On July 12, 2021, in a landmark utility effort to electrify New York City’s building stock, Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) issued a request for proposals (RFP) for non-pipeline solutions (NPS). NPSs avoid the need for investment in pipelines and traditional distribution system infrastructure by meeting on-system natural gas demand with alternative solutions like energy efficiency and heat pumps. Con Ed’s RFP seeks customer-sited load relief solutions that enable the abandonment of leak-prone pipes through full building electrification while maintaining system reliability.… More
Tag Archives: Energy Efficiency
DOE Must Promulgate Energy Efficiency Standards Finalized By the Obama Administration
Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a District Court ruling requiring the Department of Energy to publish in the Federal Register four rules finalized by the Obama administration, but not previously published.
The Trump administration DOE tried to take advantage of DOE’s “error-correction rule”, which gives DOE time to fix mistakes in its rules before they are published in the Federal Register.
The problem with DOE’s argument is that the error-correction rule is clear that error correction is a ministerial task. … More
Governor Baker Shows Support for Offshore Wind Industry
Governor Baker addressed a room full of offshore wind stakeholders at “The Future of Offshore Wind” Forum hosted by the Environmental League of Massachusetts on Wednesday morning. He applauded the developers, environmental groups, legislators and local students for the progress made in recent years which has led to a dramatic decrease in the price of offshore wind energy to ratepayers in recent years.
Thanks to a bill Governor Baker signed into law in 2016,… More
Massachusetts Passes “Minibus” Clean Energy Bill
On July 31, the Massachusetts Legislature passed H.4857, An Act to Advance Clean Energy.” The bill, released late on July 30, was the result of a compromise between the Senate’s broad, omnibus bill passed in early June and the House’s more modest proposals, passed piecemeal in mid-July. Among other things, the bill:
- increases opportunities for energy efficiency by expanding the definition of qualifying programs;…
The Social Cost of Carbon Passes Its First Judicial Test
Earlier this week, the 7th Circuit affirmed the Department of Energy’s new energy efficiency requirements for commercial refrigeration equipment. This is a big deal in its own right, simply because the numbers are really large – according to DOE, the rule will save 2.89 quadrillion BTUs over the lifetime of equipment purchased under the rule. It’s a reminder that energy efficiency remains a key to reducing carbon emissions.… More
Massachusetts Energy Bill Emerges from Senate Committee on Ways and Means
Last Friday, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means released its version of the energy bill that passed the House earlier this month. Whereas the House bill would require distribution companies to procure 1,200 MW of offshore wind power by 2027 and 9,450,000 MWH of hydroelectric power by 2022, the Senate’s version would require 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030 and 12,450,000 MWH of “clean energy generation” by 2018.… More
The Problem With Relying on Energy Efficiency to Reduce Emissions? People
The connection between energy use and emissions of air pollutants, including GHGs, is uncontroversial. It is also widely, if not universally, accepted that there is a lot of low-hanging fruit in energy efficiency. I agree completely with both propositions.
Nonetheless, a recent article in Energy Research & Social Science (fee required for full article), reported in Tuesday’s Washington Post, provides a useful —… More
Boston — The Leader in Energy-Efficient Cities
On Tuesday, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy released its 2013 City Energy Efficiency Scorecard. This may not be big news, but I had to take the opportunity to lord it over my friends Rick Glick, who must be crushed that Portland finished in second, and Pam Giblin, who must be thrilled that Austin won the prize for the city farthest out ahead of its state government – what a shock there.… More
Accidental Success? Even Without National Climate Policy, US Emissions May Fall Enough To Avoid Failure
In 2009, at the international climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, President Obama pledged that the US would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. Since then, national efforts toward comprehensive climate legislation, or even making concrete strides to intentionally reduce emissions on a national scale have been, let’s say… lackluster. But even so, a recent report by Resources for the Future predicts that the US will hit 16.3% reductions over a 2005 baseline by 2020. … More
Does Energy Efficient Technology Make Buildings More Energy Efficient? The Answer May Not Be So Obvious
ClimateWire had a fascinating story on Monday about federal efforts to increase the energy efficiency of buildings, which are estimated to consume about 40% of our nation’s energy. The story concerns the less than inspiringly-named Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy-Efficient Buildings, which is seeking to substantially alter how building owners think about energy efficiency and the use of technology.
The problem facing GPIC, as it is known,… More
The Economics of RGGI: A Net Positive, Particularly For New England
With the first compliance period in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) coming to a close in December, it seems an appropriate time to look back at what we can learn from the country’s first market-based program aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants. A report released Tuesday by the Analysis Group analyzed the economic impacts of RGGI – how the program impacted electricity prices,… More
How Many Miles Per Gallon Does Your Building Get? The Ratings Game Comes to Buildings
According to EPA, buildings account for 36 percent of total energy consumption and 65 percent of electricity consumption in the United States. In the absence of comprehensive legislation that would put a price on carbon, which would give building owners direct incentives to implement cost-effective efficiency measures, a number of jurisdictions have started looking into and in some cases implementing requirements that at least commercial buildings be subject to energy efficiency ratings.… More
Top 10 Fun Facts About the 10th RGGI Auction
The 10th auction in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) was held on December 1st. In honor of this significant round number, I give you the top 10 interesting facts about the 10th RGGI Auction, all of which are based on today’s market monitor report:
10) In the Auction, 24,755,000 allowances from the 2009-2011 compliance period sold for $1.86 each (the floor price);
9) … More
RGGI Auction #8: Even Cheap Allowances Add Up to Big Investments
In the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s (RGGI) eighth auction of CO2 credits on June 9th, the clearing prices were the lowest yet – $1.88 for 2009-2011 credits and the auction floor of $1.86 for 2012-2014 allowances. Despite these low prices, the auctions still brought in some $80 million. In total, cumulative RGGI proceeds to be used by the 10 participating states for renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-income energy assistance programs now total $662.8 million.… More
RGGI’s 7th Auction Brings Total Proceeds to Over a Half Billion Dollars for RGGI States’ Projects
Despite the relatively low clearing prices in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative’s (RGGI) seventh auction of CO2 credits on March 10th — $2.07 for 2009-2011 allowances, and the auction floor price of $1.86 for 2012-2014 allowances – cumulative RGGI proceeds to be used by the 10 participating states for renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-income energy assistance programs now total $582.3 million.
As reported in today’s announcement of the auction results,… More