U.S. Energy Foundation’s Post

Learn more about how EF and our partners McKinney Family Foundation and Herbert Simon Family Foundation are committed to ensuring Indiana continues its positive progress toward a clean and equitable energy future in a new blog: https://lnkd.in/gv2yMKit

Learn more about how EF and our partners McKinney Family Foundation and Herbert Simon Family Foundation are committed to ensuring Indiana continues its positive progress toward a clean and equitable energy future in a new blog: https://lnkd.in/gv2yMKit

Learn more about how EF and our partners McKinney Family Foundation and Herbert Simon Family Foundation are committed to ensuring Indiana continues its positive progress toward a clean and equitable energy future in a new blog: https://lnkd.in/gv2yMKit

Learn more about how EF and our partners McKinney Family Foundation and Herbert Simon Family Foundation are committed to ensuring Indiana continues its positive progress toward a clean and equitable energy future in a blog: https://lnkd.in/gv2yMKit

We have invited Nick Josefowitz from Permit Power to the Symbium office to hear his plan to propel innovation and market competition in NY. Unfortunately, the most recent draft that we reviewed of their proposed solar permitting legislation in New York would have created a monopoly in favor of a single company, SolarAPP+, where the founding members of Permit Power are also board members. The proposed legislation literally named SolarAPP+! Imagine a law that requires everyone to adopt a Ford Motors EV or something that is capable of doing what a Ford EV can do. What would be the response from every other EV manufacturer? What might be the impact on the public? On innovation? Laws should describe the goal and HOW to specifically comply but should NEVER name either a private or a government entity as a preferred standard. Let’s fix that moving forward! ⚡️ #transparency #competition Jennifer Castenson New York Solar Energy Industries Association NYSERDA Scott Reynolds Garrett Reynolds Noah Ginsburg Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Jeff St. John Lucas Toffoli Cheryl Webster Abhijeet Mohapatra Melanie Sirisoma

Thanks to Canary Media for a very comprehensive article on SB 1221, a bold and innovative bill authored by Senator Dave Min that offers an opportunity to pilot a future where utilities invest in communities instead of pipelines, an approach known as neighborhood scale decarbonization. The bill is currently awaiting signature on Gavin Newsom's desk! Neighborhood scale decarbonization is such a key aspect of a just transition to a zero-carbon utility system. It helps refocus ratepayer investment into clean and healthy communities, prioritizing communities most impacted by pollution and least able to afford the necessary retrofits to their buildings. It is a program model that works well for organized labor, ensuring quality installation, living wages, and a potential transition pathway for workers employed to support our existing gas system. What's more, it offers a pathway to avoid future gas rate spikes and billions of dollars of stranded assets for utilities. We need to pilot this approach now to learn how best to deploy this strategy as we work towards achieving our climate goals. I worked hard on this bill alongside BDC's own Jose Torres, NRDC (Merrian Borgeson and Kiki Velez) and EarthJustice (Matt Vespa); but many many members of the clean energy community and beyond contributed to this effort. I will almost certainly leave people out, but you know who you are, and it took ALL of us to get here. https://lnkd.in/gaqFChb2 Panama Bartholomy Robin Tung Tryn Brown Madison Vander Klay Chloe Day Zilliac Sage Canchola-Welch Bena Chang Edson Perez Sarah Steinberg Zach Pierce Melissa Romero Michael Colvin Rick Brown, PhD (he/him) Steven Halligan Gina Goodhill Dawn Weisz Samantha Samuelsen Melissa Yu Nihal Shrinath John McKenna Edward Randolph Mike Florio

Excellent post today by Green Energy Consumers Alliance head Larry Chretien on why the Massachusetts DPU sorely needs a re-org in order to focus on energy changes needed in our Commonwealth. I teach environmental history to wonderful Boston College undergrads, and find myself pointing again and again to examples that show change comes about not simply because of shining, idealistic, leadership at the top -- but because of changes at the nitty-gritty levels of governance, planning, and bureaucracy. Yes, we badly need change in our Dept of Public Utilities, because we badly need change in our energy future. https://lnkd.in/e8DcnXxw

Yesterday's lease sale means that Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland will be home to critical work to leverage the ocean as a source of climate solutions. Recognizing the untapped potential of the ocean and the urgent need for ocean climate action, the Biden Administration is driving an ocean climate strategy across the federal government (and delivering unprecedented levels of ocean and coastal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act). Now, the US is poised to be a global leader on ocean climate action—and the Central Atlantic will play a key role in reaching our goals. #OceanClimateAction https://lnkd.in/gn6tTzvu

Earlier this week, NY Governor Kathy Hochul outlined her priorities for the year in the annual State of the State address. The administration previewed proposals in a policy brief that are likely to appear in her executive budget on Jan. 16th. The “Our New York, Our Future” agenda was summarized in the Governor’s corresponding news release as follows: • Legislation to support responsible, equitable and effective gas system transition planning. The Affordable Gas Transition Act will empower the Department of Public Service (DPS) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) to direct utility companies to manage the transition to clean energy sources responsibly and affordably. • Statewide Solar for All, a program to efficiently deliver energy savings to low-income households, including an electric bill credit of $40 per year to more than 800,000 households. • Smart Energy Savings Initiative, allowing New Yorkers to save on their utility bills by better managing daily energy usage. Smart technology will schedule periods of significant energy use when electricity demand and costs are lowest with participating residents. • Direct DPS to harness innovation by initiating the NY Grid of the Future proceeding. The proceeding will deliver a NY Grid of the Future Plan by the end of 2024. This legislative session will be interesting as it’s a critical election year in NY, with presidential, congressional and state legislative seats at stake. As lawmakers are well aware that one vote could result in verbal attacks, negative campaign ads or election losses, there will be more factors at play in Albany than just legislation. I anxiously await the executive budget proposals that will be presented next week. National Fuel, together with a majority of customers and western New Yorkers, support a continued natural gas distribution system to heat our homes and businesses. We have shown that it is possible to reduce emissions without abandoning our customers to less reliable, and more costly, electrification. Throughout my tenure on the State’s Climate Action Council, I expressed concerns about the potential consumer impacts on residential customers, small businesses and industry. It continues to be my belief that we should use our extensive, storm-resistant natural gas system and offer a dual-heating option that combines renewable energy with natural gas when temperatures dip below freezing. A decarbonized natural gas system is not only consistent with the state’s climate goals but will indeed be critical to achieving them in a responsible way for all New Yorkers. The Governor’s State of the State proposal appears to consider both safety and reliability as the state works to achieve the goals of the Climate Act. Thanks for connecting this week. https://lnkd.in/g73aw9zV

As we navigate the evolving landscape of energy in the Arctic, we’re centering our work in the DOE’s Equity Action Plan. See how in this new blog post: https://bit.ly/3wZXx1V