Yesterday’s decision by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to approve a 15-year contract for the sale of half of Cape Wind’s power to National Grid removed yet another major hurdle for the nation’s first offshore wind farm and confirmed what CLF and other project supporters have long known to be true: Cape Wind is a good deal for ratepayers.

In finding the contract “cost-effective” and “in the public interest,” the DPU overrode opponents’ most recent objections that the project supposedly is too expensive and will lead to huge profits for the developer.  In fact, the decision pointed out again – for those who chose to overlook the terms spelled out in black and white in the Cape Wind contract – that the developer will not reap windfall profits because the profits are capped and cost savings will flow back to the ratepayers.  And, the contract price is fixed and predictable over the entire 15-year term of the contract.

CLF is thrilled, if not entirely surprised, that the DPU found the project to be good for ratepayers.  As noted in the DPU’s decision, the estimated price impacts are very small and are significantly outweighed by the benefits. Customers will get some relief from the volatile fossil fuel price rollercoaster while Cape Wind takes a major bite out of global warming pollution and forces some of the most expensive and dirty fossil fuel-fired power plants to reduce their operation.  This is a major win for the environment and the emerging clean energy economy.

As an intervening party in the DPU proceeding, CLF took the lead working with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), NRDC and Clean Power Now to introduce extensive expert testimony, cross-examine one of the opponents’ principal witnesses (an avowed climate skeptic), and draft detailed legal briefs to make the case for approval of the Cape Wind contract.

John Rogers, senior energy analyst at UCS said, “With this decision, Massachusetts has taken a real step forward on behalf of the commonwealth and the country as a whole. We know that offshore wind represents a real opportunity for economic development and environmental progress.  This move means we’re ready to say yes to that opportunity.”

Over the past decade, Cape Wind has withstood exhaustive environmental and permitting reviews, demonstrating over and over that its benefits will far exceed its impacts.  Since the contract was so thoroughly vetted, we are confident that today’s decision paves the way for a much more streamlined review and approval of a contract for the second half of Cape Wind’s power, renewable energy credits and other output. With federal, state and local approvals, a lease and a long-term contract, Cape Wind is looking more and more like a sure thing.

Photo credit: Marilyn Humphries

It may come as no surprise that Dominion Energy ‘s spokespeople don’t want to admit that Dominion’s  recent moves to “delist” Salem Harbor Station are signs that Dominion plans to shut the plant down (read recent statements here and here).  Dominion has been spinning stories about the plant to local audiences for years.  But apparently, Dominion CFO Mark McGettrick has no such trouble. At a financial conference at the Edison Electric Institute on November 2, McGettrick confirmed that the plant will shut down within five years. “We have announced that two of our coal plants will shut down in the future when the environmental rules are clear. The first is Salem Harbor in the Northeast. We’ve already tried to delist a few of those units, but the ISO has required the two biggest ones for reliability. But in the near future, certainly within this five year horizon, we would expect Salem Harbor plant to shut down. We will not be investing any capital for environmental improvements at Salem Harbor.”* No mincing words for McGettrick.

So there you have it. Salem Harbor is going to shut down within five years.  Dominion says it will not invest any more money in environmental improvements at the plant. So, if ISO-NE continues to find the plant is needed for reliability, who will pay the price for those improvements? Ratepayers. Specifically, the ratepayers who live in the shadow of this plant in northeastern Massachusetts. That’s why ISO-NE must act now to find an alternative to Salem Harbor Station.  CLF has stepped in to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to order ISO-NE to meet its responsibility, so that ratepayers can avoid these costs.  CLF will continue working to accelerate shutdown to prevent further damage to public health and the environment and to stop Dominion and ISO-NE from forcing ratepayers to prop up this polluting dinosaur of a plant that should have been closed years ago.

*Listen to the announcement via Google Finance
Clip can be found at 22:30

From November 15, 2010 Boston Globe:

There are reasons aerotropolis didn’t get off the ground

For the first time the U.S. Government is moving to manage, and reduce, the amount of Greenhouse Gas emissions from Heavy and Medium Duty vehicles (which means trucks and buses).  These regulations “have the potential to reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons and save approximately 500 million barrels of oil over the life of vehicles sold during 2014 to 2018”

One of the two public hearings on this proposal will be right here in our backyard at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, (their fair city) Massachusetts 02139–4896.  More information on the hearings are available online.

In the movies the best tools for fighting off zombies are torches, flamethrowers or the odd chainsaw.  When confronting climate zombies a more sophisticated approach is called for.

Political and financial tools, like the massive clean energy business mobilization that saved the California Global Warming Solutions Act, are very important. So are efforts to bring to bear unexpected and powerful cultural forces, like military leaders, on the problem.

Information and evidence rebutting nonsense, like the ideas that scientists have swung from thinking there is global cooling to global warming or that climate science is all new and manufactured, is essential as well.  Joe Romm, who runs the influential Climate Progress blog has an excellent compilation of material pushing back on those myths.   Some highlights:

Yes, I know everybody used to think we were headed toward an ice age.  Well, except Dr. Frank Baxter (and Frank Capra) in 1958. And except for James Hansen for three decades, of course. And the National Research Council along with the vast majority of climate scientists from the 1970s on.

. . .

The myth never dies that “In the 1970’s all the climate scientists believed an ice age was coming” (as Crichton has one of his fictional ‘environmentalists’ say in the novel State of Fear).  Any climate hawk must be able to quickly and assuredly respond to this myth because it continues to live on thanks to the deniers’ and delayers’ clever strategy of ignoring the facts.

I still recommend an excellent review article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) by Thomas Peterson, William Connolley, and John Fleck, which concluded:

There was no scientific consensus in the 1970s that the Earth was headed into an imminent ice age. Indeed, the possibility of anthropogenic warming dominated the peer-reviewed literature even then.

The BAMS piece examines the scientific origins of the myth, the popular media of the 1970s who got the story slightly wrong, the deniers/delayers who perpetuate the myth today, and, most importantly, what real scientists actually said in real peer-reviewed journals at the time.

and check out the really excellent video presenting audio from the 1950′s that Romm links to from Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Be prepared and fully armed !

Articles in this morning’s Boston Globe and Salem News describe an important shift in the status of Salem Harbor Station and highlight the need for ISO New England (ISO-NE) to go beyond the analyses it has done in the past so that it can finally identify an alternative that will actually solve the reliability issue that has dogged efforts to retire the plant since 2003.  That is the subject of the recent protest filed by CLF asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require ISO-NE to perform an expedited analysis of the alternatives and establish a timeline for implementation.

ISO-NE’s failure to identify solutions that will relieve the need for Salem Harbor Station has resulted in decisions that will cost ratepayers up to $18.5 million in above market payments in 2012-2013 and up to $16.9 million in 2013-2014. ISO-NE could avoid imposing these costs on ratepayers by implementing an alternative that would allow the plant to retire by 2012.

However, if ISO-NE rejects Dominion’s recent “permanent delist bid” – its latest and most telling signal that it wants to retire the plant – on the basis of reliability, ratepayers face the risk of even higher costs. The reality is that ratepayers pay more per kilowatt for electricity from Salem Harbor Station than they pay for other sources of electricity in the capacity market ranging from natural gas to nuclear and renewable.  This dispels the perception that coal is a cheap source of electricity.   Importantly, these additional costs aren’t spread among ratepayers throughout New England; instead, they are passed on solely to the ratepayers in northeastern Massachusetts, the same people who already bear the costs of additional medical expenses from the heart and lung diseases and other illnesses caused by pollution from the plant.  A study released by Clean Air Task Force concluded that pollution from the Salem Harbor Station causes 20 deaths, 36 heart attacks and 316 asthma attacks every year.

These costs diminish any economic benefits that the City of Salem receives from tax payments and jobs at the plant, and the likelihood that Dominion will retire in 2014 if its de-list bid is accepted makes it more important than ever that an alternative use for the site be developed to replace the facility.

Dominion’s claims that it is not planning to retire the plant contradict its own filings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  Continuing a tradition of telling the story that best suits its interests depending on the audience, Dominion told the Commission in a 2009 filing that it estimated only three more years of economic viability for the plant.  Dominion spokesman Dan Genest told the Salem News, “We know what it costs us to produce a megawatt of electricity at Salem Harbor Station, and the lower price at auction is not enough to cover our costs to generate electricity.” Despite its claims that it can continue to make profits in other markets, Dominion has said in its own filings that it was likely to lose money in those markets.

The bottom line is that ISO-NE has a responsibility to find an alternative to replace Salem Harbor Station that will cost less.  Now that the threat of even higher costs looms, protecting ratepayers demands a solution by no later than 2014, and the public health and environmental harms caused by the operation of this 60 year old coal and oil-fired relic weighs heavily in favor of shutting down the plant as soon as possible.

The following is a special edition of CLF’s e-News.  To receive this kind of carefully screened (no spam here!)  information and to support CLF join today.

We at CLF watched last Tuesday’s elections with great interest, and in some cases, trepidation. Our ability to be effective in our work is greatly enhanced when there is real leadership on environmental issues at the state level, especially when federal leadership is lacking. With some exceptions, New Englanders chose with their votes to continue the environmental progress we are making in our region. Now that the dust has settled, we are pleased to bring you this special post-election edition of our e-news. Below, you will find a state-by-state forecast of how the election results are likely to help or hinder our and others’ efforts to address the most pressing environmental challenges affecting our region, namely reducing our carbon emissions from energy and transportation, planning for and mitigating the impacts of climate change, supporting clean energy development that creates good, local jobs, and protecting our natural resources – all in the interest of a healthy, thriving New England for everyone.

An overarching challenge that every governor and legislature will face is how to strike a balance between budget pressures and appropriately staffing and supporting environmental protection agencies. Maintaining a balanced budget can lead a state government into making “penny wise and pound foolish decisions,” like underfunding stormwater and sewage infrastructure projects needed to meet federal mandates and protect public health. In a closely related vein, building up jobs and the economy will mean that environmental permitting must be fair and timely; underfunded agencies without adequate staffing and resources will not be able to meet that goal.

Maine

The election of Paul LePage, a Republican who, for the first time in four decades, will be a governor of that party with majorities from his own party in both the Maine House and Senate, is potentially a shift of deep significance. On the campaign trail, Governor-elect LePage questioned the fact of climate change, indicated support for offshore oil and gas exploration and new nuclear power plants, stated that wind power was still too unreliable to focus much attention on and suggested folding the Departments of Environmental Protection, Marine Resources, Conservation and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife into the Department of Agriculture.

Currently the mayor of Waterville and general manager of Marden’s, a discount department store, LePage has indicated that his primary focus will be on making it easier to do business in Maine. His generally moderate record in Waterville and the long tradition of bi-partisan consensus around environmental issues in Maine provide some suggestion that forces may be at work that will temper negative campaign rhetoric. But it will be a challenge to advance a science-based agenda in Maine that looks to energy efficiency and clean renewable resources as the building blocks of both environmental protection and economic development.

Maine voters returned its two members to the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Chellie Pingree and Rep. Mike Michaud. Both have solid records as leaders on environmental issues.

For more on Maine’s election results, read CLF Maine Director Sean Mahoney’s blog post on CLF Scoop.

Massachusetts

Governor Deval Patrick’s re-election on a platform of clean energy and economic development was a hopeful sign for Massachusetts, with potential for positive reverberations beyond the Commonwealth. The Patrick campaign bucked conventional wisdom by emphasizing the need to make longer term investments, like building Cape Wind and putting in place long-term contracts that use such projects to provide electricity at a stable and predictable price.

The continued efforts to implement legislation enacted over the last two years – including the Massachusetts Green Communities Act, the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act and the Massachusetts Oceans Act – will provide ample opportunities to press forward with that affirmative agenda of building a clean energy economy.

On the federal front, it is notable that the only newly elected member of Congress from Massachusetts (filling a seat to be vacated by retiring Rep. Delahunt), U.S. Representative-elect Bill Keating from the 10^th Congressional District, is a supporter of Cape Wind and received a state-wide award as “Environmental Legislator of the Year” when he was in the Massachusetts State Legislature, primarily for his water pollution work.

New Hampshire

The election resulted in a massive shift in the political landscape in New Hampshire. Prior to Tuesday, Democrats controlled both houses of the Legislature and the Executive Council under a Democratic governor. With the exception of Governor Lynch, who retained his office, Republicans swept other areas of the government. In the New Hampshire House and Senate, Republicans not only became the majority, but also achieved veto-proof majorities. In the Executive Council, which confirms nominations to offices in the executive branch and which approves government contracts, a Democratic majority not only was erased, but all five Council members are now Republican.

While it is important not to automatically assume that Republicans will oppose all effective and affirmative action on the environment, it is fair to note that New Hampshire’s Republican party adopted a platform that espouses positions that represent a retreat from state and regional efforts to tackle climate change. Whether there will be a serious attempt to translate these positions into policy remains to be seen.

On the federal level, Kelly Ayotte (R) won the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Judd Gregg. She defeated Democrat Paul Hodes, who vacated the Congressional District 1 seat to run for Senate. While in Congress, Hodes had been a strong ally on a variety of environmental issues. Republican Frank Giunta defeated incumbent Democrat Carol Shea Porter, also a strong ally on environmental issues, for the Congressional District 2 seat. Charlie Bass (R) won New Hampshire’s second Congressional seat (District 1), defeating Democratic candidate Anne McLane Kuster. Rep. Bass has shown leadership around key environmental issues before in Congress, including re-establishing passenger rail in New Hampshire, and has the potential to become an ally on future initiatives, including advancing renewable energy in the state.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island elected Independent Lincoln Chafee as governor. Among the three candidates running for governor, Lincoln Chafee was widely viewed as the candidate who was most likely to understand environmental issues and advance a pro-environmental agenda. Chafee advanced environmental issues as a U.S. senator and as the “new urbanist” mayor of Warwick, RI, where he championed a rail-based vision for development around T.F. Green Airport that is now coming to fruition.

David Cicilline, most recently mayor of Providence, was elected to replace Congressman Patrick Kennedy in the 1^st Congressional District. Cicilline’s strong record on environmentally sound urban development and energy efficiency as mayor of Providence suggests he will be an important voice in Congress. His successor as mayor of Providence, Angel Tavares, is widely expected to provide leadership in that key city that will build on the renaissance of the last decade.

Vermont

Vermont elected Democrat Peter Shumlin to serve as the state’s next governor. For many years, Governor-elect Shumlin served as President pro tempore of the Vermont Senate. As the leader of the State Senate’s majority over the past several years, Mr. Shumlin has led initiatives to address climate change, electric energy efficiency, renewable energy development, and to protect the state’s air, water and forests. However, the Shumlin administration has its work cut out for it to adopt strong environmental and energy policies in the face of record budget deficits.

Vermonters elected Republican Phil Scott, also a former state senator, to serve as the state’s lieutenant governor. While this post holds primarily ministerial responsibilities, Mr. Scott’s views on important environmental issues remain to be seen.

At the federal level, Vermonters voted to send Democrats Congressman Peter Welch and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy back to Washington for another term. Both members of Congress are considered to be pro-environmental and in favor of progressive energy policies, with Rep. Welch serving as a leader in the House on energy efficiency. Senator Leahy has now become Vermont’s longest serving senator and will play a key role in the leadership in Congress.

Lastly, Democrats gained unprecedented majorities in both houses of the Vermont State House, giving Governor-elect Shumlin the opportunity to work with friendly faces on crafting a legislative agenda.

Connecticut

The election of Democrat Dan Malloy, who won by a slim margin, is a cause for great hope and optimism in climate and energy circles. During the campaign, Malloy, the former mayor of the City of Stamford, articulated progressive and powerful ideas about the importance of confronting global warming, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building up both clean energy and broad transportation choices that build walkable and livable communities and presided over an exciting, sophisticated and innovative “microgrid” project.

The federal scene in Connecticut, including the election of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to the Senate, was characterized by preservation of a powerful delegation who will provide a strong voice in Congress for sensible energy policy and for investment in urban neighborhoods, a voice that will be critically needed given the larger makeup of the new Congress.

Local Activists from Salem Alliance for the Environment (SAFE) and HealthLink are hosting a Forum this Sunday that will expose the true costs of burning coal at plants like Salem Harbor Station.  The heat is on Dominion Energy to shut down Salem Harbor Station to allow the City of Salem and Massachusetts to usher in a clean energy economy that will provide sustainable and equitable jobs without jeopardizing public health or the environment.  Anyone who is interested in moving us towards a Coal Free Massachusetts should attend this event to find out more about the toll coal fired power plants take on communities from mining through burning and finally the disposal of ash.

For more information on how you can get involved check out the SAFE and HealthLink websites  CLF’s take action webpage.

Sea Change.  Tsunami. Maelstrom.  Take your pick but the results of the mid-term election from an environmental perspective will bring an even more extreme and hostile approach to restoring, protecting and preserving our natural resources.  The change in Maine will be staggering – not once since the first comprehensive environmental statutes were passed in the 1970’s has there been a Republican governor and a Republican controlled Legislature.  And unlike the past leaders of the Republican party in Maine like US Senators Margaret Chase Smith and Bill Cohen or State legislators Horace Hildreth and Harry Richardson, today’s leaders of the Republican party have attempted to revive the old and false dichotomy of “jobs vs. the environment.”  At stake is the work of 40 years to provide a framework that allows Maine’s people and communities to thrive and protects Maine’s natural resources. We are in unchartered territory.

Governor-elect Paul LePage’s rhetoric on the campaign trail was alarmingly anti-environmental.  Beyond staking his election on dismantling Maine’s agencies tasked with safeguarding our environment, he has bluntly expressed support for offshore oil drilling in the wake of the worst oil spill ever experienced by our country.  He supports building wildly expensive new nuclear power plants.  Rather mind-numbing is the fact that he considers climate change to be at the least, subject to scientific debate if not outright denying it.  And he opposes sustainable  wind development.  Even more problematic is a pervasive sense that he simply doesn’t “get it” – doesn’t get the concept of sustainability, doesn’t get the economic value of a strong and vibrant environment and doesn’t get Mainers abiding conviction that ours is a unique state that merits strong efforts to maintain.

Willful ignorance may be trending in Augusta, but thoughtfulness  has a firm place in Maine’s culture. Those who are committed to a sustainable approach to managing our resources to benefit our people must now put the election behind us and focus on holding the line.  Open and active collaboration among Maine’s environmental community will be necessary to that effort.  We need to recognize that a majority of Maine people voted for two candidates who have long and distinguished records as environmental leaders and stewards.  Just as a majority of voters supported additional funding for the Land for Maine’s Future program, a clear sign that we continue to be willing to invest in safeguarding our environment.

The Conservation Law Foundation has always believed that a thriving Maine is the result of strong environmental protections and sound economic principles.  That belief – and CLF’s unique ability to translate it into practical, effective and results-oriented advocacy – will be more important than ever as a new administration attempts to dismantle the environmental protections of the last four decades.  We hope you join us in our collaborative effort to tackle the challenges that lay ahead.