The Baker administration rolled out new rules for cutting back carbon emissions, to get us 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 per the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008 (incidentally, perhaps Gov. Patrick’s greatest legacy — though see below).
“Combatting and preparing for the impact of climate change remains a top priority of our administration,” Governor Charlie Baker said in a statement. “These regulations will help ensure the Commonwealth meets the rigorous emission reductions limits.”
Sounds great, right?
Remember that this administration (and the Patrick administration) had to get sued, and were admonished by the SJC to make this happen. And even so, they’re mostly just pocketing gains that have already been made:
[Sec. of Energy & Environmental Affairs Matt Beaton] also said Massachusetts needs to do more to reduce transportation emissions, which now account for more greenhouse gases than any other sector of the state’s economy.
“The whole world is wrestling with the transportation sector,” Beaton said. “We are cognizant that we won’t hit our 2050 goals without transportation.”
- 2% yearly Renewable Portfolio Standard increase
- instituting a carbon fee/dividend
- stopping new gas pipeline infrastructure (have we gotten through on this one?)
- plugging gas leaks
- pledging 100% renewable energy by 2050 (California has pledged 100% by 2045).
Those things would represent actual leadership. Today’s announcement gets a golf clap, at best.
Piling on…
Expanded electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure
Requiring utilities to institute an EV rate which punishes charging during time of expected high usage and rewards charging during times of expected low usage. Side note:
this also allows a per/kWh tax to make up for the reduction in per gallon tax collection.
EV highway benefits — reduced tolls, access to HOV, etc
2% RPS increase? Hah! Let’s do 3%.
And let’s require municipal electric utilities in MA to procure RECs too. They’re currently exempt, and they represent roughly 1-in-7 customers in MA.
Combining the SREC and MSBA school grants to ensure that every new school roof gets PV — so that the public subsidy benefits are shared by all, not just some folks who own their own roof
Air and ground source heat pumps! There’s just no reason to be installing either gas-fired furnaces or traditional AC compressors at this point. Use code, subsidies, fees, whatever so that we transition to heat pumps for air and water heating in new installations.
Make the stretch code BAU, and an even stretchier stretch.
Allow cities and towns to require LEED certified easily and clearly through either zoning or building code (whichevs is easiest)
Smaht growth, amirite?
Many more miles of dedicated bus/bike/(taxi?!) lanes. When buses are fast and schedule-reliable, people will choose to ride ’em.
There’s more I’m sure!
Hey–I charge my EV when it’s sunny because then I’m using my own solar to do it. Don’t punish me for that.
The best benefit of the EV charging infrastructure is the free parking. I’d rather charge at my house with my own green power, but free parking is awesome (a new charger was added to Davis Square, just announced).. But that also feeds back into the time-of-charge thing–if you rely on public chargers, don’t penalize those for time of day. It’s gonna be hard to charge for people who live in high density areas and don’t have their own driveway.
Heat pumps: Somerville has a program now for people who want to investigate these. Good cost breakdowns and other details: http://www.somervillema.gov/departments/programs/heatsmartcoolsmart-somerville
If you are using your own solar to do that (and, btw, what do you do when it’s not sunny… which in winter is greater than 50% of any give 24 period) why would you be punished by the utilities rate? You’re not using the utilities… thus not paying the rate…. therefore, not being punished by the rate… If you charge overnight, presumably the nadir of demand, then, as stomv notes, you’ll get a reward.
Just saying.
Also, thought the parking might be ‘free’ to you… if it is part of the built environment (and it is) then it is a cost to somebody.
I don’t charge when it’s not sunny. That’s kind of simple.
If the utilities are going to be monitoring charging, they very well could have a way to differentiate what’s being charged. There was a program from Eversource where they have access to your charger and it’s in preparation for them having access to when you charge.
If I charge overnight then I’m definitely using grid power which is dirtier than my power. That’s not much a reward if you are trying to be as green as possible.
Free parking is an incentive to get people to drive more EVs so that our air is cleaner, our streets are quieter, and our emissions are reduced. There are lots of things we to to incentivize good behavior with wider benefits. I pay taxes to run schools that are part of the built environment that I don’t use but I don’t complain about that.
I’m going to assume that you net meter. In that case, to think of it as “your” solar misses the point entirely.
As a residential customer, you’re currently paying the same price to charge any time, day or night. If you want to do the best by the atmosphere (and the societal pocketbook), you’re best off charging overnight, not during the day. Let your excess daytime energy feed the grid, where it’s helping to avoid using less-efficient, higher-polluting power plants. Charge at night when only the most efficient plants are operating.
Eventually, the hours will change when we’ve got oodles of solar and wind and hydro on the grid. But until them (10+ years from now), the best time to charge your EV is when the system isn’t being used heavily — nights and weekends that aren’t extremely cold.
Just to build on …to what stomv said — even the “dirty” power from Eversource at night is cleaner than if you used a conventional engine to power your vehicle.
Your EV is already a big step forward, however you charge it.
EV + PV:
Don’t fret. As we get more and more PV, the 10am – 2pm time will become the time we want folks to charge EVs, run their dishwashers, electric-heat their water, etc. We’re not there yet (in New England), but it will come. In the mean time, New England peak is sunny weekday non-holiday afternoons in July and August. We would be better off if you charged your car at other times (and watched TV at other times, and ran your AC at other times, etc.). Using price signals to help push some controllable load (like EV charging) to times when energy prices are cheaper is good for all of our pocketbooks, It’s also good for our air — high real time energy prices tend to correlate with higher marginal rates of CO2 and other pollutants.
PV + parking:
Again, don’t sweat it. Folks are going to use their cars at the times that work for them — they’ll adjust to avoid congestion, but not for parking. So long as EVs are a rarity, it doesn’t matter. As they become more prevalent, it will make sense to charge more for charging during high priced times (evening time, eventually). The price for parking? That’s based on some other S-D curve.