State starts a green era

Law encourages renewable sources; Utilities expected to help cut costs - By Beth Daley Globe Staff / July 3, 2008

Governor Deval Patrick signed a landmark energy bill yesterday that does away with long-standing obstacles to building renewable power projects in Massachusetts and making homes and businesses more energy efficient.

The Green Communities Act was hailed by environmentalists as among the most innovative efforts in the nation to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to encourage use of clean technologies that don't contribute to global warming.

The law will probably result in utilities' designing customized plans for homeowners and businesses to cut energy costs and providing rebates to pay for measures such as installing insulating windows and more efficient boilers. Homeowners and businesses will be able to rent solar panels from utilities to avoid expensive up-front costs, and the law makes it easier for homeowners who have installed wind turbines or solar panels to sell surplus energy.

Supporters said the new law could save hundreds of millions of dollars through energy efficiency, helping to hold down consumers' electric bills as energy prices are skyrocketing.

"I am here today to sign into law the best clean energy bill in America," a jubilant Patrick said during a signing ceremony at the Museum of Science. "Climate change is the challenge of our times, and we in Massachusetts are rising to that challenge."

Massachusetts has long been a leader in energy legislation, and it is taking part in a regional effort to reduce greenhouse gases from power plants. Patrick has set an aggressive goal to increase solar power in the state by 600 percent in four years.

The law "maintains Massachusetts' status as a state leader," said Patrick Hogan of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a Virginia-based environmental policy think tank.

Business leaders praised the legislation, saying it could stabilize electric rates in New England, already among the highest in the nation. Utilities, including NStar and National Grid, said they have long focused on energy efficiency but are eager to ramp up the effort, as well as to provide solar power to customers.

"It pushes us to a new level," said Tom May, NStar's chief executive. "We get to cross the street to our customer side and help them with energy choices . . . such as windmills in a neighborhood or solar panels. It's helping them reduce their carbon footprint."

Among the law's major provisions:

A requirement for utilities to invest in energy efficiency when it is cheaper to do so than it is to buy power. Historically, companies would simply buy more power when demand went up, which over time would lead to construction of very costly and polluting power plants. Now, utilities will have to invest in energy efficiency if to do so is equal to or cheaper than buying power. The law will also use at least 80 percent of the revenue from the regional effort to cap power plant emissions for efficiency programs, such as home energy audits to identify how to save on energy bills.

"The cleanest power plant is the one that never gets built," said Sam Krasnow, attorney for Environment Northeast, a research and advocacy group. "Energy efficiency is the cheapest and cleanest energy resource available."

Several efforts to promote renewable power. Utilities would have to enter into 10- or 15-year contracts with renewable energy developers, an effort to help those developers get financing from banks. The Patrick administration is particularly proud of a provision that lifts a prohibition on utilities owning solar electric panels and allows them to rent the panels to customers. The law is designed to allow utilities to recoup the cost of panels over time from rental fees while the customers reap energy savings.

Utilities will have to purchase a greater amount of their electricity from renewable power sources than under current law. By 2030, utilities would buy 25 percent of their power from renewables.

It is unclear whether that goal, one of the most ambitious in the nation, can be met, however. The current requirement of 3.5 percent has not been met, partly because of the difficulty in siting renewable projects. The utilities instead pay a fee to the state.

The creation of "Green Communities." The state will commit $10 million annually to help communities figure out ways to become more energy efficient or invest in renewables, including giving them no-interest loans. New buildings in the state will have to meet updated building codes with energy-savings provisions.

The energy bill encountered some controversy during the two years it took to become law. Early versions guaranteed a market for coal gasification, a technology that is cleaner than conventional coal-burning power plants but still emits large amounts of carbon dioxide.

The final language would give financial incentives to gasification technologies only in limited cirumstances and only to those that capture and store the carbon dioxide underground.

Environmentalists had nothing but praise for the law yesterday, saying it was a paradigm shift in the way energy will be created, bought and sold.

"This is a tremendous advancement that comes not a moment too soon, given rising energy prices and the climate crisis," said Sue Reid, a lawyer with the Conservation Law Foundation.

Article source:

Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.

McCain Scores Zero on Environmental Scorecard

Environmental scorecards, released yesterday by the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) show significant differences between presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, all three of whom tout their environmental credentials.

The scorecards, which rank individual U.S. legislators based on their votes on environmental issues, focused on 15 votes this year--all of which senator McCain missed, resulting in a 0% score.

Presidential candidates historically suffer from absenteeism, due to busy campaign schedules that keep them away from Washington. However, Obama and Clinton both missed only 4 environmental votes, and received scores of 67% and 73% respectively.

McCain's lifetime average, as scored by LCV, is 24%, far below Obama's 86% lifetime average and Clinton's 87% lifetime average.

Of the 15 missed votes, McCain received harshest criticism from environmental groups earlier in the year for missing a vote that failed by only one "yes" to advance legislation that would have created tax incentives for renewable energy while repealing tax breaks for big oil and gas companies.

Commenting on Congress-wide scores, LCV President Gene Karpinski said 2007's scorecard shows that last year "marked a turning point for the environment" highlighted by the passage of an energy bill raising vehicle fuel efficiency, which he attributed to new leadership in both the U.S. House and Senate.

He noted that 71 out of the 89 candidates (80%) endorsed by the LCV in 2006 won, and said "electing pro-environment candidates is a critical first step toward enacting sound environmental policies that will protect our planet and our future."

"Elections have consequences," Karpinski said, noting that LCV's 2006 campaigns helped defeat 9 out of 13 of LCV's ‘Dirty Dozen' legislators. who had a combined average lifetime score of just 8%, while the new members who defeated them have a combined average score of 88%.

In 2008 the LCV said it will urge Congress to pass legislation reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15-20% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050.

source - SustainableBusiness.com News

Environmental Groups, Northeast States and New York City Challenge Weak EPA Energy Standards

New York, NY -- Environmental advocates and state and city governments are filing lawsuits today urging the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to adopt stronger energy efficiency standards for residential furnaces and boilers.

The public interest law firm Earthjustice is filing suit on behalf of Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), arguing that standards DOE adopted in November are shockingly weak, will cost consumers billions of dollars and fail to reduce global warming emissions.

The City of New York and the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York are also challenging DOE's standards in a joint lawsuit being filed today.

"Stronger energy efficiency standards for furnaces and boilers would save money, stop pollution and spare health," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

"The Bush Administration's stagnant standards disregard the law and public interest, benefiting industry at the expense of consumers and the environment. Without increased fuel efficiency, consumers nationwide will unnecessarily spend potentially millions more in home heating costs, while their furnaces and boilers spew millions more tons of harmful CO2."

Tougher efficiency standards translate into significant economic benefits, especially in northern states where the cost difference between low and high efficiency models can be recovered more quickly through reduced heating bills. Advocates for residents in these regions said the weak national standards disproportionately hurt renters who are stuck paying the higher fuel costs of less efficient models installed by landlords.

"By adopting such weak new standards, the Energy Department is telling New Yorkers and others that reducing greenhouse gases and heating bills just doesn't matter," said Ramin Pejan, attorney at the New York City Law Department. "The success of the City's PlaNYC efforts to improve air quality in a cost-effective manner depends, in part, on cooperation from federal agencies."

The new DOE standards for gas-fired furnaces - the most common home heating appliance - represent a miniscule increase: from 78 to 80 percent efficiency. DOE recognized that adopting a 90 percent efficiency standard nationwide would maximize consumer value, saving $11 billion over a 24-year period, while also preventing the emission of 141 million tons of carbon dioxide over the same span. But DOE instead opted for a standard that 99 percent of furnaces sold already meet, resulting in much less cost savings and virtually no reduction in CO2 emissions.

"DOE chose to implement a standard so weak it is simply meaningless," said Earthjustice attorney Tim Ballo. "The vast majority of products on the market already meet the standard DOE has adopted. This is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it efficiency increase."

The lawsuits challenge serious flaws in DOE's economic analysis that led the department to undervalue the benefits of stronger standards. For example, a stronger standard would most likely drive down the cost of natural gas, but the DOE failed to consider this factor in making its decision. The DOE also failed to place a dollar value on the decreased carbon dioxide emissions that would result from a stronger efficiency standard.

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US Congress Expected To Extend Renewable Energy Tax Credits

US Congress Expected To Extend Renewable Energy Tax Credits

By Ian Talley Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES WASHINGTON

The U.S. Congress is expected to extend expiring renewable energy production and investment tax credits in the new session, industry experts and lawmakers say.

Although the White House has objected to offsetting the proposed multi-billion dollar credits by cutting tax breaks given to the oil and gas industry, lawmakers may include the credits as part of an economic stimulus package or a tax credit extension package, insiders say.

A $21 billion energy tax package that would have cut tax breaks to the top five major oil companies in order to fund renewable energy projects fell victim to repeated veto threats from the White House and wasn't included in a major new energy law passed late last year.

Solar companies such as Evergreen Solar (ESLR) and Emcore Corp. (EMKR), and wind turbine manufacturers such as Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.KO), Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica (GAM.MC) and Siemans Power Generation, a unit of Siemans AG (SI), count on the credits to build demand in the U.S. The industry says it needs the credits - some of which expire at the end of the year - to offset the costs of expensive electricity generation projects.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in December that Congress would vote again on the tax proposal "more quickly than you think," and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said it had become a matter of urgency for many firms in the sector.

Jaime Steve, legislative director for the American Wind Energy Association, said the credits were "vitally needed to keep momentum going in the industry and keep creating jobs."

"If the credit is not extended in the next two to three months, we'll see a downturn in the industry," he said.

Lawmakers are now searching for ways to include the two major tax provisions - a renewable energy production credit and an investment credit - into other legislation, including a farm bill and fast-developing legislation that would give a boost to the economy.

Democrats have said they would work with President George W. Bush to develop a proposed major stimulus package to counter growing fears of a recession.

"The No. 1 opportunity is in an economic stimulus package," AWEA's Steve said, adding, "That would be a perfect place in an renewable production tax credit." The cost would depend on how long the credits were extended. In the energy tax package, the renewable production credit would have lasted three years, costing around $6 billion.

"We're looking for extension of current law as long as possible...because it provides certainty for investors," Steve said.

Although Steve said he believes paying for the offsets by cutting tax breaks to the oil industry is likely off the table, Mark Kibbe, a senior policy analyst at the American Petroleum Institute, is still watching Congress carefully.

Kibbe, a tax specialist at API, said he'd heard of several alternative options to include the renewable tax credits, including a tax-extenders bill that Congress has come to pass on a near annual basis that prolongs a raft of non-permanent but popular tax rules.

"I don't think they'd move the entire (energy tax) package over, but the the Section 45 renewable energy production credit is a logical one and would not be such a stretch," Kibbe said.

The API analyst said he'd also hear of another creative solution: the Federal Aviation Administration's reauthorization of the collection of excise taxes, which expires in March. If Congress lets the reauthorization expire for a day, and then reauthorizes the agency's authority, Kibbe said it could be considered new revenue, "and they get to spend all those billions of dollars as offsets."

Cumulative Oil & Gas Contributions to Senators

Cumulative Oil & Gas Contributions to Senators Voting to Block a Measure to Rollback Oil Company Giveaways on HR 6

Source: Center for Responsive Politics

SENATOR OIL & GAS CONTRIBUTIONS

over past 4 years

Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) - $577,556

John Cornyn (R-TX) - $561,380

Bob Corker (R-TN) - $215,350

Pat Roberts (R-KS) - $205,850

James Inhofe (R-OK) - $196,700

Mitch McConnell (R-KY) - $150,500

Pete Domenici (R-NM) - $145,950

Jon Kyl (R-AZ) - $140,700

Mary Landrieu (D-LA) - $133,650 (the only dem to vote against)

Christopher Bond (R-MO) - $129,350

Sam Brownback (R-KS) - $129,155

Trent Lott (R-MS) - $124,300

George Voinovich (R-OH) - $122,050

Arlen Specter (R-PA) - $119,878

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) - $98,300

Jim Bunning (R-KY) - $98,269

John Ensign (R-NV) - $95,100

David Vitter (R-LA) - $81,100

Michael Crapo (R-ID) - $63,650

Jeff Sessions (R-AL) - $58,800

Robert Bennett (R-UT) - $58,700

Thad Cochran (R-MS) - $58,500

Richard Shelby (R-AL) - $56,800

Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) - $53,400

Ted Stevens (R-AK) - $44,700

Michael Enzi (R-WY) - $42,500

John Sununu (R-NH) $- 41,900

Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) - $41,250

Larry Craig (R-ID) - $33,500

Judd Gregg (R-NH) - $31,500

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) - $29,600

Richard Burr (R-NC) - $28,750

John Barrasso (R-WY) - $27,500

Johnny Isakson (R-GA) - $25,200

Jim DeMint (R-SC) - $23,722

Mel Martinez (R-FL) - $17,000

Chuck Hagel (R-NE) - $16,600

Tom Coburn (R-OK) - $9,600

John Warner (R-VA) - $9,500

Wayne Allard (R-CO) - $0*

Total $4,097,810

*Sen. Allard was last re-elected in 2002 and will be retiring in 2008