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Massachusetts environmental justice advocates say the $5 billion statewide energy efficiency plan that could take effect next year needs to do even more to reach low-income residents, renters, and other populations who have traditionally received fewer benefits.
The plan, which will guide efficiency programming from 2025 through 2027, outlines wide-ranging initiatives that would support weatherization and heat pumps for homes and small businesses, improve the customer experience with more timely rebate processing and increased multilingual support, and expand the energy efficiency workforce. The proposed plan calls out equity as a major priority.
“There have certainly been some changes in this latest draft we’re pleased to see, but there is definitely a lot more that needs to be done, especially in the realms of equity and affordability and justice,” said Priya Gandbhir, senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation. “The good news is we’re still working on this, so there’s some time for improvement.”
Massachusetts has long been considered a leader in energy efficiency, ranking at or near the top of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s annual State Energy Efficiency Scorecard for more than 10 years. The core of the state’s efficiency efforts is Mass Save, a partnership between gas and electric utilities, created in 2008, that provides education, energy audits, rebates on efficient appliances, low and no-cost weatherization services, and financing for efficiency projects.
Mass Save programming is guided by the three-year energy efficiency plans put forth by the major utilities in collaboration with the state Energy Efficiency Advisory Council, and approved by state public utilities regulators. Over the past several years, legislation has required that Mass Save prioritize reducing greenhouse gas emissions, rather than focusing only on using less energy.
“Mass Save needs to be a tool not just for energy efficiency but also for decarbonization,” said Hessann Farooqi, executive director of the Boston Climate Action Network.
In recent years, there has also been an effort to ensure the benefits of Mass Save programs are distributed equitably. A 2020 study by the utilities found that communities with lower incomes, higher proportions of residents of color, and more renters were far less likely to have used Mass Save services.
Following this report, the three-year plan covering 2022 to 2024 included several provisions intended to address these disparities, including a 50% higher budget for income-eligible services, financial incentives for utilities to serve lower-income households, and grants to community organizations that can help connect residents to information about Mass Save benefits.
The plan’s focus on equity was hailed by advocates.
“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in production and service and savings because of the increased budget,” said Brian Beote, an Energy Efficiency Advisory Council member and director of energy efficiency operations for housing security nonprofit Action Inc. “We’ve been able to bring on more contractors and serve more households.”
This latest plan continues the focus on equity for underserved populations in several ways. The draft plan increases the budget for services to income-eligible households, defined as those with incomes below 80% of the area median, from roughly $600 million to nearly $1 billion, the highest number ever proposed.
The draft plan also attempts to simplify the process of obtaining benefits for residents in areas that have been marginalized in the past. The plan identifies 21 “equity communities” – municipalities in which more than 35% of residents are renters and more than half of households qualify as low or moderate income. Residents in these communities would be eligible for no-cost weatherization and electrification, often without income verification, and rental properties would be able to receive low-cost weatherization and electrification services.
This approach might mean higher-income customers receive no-cost services they might otherwise have had to pay for, but supporters say the likely benefits outweigh this possibility.
“On balance, we’re going to get more of those low- to moderate-income customers and that is really a key goal,” Farooqi said.
In addition, the proposed plan would expand the Community First Partnership program, which provides funding to nonprofits and municipalities to target outreach and education about Mass Save’s offerings, using their knowledge of their communities and populations.
Still, the plan misses several opportunities to make even greater strides toward equity, advocates said. At the heart of their argument are funding levels: The budget for low- and moderate-income services is about 19% of the total budget, even as nearly half of the state’s households fall into that category.
“We just need to be making sure that we are distributing the benefits of this program proportionally to where people are actually at in the population,” Farooqi said.
The plan’s targets for heat pump installations are another point of contention. The plan calls for installing 115,000 heat pumps during the plan period, with 16,000 of these going to low- and moderate-income households. This target is not nearly high enough, advocates said.
“That’s a major failure,” said Mary Wambui-Ekop, an energy justice activist and co-chair of the Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee’s equity working group. “They definitely need to increase that target to 30,000, and even that is really low.”
Switching from gas heating to heat pumps at current high electricity rates could increase costs for customers, so it is also important that the push to electrify heating for lower-income residents focus on households currently using higher-emissions, higher-cost fuels like heating oil or propane, Wambui-Ekop said.
In Massachusetts, some 800,000 households use heating oil and propane; more than 151,000 of these households fall within the plan’s designated equity communities.
“If they switch to heat pumps, they will see their energy bills go down, their energy burdens will go down, they will have good indoor air quality, and the commonwealth will benefit because of the greenhouse gas reductions,” Wambui-Ekop said.
Advocates are also waiting to see the details for the plans to expand the Community First Partnership program. At current levels, the funding can pay a part-time energy staffer at a modest rate, which can make it difficult to find and keep qualified employees, said Susan Olshuff, a town liaison with Ener-G-Save, a Community First Partner organization in western Massachusetts. She’s gone through six different staffers since the program began and is anxiously waiting to see the final funding that comes out of the new plan.
“I like to think it will be enough,” she said, “but I am nervous to see what numbers they come down on.”
The final plan will be submitted to the state in October. Public utilities regulators will then be able to approve the plan as a whole, or to suggest modifications. Advocates are hoping to see an even more equitable plan filed and approved.
“The people who can afford to do it will do it on their own,” Gandbhir said. “We need to make sure that people who are renting or who aren’t able to afford the upfront costs are provided with the assistance that’s needed.”
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:
GILLETTE—The Biden administration’s proposal to end federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin will have “grave” and “drastic” consequences for Campbell County, the nation’s largest coal supplier and a bulwark of Wyoming’s economy for the past 50 years, residents and local officials say.
If implemented, the proposal will destroy the livelihoods of thousands of miners and their families here and gut the community’s economy, Gillette resident George Dunlap said.
“We have to stop the Biden administration from destroying it because they will. We can’t sit back and say ‘What’s going on?’”
Dunlap, who owns and operates a photography business in Gillette, was among several speakers to address the Campbell County Commission on Tuesday. The commission solicited public testimony during its regular meeting to accompany a formal protest letter opposing the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal.
The five-member commission is hoping to rally a massive outpouring from the public and is encouraging the state to take immediate legal action to stop the BLM from banning federal coal leasing.
“The effects it’s going to have on this local community are going to be grave, and we need to fight,” Commission Chairman Del Shelstad said.
But the commissioners’ efforts to solicit testimonials garnered participation from only a handful of residents Tuesday — a disappointment for the body, even considering the shift-work nature of this blue-collar community and the 11 a.m. weekday timing of the hearing. Residents who spoke were outnumbered by other elected officials and reporters.
The coal industry — which includes 10 active mines in the county and directly employs more than 3,000 workers here — was a no-show.
Shelstad asked whether there were any coal producers or representatives of coal mining companies in the room. There were none, which elicited a frustrated response from Shelstad.
“I think that’s a darn shame that the coal producers aren’t here fighting — if for nothing else, for their employees,” he said. “They’re probably going to have a strategy that takes a little different approach, and I’m OK with that. But it’s really shameful that we can’t get them here to make public comment and to enter this fight with us.”
The public comment hearing was organized in response to what many regard as a historic move by the Biden administration to effectively set an expiration date for one of the nation’s largest sources of electrical power generation, as well as planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions: Powder River Basin coal.
The BLM on May 16 announced its preferred “no future coal leasing alternative” in a federal court-mandated update of its land use plans for the Buffalo, Wyoming and Miles City, Montana field offices that oversee coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, which spans portions of both states. Conservation groups had successfully argued the federal agency must fully consider the environmental, climate and human health implications of leasing federal coal in the region.
In its proposal to ban further federal coal leasing, the BLM estimated that existing leases will support the current rate of Powder River Basin coal production to 2041, according to the agency.
Cooperating agencies — such as local and state governments in the region — have until June 17 to file letters of intent to protest the BLM’s preferred no future leasing alternative. That gives those entities legal footing to challenge the decision. In addition to filing a protest letter, Campbell County commissioners are circulating an online petition urging the BLM to reconsider its preferred alternative.
“The coal industry employs thousands of workers across the country, and this ban will put many of these jobs at risk,” the petition states. “Additionally, coal is a vital source of baseload electricity for millions of Americans. Without a reliable supply of coal, our nation’s energy grid could become unstable.”
As of Wednesday morning, the county had collected 455 petition signatures, according to officials. Shelstad said he hopes to eventually collect at least 20,000 signatures.
Coal proponents in Wyoming say the BLM’s coal leasing ban is the latest in a series of Biden administration actions designed to kill the industry in favor of renewable energy sources and an effort to appeal to voters concerned about the global climate crisis.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in April issued four “final” rules aimed at drastically cutting coal pollution, including a mandate that operators of existing coal-fired power plants commit to cutting or capturing 90% of the planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 or convert the facilities to natural gas or close altogether.
Those coal-fueled power plants represent nearly the entirety of the Powder River Basin coal market today.
Energy market analysts, along with conservation groups, have suggested that the administration appears to be issuing rules and compliance deadlines that follow market trends already in motion, noting that many utilities are moving up coal plant retirement dates and that mining companies have not nominated a major new federal coal lease in the Powder River Basin since 2012.
Market trends have already cut production in the region by half since 2008, and the decline in demand for Wyoming coal appears to be accelerating — down by 20% so far this year. In fact, one of the region’s biggest coal producers, Arch Resources, has said it plans to sell or close its two coal mines in Campbell County: Coal Creek and Black Thunder.
Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette) and other local elected officials assured commissioners that they’re hearing pleas from their constituents to use every resource to fight the federal rules. If there is a lack of presence among coal companies themselves, Bear told WyoFile, it might be attributed to years of bad news and mounting pressures on the industry.
“The local [mining companies], most of those boards are located in St. Louis [Missouri] and they’re not interested in fighting this fight the way we’re going to have to fight it as government entities,” Bear said.
Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti, who could not attend the meeting, has said the mining companies rely on the association to speak on their behalf in the state, as well as other advocacy groups at the national level.
“As far as the Mining Association, which represents those companies, we’re fully engaged with our congressional delegation, with the governor’s office, with the Legislature, and we’re using every tool at our disposal to try to fight back on some of this stuff,” Deti told WyoFile by phone on Wednesday.
Some state and local officials are skeptical that the market has already spoken louder than the Biden administration. While some companies such as Arch Resources might not anticipate a future in Powder River Basin coal, others see an opportunity to apply carbon capture technologies and coal-to-products manufacturing — all of which is under threat by the BLM’s no future leasing proposal, according to Bear.
“Even if we’re forced to do it alone, other investors will see an opportunity,” Bear told WyoFile. “They have to see that somebody is fighting back right now.”
Bear said he worries that even some in Campbell County might not be aware of future opportunities for coal, or the dire consequences if the industry goes away completely.
“The rest of the country is going to be in trouble, too,” he said, adding that the rapid move to shut down coal plants presents an electric reliability issue. “Reliability is absolutely critical and that’s what this stuff provides.”
Though most coal miners and residents here squarely pin the blame for the coal industry’s decline on the Obama and Biden administrations, they’ve been burned by coal companies in the past.
Most infamously, Blackjewel in July 2019 abruptly closed its Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr coal mines — among the nation’s largest — leaving some 600 miners in limbo about whether they could return to work or collect paychecks. The company furloughed many workers and eventually brought others back as both mines resumed operations. But the company’s unannounced mine closures and subsequent bankruptcy left coal miners as well as local businesses and governments fighting to get paid for wages and taxes owed.
Arch Resources (then Arch Coal) and Peabody Energy separately announced massive layoffs on the same day in March 2016, cutting jobs for some 500 miners. Both companies subsequently shed billions of dollars in debt in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganizations.
WIND: An energy and port services company says the state won’t consider their alternative offshore wind port plan, which they say would be cheaper and not have land use concerns like the state’s preferred site on Sears Island. (Portland Press Herald)
ALSO:
GAS: A Massachusetts firm wants to invest $100 million to build an anaerobic digestion facility in Pennsylvania’s Adams County to turn food waste into gas. (Fox 43)
SOLAR:
GRID:
TRANSPORTATION:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
BUILDINGS: A Maine firm will soon open a new assembly line process to manufacture 25 – 50 prefabricated homes that meet passive house standards every year. (Bangor Daily News)
WORKFORCE: Three Massachusetts schools will share a $3.4 million grant to provide clean energy job exposure and training to underserved students . (Mass Live)
SOLAR: Florida installed 2.7 GW of new solar capacity and Texas 2.6 GW in the first quarter of 2024, leading the U.S. in a record-breaking quarter that saw a 71% increase in solar manufacturing capacity from late 2023. (PV Magazine)
ALSO: A new report finds Texas is set to more than double its solar capacity to nearly 80 GW by 2030. (San Antonio Express-News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OIL & GAS:
NUCLEAR:
COAL: Congressional Democrats announce legislation to restart a study of how surface mining affects health in central Appalachia. (E&E News, subscription)
EFFICIENCY: A Kentucky utility rolls out nine energy efficiency programs, with more set to come before 2026. (Louisville Courier Journal)
CYBERSECURITY: The University of Arkansas participates in a multi-partner initiative to fortify the cybersecurity of solar inverters. (news release)
UTILITIES:
COMMENTARY:
CO2 CAPTURE: Capturing carbon emissions at ethanol plants along the route of a proposed carbon pipeline would increase water use by billions of gallons annually, according to a new Sierra Club report criticizing the pipeline. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Xcel Energy is at odds with Minnesota officials over whether customers should pay at least $23 million in costs incurred last year after a maintenance worker error caused a nuclear plant to shut down for 100 days. (Star Tribune)
CLIMATE: Insurers are the “climate change canary in the coal mine,” one former state insurance commissioner says as billion-dollar disasters reach record highs, driving up policy costs and making homeownership less attainable. (Stateline)
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The engineering researchers behind a project electrifying a section of highway in Indiana hope the technology makes electric vehicles more palatable for drivers. (NPR)
EMISSIONS:
SOLAR: 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)
ALSO:
EMISSIONS:
POLITICS: The debate over federal permitting reform has divided clean energy and environmental justice advocates, with some worried that speeding deployment of renewables and transmission will also benefit fossil fuels and weaken environmental protections. (Utility Dive)
NUCLEAR: The U.S. Energy Department issues grants to eight fusion technology companies looking to produce emissions-free power with the unproven technology. (E&E News)
BATTERIES: Republican Congress members cite forced labor allegations as they push the Biden administration to block imports from two top Chinese battery makers that are working with Ford and other electric vehicle manufacturers. (E&E News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
WIND:
CLIMATE: The Biden administration’s youth climate corps program begins this month, sending workers to take on climate and environmental jobs, largely across Western states. (High Country News)
TRANSMISSION: A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit from a tribal nation and environmentalists seeking to block construction of a segment of the SunZia transmission line through a culturally significant valley in southern Arizona, saying the plaintiffs’ challenge came too late. (Associated Press)
TRANSPORTATION: As New York’s governor halts a traffic congestion plan in New York City, cities around the world have kept similar policies in place — even in areas where it was initially unpopular. (Washington Post)
TRANSPORTATION: Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declares the state will no longer tie its vehicle emissions standards to California’s more restrictive rules — which phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 — but critics argue he doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally roll back a law passed by the Democratic legislature in 2021. (Washington Post)
ALSO: The small city of Charlottesville, Virginia, moves to grow its bus fleet over the next decade and phase out diesel buses entirely by 2040, matching much larger cities in its commitment to an emissions-free transit system. (Energy News Network)
UTILITIES: As Alabama courts more companies that want to power their operations with renewables, Alabama Power looks for ways to incorporate more clean energy into its portfolio. (Lagniappe)
EMISSIONS: Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators to remove a monthly fee from its bills for participation in a regional carbon market from which the state has withdrawn. (Virginia Mercury)
WIND: Dominion Energy meets with residents of a Virginia community about construction of a facility to bring power onshore from its planned offshore wind farm. (WTKR)
HYDROPOWER: An Alabama-based company plans an expansion in Knoxville, Tennessee, after acquiring a firm that makes water-powered generators. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
PIPELINES:
COAL ASH: Testing at a growing North Carolina sinkhole where coal ash is used as filler material indicates it hasn’t contaminated a town’s drinking water, but concerns remain. (WFAE)
OIL & GAS:
CLEAN ENERGY: A North Carolina bill would provide a new financing mechanism for commercial property improvements such as solar installations and energy efficiency upgrades, but the state treasurer argues the program is unconstitutional. (Port City Daily)
CLIMATE: U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says Florida’s insurance industry appears to be “swirling the drain” as insurers dramatically increase premiums or pull out of the state altogether because of its climate risks. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
COMMENTARY: West Virginia policymakers’ insistence on keeping the state reliant on coal while dismissing renewables and energy efficiency programs is driving electric rates higher, writes an environmentalist. (West Virginia Watch)
BATTERIES: Chicago officials advance regulations that would create fines for distributing lithium-ion-powered devices that fail to meet safety standards as fire risks grow with the rise of electric bikes, scooters and vehicles. (Chicago Sun-Times)
COAL: Critics question Alliant Energy’s commitment to clean energy after the utility delayed for three years plans to convert a Wisconsin coal plant to run on gas, citing grid reliability concerns. (Sheboygan Press)
CLEAN ENERGY: Former U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy says northeastern Ohio cities are providing a model for collaborative, regional planning around clean energy and job training. (WYSO)
CARBON CAPTURE:
GRID: Time-of-use rates are now in effect for Michigan’s two largest utilities, which state regulators say are meant to curb electricity use during high-demand months. (Bridge)
WIND:
SOLAR:
BIOGAS: Springfield, Missouri, plans a $31.6 million project that would convert landfill gas into renewable natural gas and generate revenue to pay off the debt service associated with the project. (Daily Citizen)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: U.S. senators tell a senior transportation official that the pace of electric vehicle charging infrastructure construction is too slow years after the bipartisan infrastructure law took effect. (E&E News, subscription)
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