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Environmental advocates are hailing a decision by Massachusetts regulators that will give more than 1.3 million households access to lower winter electricity prices if they use a heat pump in their home.
Public utilities regulators on Monday ordered National Grid, the state’s second-largest electric company, to develop a lower, seasonal rate for houses with heat pumps. The decision comes three months after the state approved a similar rate plan by Unitil, an electric utility that serves 108,500 Massachusetts households.
“They hit the nail on the head here,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for climate and energy nonprofit Acadia Center.
Heat pumps are a major element of Massachusetts’ strategy for going carbon neutral by 2050. However, high electricity prices and historically low natural gas prices make switching to a heat pump financially difficult for many people. Unitil’s pricing plan is an attempt to bridge that affordability gap and make heat pumps more accessible, said spokesman Alec O’Meara.
National Grid had proposed a technology-neutral “electrification rate” that would have offered a discounted rate to high-volume electric consumers, whether the power demand was coming from an efficient heat pump, inefficient electric resistance heat, or even a pool heater. Environmental activists, advocates for low-income households, a solar industry group, the state energy department, and the state attorney general all filed comments objecting to this approach and pushing for a heat pump-specific rate like Unitil’s.
“The proposal that National Grid had filed wasn’t going to do anything to ensure that customers who opted into their electrification rate were actually participating in our decarbonization efforts,” said Priya Gandbhir, a senior attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, one of the groups that pushed for a heat pump specific rate.
In their order, regulators sided with the objectors. They concluded that National Grid’s proposal did not meet the state’s legal mandates to consider the impact of rate design changes on greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency, as opposed to Unitil’s approach, which removes a barrier to lower emissions and greater efficiency.
“The heat pump rate will reduce kilowatt hour electricity rates for these customers during winter when heat pumps replace fossil fuel heating equipment, furthering the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Alanna Kelly, spokesperson for the state department of public utilities.
The order also encouraged National Grid to create the rate quickly so it could be in effect before the coming winter heating season.
BATTERIES: The U.S. Energy Department awards a Colorado electric vehicle battery manufacturer $50 million as part of an effort to beef up the nation’s battery supply chain. (CPR)
ALSO: The U.S. Energy Department awards a manganese and zinc mine under development in southern Arizona $166 million to spur production of the battery metals. (Arizona Daily Star)
CLIMATE: A California report finds greenhouse gas emissions have dropped across all sectors in the state except residential and commercial, with transportation seeing the largest year-to-year decline as electric vehicle sales climb. (KTLA, news release)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR:
GRID: The Western power grid reached a record-breaking peak load on July 10 even though demand was relatively moderate on California’s system. (RTO Insider, subscription)
WIND: A Hawaii wind facility’s operator says a new system designed to deter bats and prevent collisions with turbines has been successful so far. (Hawaii Public Radio)
OIL & GAS:
URANIUM: The Navajo Nation and a mining company continue working to negotiate a deal that would allow uranium ore shipments across tribal land. (AZ Mirror)
UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority rolls out a long-term plan that presents 30 different pathways to balance energy generation with growing power demand, including the construction of between 9 GW and 26 GW of new power by 2035. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
SOLAR:
WIND: A long-delayed plan to build a 75 MW onshore wind farm in Virginia is pushed back yet another year, with plans to begin construction next year and begin generating power by 2026. (Roanoke Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A planned Hyundai electric vehicle and battery plant in Georgia that’s being supported by local, state and federal incentives sparks protests from farmers and residents concerned that it will use roughly 4 million gallons of water per day. (E&E News)
PIPELINES: An energy analyst discusses how the 580-mile Matterhorn Express Pipeline between west Texas and Houston will relieve bottlenecks and likely spur more oil and gas production in the Permian Basin. (Texas Standard)
OIL & GAS:
NUCLEAR: U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin trumpets the federal climate package’s role in a deal to restart Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania. (WV News)
GRID:
POLITICS: Republican governors from Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and Tennessee meet in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to discuss energy efficiency, nuclear power, ethanol and the grid’s growing demand for power. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
COMMENTARY:
GRID: A White House infrastructure advisory council calls for the U.S. to build a “strategic virtual reserve” of electric transformers to help speed electrification efforts. (Utility Dive)
ALSO:
EMISSIONS:
TRANSITION: The future of vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s hometown may hinge on a $500 million federal grant to help the city’s steel plant build a massive hydrogen-powered furnace to replace coal — though the company is considering abandoning the funding. (The Guardian, Politico)
OIL & GAS: Lake Charles, Louisiana, has become the locus of America’s natural gas industry, but its location between Houston and New Orleans exposes it to the brunt of climate change. (The Guardian)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
ELECTRIFICATION: California advocates call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would allow utilities to electrify entire neighborhoods rather than replace costly natural gas lines. (Canary Media)
POLITICS: Oil industry leaders say they’re disappointed with former President Trump after he made an “incoherent” case for continued fossil fuel use at last week’s debate. (Politico)
STORAGE: A growing number of Americans are buying home battery storage systems to counter power outages occurring as the grid faces higher demand and more extreme weather. (Associated Press)
GRID:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
EFFICIENCY: The U.S. Energy Department announces $53.6 million to expand weatherization efforts and clean energy installations benefitting low-income communities in 13 states and the Virgin Islands. (Utility Dive)
WIND: New Mexico is emerging as a wind energy powerhouse, trailing only Wyoming in new capacity this year, as state officials approve two new leases that could add another 550 megawatts. (Renewable Energy World, Albuquerque Business Journal)
FOSSIL FUELS: Rhode Island regulators decide that a liquefied natural gas facility that was supposed to only operate temporarily can stay online for another five years, despite the community’s noise, light and climate pollution concerns. (Newport Daily News)
COMMENTARY: A sustainability advocate says Los Angeles will need an “epic transportation reboot” to achieve a zero-emission Olympic Games in 2028. (Los Angeles Times)
Massachusetts has awarded $53 million — and announced plans for additional funding — to allow affordable housing operators to execute energy efficiency retrofits that are expected to reduce carbon emissions, cut energy bills, and create healthier, more comfortable homes for residents.
The state in late July announced the second round of awards in the Affordable Housing Decarbonization Grant Program, allocating $26.1 million to five organizations to improve insulation, tighten building envelopes, and switch to heat pump heating and cooling systems. These grants come seven months after an initial round of $27.4 million was awarded to seven affordable housing operators statewide.
“This has been a really critical funding stream for moving forward critical energy projects at some of our family public housing sites,” said Joel Wool, deputy administrator for sustainability and capital transformation at the Boston Housing Authority, which received grants in both rounds.
Along with the most recent round of awards, the state also announced it would invest another $40 million into the program in anticipation of giving out another set of grants in the fall.
The program was designed to address two major policy goals: decarbonization and addressing the state’s affordable housing crisis.
Massachusetts has set the ambitious goal of going carbon-neutral by 2050. Buildings — which contribute 35% of the state’s carbon emissions — are a particularly important sector to target for decarbonization. This means finding ways to retrofit the state’s existing housing stock, much of which is drafty, heated by fossil fuels, and decades — or even centuries — old.
At the same time, Massachusetts is experiencing an acute housing crisis. State officials estimate at least 200,000 new homes are needed to accommodate demand by 2030. Finding an affordable home is even more challenging for lower-income residents faced with soaring rents and home prices — and often, high energy bills.
“We have such a housing crisis in Massachusetts that we want to do anything we can to create more housing, but also to make the housing we have now a better place to live,” said state Energy Department Commissioner Elizabeth Mahony. “These are investments in our infrastructure.”
Nonprofit Worcester Common Ground received an $820,000 grant in the latest round that it will use to complete deep energy retrofits on four buildings that were last updated some 30 years ago. The money will allow the renovations to include air sealing, more energy-efficient windows, and extra insulation. The grant will also allow the buildings to go fully electric, including with air source heat pumps that will provide lower-cost, more comfortable heating and cooling.
“Even though it’s a higher upfront cost, the hope is that maybe it reduces expenses going forward,” said Timothy Gilbert, project manager for Worcester Common Ground. “It might sound a little cheesy but we really do care about the well-being of the folks who live in our houses.”
In most cases, the grant money is being combined with other funding to allow more complete — and even downright ambitious — upgrades. In Worcester, other funding sources will pay for rooftop solar panels that will make the newly energy-efficient buildings even more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. The Boston Housing Authority is using its latest $5.8 million award as part of a larger project that aims to completely decarbonize the Franklin Fields housing development in the Dorchester neighborhood by combining energy efficiency upgrades and Boston’s first networked geothermal system.
In the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury, the Madison Park Development Corporation is receiving $13.5 million from the Affordable Housing Decarbonization Grant Program to do work at its 331-unit Orchard Gardens development. But it is also seeking out other sources to meet the $20 million expected cost of the planned sustainability upgrades.
“It’s a big property and the heart of one of Boston’s oldest, most diverse, most underserved neighborhoods,” said Oren Richkin, senior project manager for the organization. “This grant money is pivotal for this project.”
Supporters of the program are expecting it to strengthen the state’s ability to respond to climate change in the future as well. Switching affordable housing units from fossil fuel heating to heat pump heating and cooling will allow residents to stay comfortable and safe in their own homes during increasingly hot summers, Wool said.
The funding could also help nudge the ideas of deep energy retrofits and electrification more into the mainstream, Mahony said.
“We are essentially socializing these programs — the more we do it, the more people will get used to the ideas,” she said.
As the recipients of the first round of grants begin their projects, the state is starting to learn how to operate the program more effectively. The state has already, for example, started providing some technical assistance to organizations interested in applying for future rounds of funding. Continued conversations with building owners and nonprofits will be essential to creating an even stronger program moving forward, Mahony said.
“We’re setting ourselves up for success in the future,” she said.
Swapping out natural gas heating for an all-electric heat pump can be a big ask. Finding a qualified contractor, upgrading an electric panel, considering efficiency in cold weather — that’s a lot to consider for most people.
Electric equipment like lawnmowers and leafblowers meanwhile only need to be plugged in to replace their fossil fuel-powered alternatives. And as a new survey from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy finds, they can be key in encouraging homeowners to take on bigger electrification projects down the line.
The electrification advocacy group surveyed 1,801 homeowners and renters about how they power their homes and appliances, and what might encourage them to electrify, Canary Media reports. It turned out that participants who already had electric lawn equipment were 84% more likely than others to want to electrify their cooking appliances, and 33% and 32% more likely to want to electrify their home and water heating, respectively.
Another new idea that could motivate an electric switch? A warning label telling consumers about the pollutants gas stoves release in their kitchens.
A consumer advocacy group recently filed a lawsuit against GE Appliances claiming the company didn’t tell buyers about the dangerous pollutants, E&E News reports. The group says that violates Washington, D.C.’s consumer protection law, and wants a judge to require the manufacturer to put a warning label on the gas stoves it sells.
Would a warning label make you think twice before buying a gas stove? What about rebates or other motivators? Let us know by replying to this email.
🚗 Cleaner cars coming soon: In a bid to boost electric vehicles, the Biden administration proposes fuel economy rules that would require new cars to average 38 miles per gallon by 2031, a jump from 29 mpg today but short of standards originally proposed last year. (Associated Press)
🌞 Surprise solar boom: A two-year pause on federal solar import tariffs from Southeast Asia ends, which experts say could drive a solar installation boom as developers use up components they’ve imported duty-free. (Reuters)
🏭 ‘Systematic’ underrepresentation: A new study finds people of color are underrepresented in the fossil fuel and chemical manufacturing industries, even as emissions disproportionately affect their communities. (Floodlight)
💵 Banking on clean energy: The International Energy Agency expects global investments in clean energy to exceed fossil fuels by 10 times over this year, largely because of skyrocketing solar project spending. (The Guardian)
☢️ Nuclear questions: As the Biden administration moves to boost nuclear deployment, industry experts and officials who led Georgia’s over-budget, long-delayed Plant Vogtle construction warn against building new large reactors. (Utility Dive, Bloomberg)
⚖️ Climate lawsuits at risk: Fossil fuel leaders and allies author op-eds and run social media ads to push the U.S. Supreme Court to take their side and dismiss dozens of lawsuits from cities and states looking to hold the industry accountable for climate damages. (The Guardian, E&E News)
🌋 Hotspotting: A new map reveals potential geothermal hotspots across the U.S. where subterranean heat is strong enough to be tapped for electricity generation. (The Hill)
🔌 Get interconnected: U.S. utilities and grid operators aren’t taking full advantage of regional transmission connections, potentially reducing reliability and raising electricity costs, a federal lab’s study finds. (Utility Dive)
BUILDINGS: Inflation Reduction Act funding for home energy rebates will likely remain mostly unspent until after the November election; Trump allies have indicated he would revamp the program and jeopardize the funding if he is elected. (E&E News)
ALSO: As some co-op and condo buildings consider just paying the fines instead of complying with New York City’s building emissions law, the city’s council considers a bill to ease penalties. (Gothamist)
SOLAR: Covering around 10% of the world’s lakes and reservoirs with floating solar panels could generate enough electricity to power the United Kingdom four times over, and could be used to cover all power use in some small countries, scientists find. (Grist)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID:
POLITICS:
UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority says its emissions reductions and renewable power generation makes it a clean energy leader, but critics say its proposal to build 7,000 MW of new gas generation negates that claim. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
PIPELINES: “I don’t want to be in town when it blows up” — Virginia residents react to federal regulators’ approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s request to begin transporting natural gas. (WVTF, WDBJ)
GEOTHERMAL: Google agrees to purchase about 112 MW of enhanced geothermal-generated electricity from NV Energy to power its Nevada data centers. (Reuters)
ELECTRIFICATION: Southern California regulators approve rules aimed at slashing nitrogen oxide emissions by requiring businesses to replace fossil fueled industrial boilers and water heaters with electric ones. (Canary Media)
CARBON CAPTURE: PacifiCorp considers contracting with a New Mexico carbon capture firm formerly led by the utility’s current CEO to retrofit a Wyoming coal plant, raising conflict-of-interest concerns. (E&E News)
POLLUTION: Southern California regulators roll back a rule allowing industrial facilities to avoid paying emissions fees after advocates argued it removed the impetus for businesses to reduce pollution. (Los Angeles Times)
GRID: Regional transmission organization SPP proposes to link the Western and Eastern grids for the first time by placing seven Western entities under its tariff. (E&E News, subscription)
SOLAR: A California community choice aggregator agrees to purchase 48 MW of power from two proposed solar-plus-storage installations in the southern part of the state. (news release)
WIND:
OIL & GAS:
CLEAN ENERGY: Washington state seeks residents’ input on utility-scale clean energy in an effort to guide future development. (NW News)
MINING:
COAL: Colorado officials plan to attempt to extinguish an underground coal seam fire in an abandoned mine near the ignition point of the destructive 2021 Marshall Fire. (CBS News)
COMMENTARY: An energy columnist analyzes competing efforts to establish Western regional transmission organizations and day-ahead power markets, laying out the benefits, drawbacks and obstacles standing in the way of both options. (Canary Media)
EMISSIONS: Mass electrification would be the best way to reduce buildings’ emissions and hit Minnesota’s climate targets, according to a new report from a coalition of energy experts, community service groups and consumer advocates. (Sahan Journal)
STORAGE: DTE Energy is set to announce plans for a large battery storage facility at a former southeastern Michigan coal plant. (Detroit Free Press)
GRID: An Indiana consumer advocate warns against getting swept up by hyperbole about the need to build new power plants as electricity demand in the state is expected to grow because of data centers. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
CLEAN ENERGY:
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: An Iowa county deploys more neighborhood air quality monitors that local officials say can be targeted to areas of concern and help meet environmental justice goals. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: About 5,800 Minnesota residents have applied for $2,500 rebates for electric vehicles under a state program that launched four months ago. (MPR News)
EFFICIENCY: Indiana officials seek public input on how to design programs that allocate $182 million in federal funding for residential energy efficiency projects. (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
SOLAR:
PIPELINES: A company says its 10-foot-long drone provides a safer and cheaper alternative to oil and gas pipeline inspections in North Dakota. (KFYR)
COMMENTARY:
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