting in the region.
- Staff Attorney Roger Koontz participated in an energy panel at the Connecticut Legislature in June. He highlighted the importance of using energy efficiency as a means of load management and a way to reduce the state’s dependence on polluting and expensive fossil fuels.
- Deputy Director Michael Stoddard led a discussion about appliance standards and energy efficiency at the Maine Global Warming Climate Change Conference in Portland, ME. Attendees included policy makers, business representatives and others involved in climate and energy policy in Maine.
- On June 1, Roger Koontz accepted an award on behalf of Environment Northeast for exceptional work in energy policy at the NEEP 10th anniversary conference held in Boston. Roger’s work focuses on sustainable energy policy issues in Connecticut and at the regional level, including procurement of efficiency for the standard offer, conservation and distributed generation.
ENE Welcomes New Staff
We are pleased to announce that Alice Liddell joined Environment Northeast in April. She brings a strong background in environmental policy research and analysis, and will work on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, New England energy efficiency and energy policy reform, ENE’s New England Diesel Initiative, and our Regional Climate Roadmap. Alice received a Master in Public Administration degree from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, with a double concentration in Environmental Policy Studies and International Energy Management and Policy. Her previous work experience includes three years at Industrial Economics, Inc., a leading environmental and economic consulting firm in Cambridge, MA providing policy analysis and strategic planning for U.S. EPA water and air quality programs and litigation support for the Department of Justice. Alice also spent two summers at Environmental Defense where she provided policy analysis to reduce diesel pollution from construction equipment and researched potential opportunities to use financial reporting to drive environmental performance.
We also welcome James Karvounis, who will serve as the Director of Business Operations. Jim will assist ENE with financial and administrative operations, including budgeting and financial tracking, insurance and purchasing, and human resources. He has twenty-four years of experience in business and administration of non-profit organizations, and he served as the Chief Financial Officer at Mid-Coast Mental Health Center for several years. Most recently, Jim served as a marketing manager at Bank of America in Belfast, Maine
