Is Clean Energy Too Expensive?
Or Are Renewables Our Path to Stability, Reliability, AND affordability?
Please join Amanda Barker, from the Green Energy Consumers Alliance, to explore why climate goals are as important as ever. She will look at the overall Massachusetts roadmap for addressing climate change and assess where we stand in terms of achieving the objectives set by the state.
Since Energize Acton is celebrating heat pumps this month (ground source heat pumps—geothermal—in the Boardwalk Campus and air source heat pumps for households), Amanda will take heat pumps targets as an example to highlight both the challenges we face and the potential for success.
Some background:
Last fall, a Massachusetts House of Representatives committee floated the idea of a significant step back from state climate goals. After an outcry from the environmental community, this winter the Mass House of Representatives passed its new proposed climate bill* that saw improvements over the fall version. However, it still includes major funding cuts to Mass Save. In effect, without an alternative to Mass Save, this is a step back from state climate targets for clean energy. (*The Massachusetts Senate will do its own version of a climate bill and the two versions, House and Senate, will have to be reconciled.)
Some voices in the media—and in the legislature—are saying that clean energy is too costly. They claim that, by cutting back on Mass Save and slowing the transition to clean energy, the state government can lower energy costs.
Massachusetts energy costs are an incredibly valid issue. The question is, “Will reducing our commitment to clean energy also reduce heating, cooling, and electricity costs for Massachusetts residents?” Energy in New England is a tough topic! But the Green Energy Consumers Alliance will lay out the argument that achieving climate goals for heat pumps and other forms of electrification will save costs in the long run and, for many, even in the short run.
Current events bring home the reality that we live in a complicated world. Committing to renewable energy brings New England a higher degree of energy stability and reliability. Plus, the western United States (really, the west of all the Americas, from Canada to Chile) just experienced an extraordinarily hot March, racing past all previous records. This reminds us that fossil fuels also have costs. As much of the world is successfully implementing clean energy, let’s remember . . . We can do this! And it could even be affordable!