Learn and Act

Clean Energy in the News

Massachusetts Just Took a Big Step Away from Natural Gas. Which States Might Follow?

A first-in-the-country ruling sets Massachusetts on a path toward electrification of heating, and could lead regulators in other states to follow suit.

By Dan Gearino on December 7, 2023 for Inside Climate News

LNG exports are a ‘really, really big’ climate threat, McKibben says

Canary Media talks with Bill McKibben about the Biden administration’s stance on LNG, the gas’s outsize climate impacts and the miracle of renewables. By Nicole Pollack in Canary Media, 20 November 2023

Other Liftoff Reports on Nuclear, Carbon Management, Clean Hydrogen, Industrial Decarbonization, and Long Duration Storage.

Pathways to Commercial Liftoff - Virtual Power Plants (PDF)

"With electricity demand growing for the first time in a decade and fossil assets retiring, deploying 80-160 GW of virtual power plants (VPPs)—tripling current scale—by 2030 could support rapid electrification while redirecting grid spending from peaker plants to participants and reducing overall grid costs.

Between 2023 and 2030, the U.S. will need to add enough new power generation capacity to supply over 200 GW of peak demand;1 were the U.S. to follow a path towards 100% clean electricity by 2035, new capacity needs could nearly double.i In all scenarios, the mix of weather-dependent renewable generation will be unprecedented, leading to more variable electricity supply and higher demand for transmission capacity.

Transmission interconnection backlogs, which have stretched to an average of five years, pose potential resource adequacy challenges.ii Large-scale deployment of VPPs could help address demand increases and rising peaks at lower cost than conventional resources, reducing the energy costs for Americans – one in six of whom are already behind on electricity bills.iii"

New Hampshire Lags New England in Renewable Energy

By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org November 4, 2023

The momentum of the solar energy transition.pdf

Here’s why electric lawn mowers are cutting down the gas-fueled competition

Canary Media 17 October 2023

How Maine Became the Heat Pump Capital of the US

By Todd Woody for Bloomberg, October 6, 2023

Rooftop solar was overlooked. Now it’s closing a New England power plant.

By Benjamin Storrow | 06/29/2023 06:28 AM EDT for CLIMATEWIRE

Fossil Fueled Rates:

How Gas Costs are Causing New England's Electricity Price Spikes, and How Electrification Will Help Protect Customers in the Future

Read the entire report, prepared for the Sierra Club, February 2023, Starategen.

Recent spikes in the price of electricity in New Hampshire are absolutely not a reason to delay electrifying our homes, home heating, vehicles, etc. Continuing to depend on an energy system that relies on fossil gas — a volatile (no pun intended) commodity — puts us, our environment, and our pocketbooks at risk. The price spikes in electricity and fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, have rippled across the globe disrupting supplies and pushing prices higher. In New Hampshire where we are dependent on natural gas for heating and power generation, we are disproportionately impacted in a negative way.

Electrification can eliminate up to 100% of your gas use, which is a pathway to stop New Hampshire residents’ dependence on the fuel and avoid high costs and price spikes in the future.