Boston GreenScene

Learning From Cape Wind

By Dan Burgess

This April, near the 40th anniversary of the Clean Air Act, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will make the final decision that seals the fate of Cape Wind.  The tumultuous 130 off-shore wind turbine project, in process for almost ten years, has the potential to turn the powerful Nantucket Sound winds into enough clean electricity for approximately 400,000 homes. 
 
No matter how Secretary Salazar adjudicates, however, it is clear that there is a lesson that Massachusetts policy makers must learn from Cape Wind: large projects cannot be the unilateral focus of clean energy development.
 
While Cape Wind has helped to blaze a critical path for wind electricity generation in New England, it has also shown that such projects can be incredibly controversial.  Opponents of Cape Wind believe the turbines would hinder sea navigation, do harm to the local environment, diminish the Sound’s natural beauty, and negatively impact tourism.  Additionally, opponents are skeptical about supporting a project in their backyard that appears to only financially benefit the few who have access to the tremendous resources that are required for a wind farm like Cape Wind.
 
Considering the abject criticism that arises with large renewable energy sites, it is evident that a parallel policy which supports smaller projects should be pursued. 
 
Imagine a policy which allows every Commonwealth resident or business with a parcel of land or a rooftop to prosper from installing their own renewable energy system.  A system in which each citizen, not just those with great means, has the ability to produce clean, safe electricity that also increases their financial security.  Envision windmills on every farm, solar panels on every home or business, and Massachusetts taking a real step towards energy independence.
 
This vision is not some policy pipe dream.  This scenario is beginning to happen today in several European countries and Canada, and is leading to rapid growth in renewable energy generation.  In Germany, a country that is considered a world leader in clean energy production, over 15% of electricity consumed is produced by renewable energy sources.  This number is expected to grow to at least 50% by 2050.  In Spain, wind turbines supply over half of the national power grid and solar panel installment is on the rise.  These surges of clean, homegrown electricity are made possible in part through a simple policy mechanism called a feed-in tariff.  
 

A feed-in tariff, also known as a renewable energy payment, is a guaranteed monetary payment per kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by a renewable source.  These guaranteed payments from power companies to renewable producers create a market for clean electricity, reduce the barriers to entry for individual investors, and allow virtually any individual to prosper financially from installing a clean energy system.
 
Currently in Massachusetts, most of those who produce clean energy can only count on receiving a kilowatt credit on their bill for the unused electricity that they create.  This policy, known as net metering, is the most common form of clean energy incentive in the United States and does allow some clean energy projects to be feasible for individuals.  Unfortunately, these electricity credits, even when combined with available rebates, grants, and tax incentives, are simply not enough to kick start the renewable power surge that our state needs.  In fact, the lack of a singular incentive policy can have the reverse effect and can become too complex of an investment puzzle for potential investors to piece together.
 
Forty years ago, the Clean Air Act set off a stampede of environmental innovation and investment that our country had never seen before.  Recently, Massachusetts has led the United States by enacting several progressive clean energy policies such as the Green Communities Act.  Now, on the cusp of the looming Cape Wind decision, Massachusetts residents are calling once again for more progressive energy policy.  People are desperate for new jobs, financial security, and freedom from being held hostage by yo-yoing energy prices.  Bay State officials should heed these pleas, and enact a smart, comprehensive feed-in tariff policy that allows all citizens to take part in the clean energy revolution that Massachusetts so desperately needs.

Event 2/25/10: Boston CSA Farm Share Fair

Want to eat locally this summer?  Come meet local farmers at this Arlington fair and sign up for a summer share of fresh, locally grown food!  

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a model for supporting and revitalizing local agriculture.  Supporters pre-purchase a share of the season's harvest, agreeing to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer. In return, the farmer provides, to the best of his/her ability, a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season, as well as opportunities to connect with the land on which the produce is grown.

Who: Local Farmers & You!
When: Thursday, February 25, 2010, from 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Where: Park Avenue Congregational Church, 50 Paul Revere Road in Arlington Heights
Contact: http://csafairarlington.wordpress.com/blog/
Cost: Free

Policy Corner: Feed-in Tariffs Offer Farmers Clean Energy Revenue

By Dan Burgess 

As we’ve explored over the past few months, Massachusetts has several initiatives in place that aim to promote clean energy generation.  Renewable portfolio standards, net metering, tax credits, rebates, and state grants are all helping to ensure that the Commonwealth is a burgeoning renewable energy leader in the United States.These policies, particularly net metering and the streamlining of wind turbine citing processes, now pave the way for a more progressive policy that has proven to be successful in Europe and Canada: renewable energy payments known as feed-in tariffs (FITs). 

Put succinctly by renewable energy analyst and advocate Paul Gipe: “Feed-in tariffs are simply payments per kilowatt-hour for electricity generated by a renewable resource. They are the world’s most successful policy for the rapid development of significant amounts of renewable energy... Feed-in tariffs work because they are more equitable than other policies. They enable everyone--including homeowners, farmers, cooperatives, and businesses large and small--to profit from renewable energy.” 

As Gipe mentions, FIT policy has proven, both in Europe and in the few times it has been attempted in the United States, to be superior to other clean energy policies.  These guaranteed payments from power companies are successful because they allow investors to garner a modest profit from renewable energy generation.  A smart FIT payment structure ensures moderate profitability for even small projects and reduces market entry barriers that currently exist for establishing clean energy systems.  It’s easy to imagine our state leading the clean energy boom if Bay State households were paid directly as a result of installing solar panels on their roof or erecting a windmill on their farm. As outlined by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there are six key elements for successful FIT policy:

1. Contract stability, typically for 15 - 20 years
   
2. Payments based on the cost of a project that ensure a modest profit for the investor.
3. Incremental payment decreases throughout the lifetime of a contract to account for future technology advancements.
4. Payments should be dependent on the type of project. 
5. In order to ensure payment, additional costs of FIT payments should be tied directly back to electricity rate payers.
6. Ensure a FIT approval process in streamline in order not to discourage projects from coming to fruition.

Massachusetts has set formidable goals for clean energy generation and job creation.  These goals aim to reduce negative climate impact, create green collar jobs, lessen the Commonwealth’s requirement for fossil fuels, and to produce a more sustainable state for future generations.  The most effective way for Massachusetts officials to ensure the Bay State is this leader, is to enact a common sense feed-in tariff system that will ultimately renew, revitalize, and rejuvenate our state. To learn more about FIT policy visit www.wind-works.org or visit the NREL at www.nrel.gov.  

Hi Boston: Are you answering a call to action?

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

When I first sat down at my computer nearly three years ago, which was at that time sandwiched between my washer and dryer, I was determined to figure out how to launch a blog chronicling the environmental movement in New England. Aside from being technically challenged, I had only one problem: I was certain that 95 percent of the people who lived and worked here couldn't care less.

Today, with thousands of you visiting the Boston GreenScene website every month, our dedicated writers, and those of you who email us with your latest news, I am happy to say I WAS WRONG!

October 24, 2009 marks the largest day of Global Climate Action in our history. Around the world, and in more than 179 countries and over 5,000 different events, people are showing their support for leaders at the UN Climate Summit in December to adopt a fair, just and binding climate policy that will bring carbon in our atmosphere down to a safe upper limit of 350 ppm.

From tolling the Paul Revere Bell to Boston Under Water 350 Festival: a regional tongue-in-cheek creative event  to ACORN and Boston Climate Action Network's Mission Hill energy fair, the Boston area has dozens of registered 350.ORG events happening through the day. Check out the INCREDIBLE photos and video and click on "find an action" for an interactive map to locate an action near you.

I hope you'll get involved. It feels great.

Boston Organizations Play A Key Role in Corporate Citizenship Initiatives

by Terry Catchpole, Founder and CEO of The Catchpole Corporation
The Catchpole Corporation consults with firms on their executive visibility initiatives in regard to corporate citizenship.

In the face of unprecedented economic uncertainty and rigid fiscal requirements, corporate executives are nonetheless increasingly embracing a traditionally “soft” facet of business practice: corporate citizenship. This practice, also known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), sees firms allocating scarce budget and personnel resources to address their activities in areas such as environmental impact, diversity practices, and ethical sourcing.

There are several reasons for this unprecedented corporate activity we see in this area, none of them more important than businesses’ escalating concern over climate change and appreciation of the role that they can play in reducing carbon emissions and thereby doing their part in helping to head off the threats of global warming.  Companies are noting the Obama Administration’s commitment to aggressive legislative action as regards climate and carbon, as well as the fact that the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December is mandated to produce a new global treaty, supplanting the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, that could well ultimately have significant impact on global businesses of all sizes, in all markets.

Time to Close Newbury Street?

by Dan Burgess

A recent headline from the Boston Globe read, “As Boston businesses struggle, Menino  looks to fill vacancies”. The image that ran with the online story was painfully fitting for the event: Mayor Menino in a walking cast, standing outside of a vacant storefront. According to the article, Mayor Menino was taking potential investors on a bus tour of the vacant spaces along Newbury Street and around the Fenway area. Menino was quoted to say that he was, “being aggressive in the marketing of our city”.

Along with the Mayor-guided tour, the article indicated that investors who sign a lease before December 2009 would receive ‘advertising space on two outdoor displays in the city’s downtown for a month, a
value of $5,000’.

The Globe piece mentioned that there were almost twenty empty storefronts, and counting, along Newbury Street and in the Fenway area. These areas, especially Newbury Street, are known for having the type of retail shops that are struggling as people see their 401ks drop as drastically as they have in the last 18 months. While investment tours and free advertising offers are a good start toward revitalization, the city and its struggling business community should think green as they attempt
to improve the city’s business climate.

One green initiative that makes sense for Boston, is to close Newbury Street to automobiles and make the street a pedestrian-only shopping district. Ridding a section of Newbury Street of cars would provide numerous benefits for our city. This measure would increase the amount of green space that our city
has and would be a strong sign of our city’s attempt to curb our aggregate carbon footprint. Mayor Menino is actively attempting to do this through his Climate Action Leadership Committee that he recently announced with Former Vice President Al Gore, and this would be an excellent way to draw attention to the carbon reduction cause.

Closing Newbury Street would also attract more people (think consumers) to the shopping district, which would help ease the financial stress that area businesses are experiencing. Boston was recently ranked the third most walkable city in the United States and the fact is that people like to walk our city’s streets. This is true particularly of the Back Bay-Beacon Hill area, which was ranked as the most walkable neighborhood in the city. Despite this, as I wrote about here, the Boston Common (located directly between Back Bay and Beacon Hill) is poorly attended by visitors. The Boston Common is the oldest park in the United States and is located directly between our most walkable neighborhoods, but is only the 37th most visited park in the United States. This does not bode well for any surrounding local businesses and is an obvious indication of the need for change.

Going Green is in Good Taste at Toro

South End Restaurant Reduces Carbon Footprint Without Sacrificing Taste or Money

by David Pierotti, Boston-Based Freelance Writer

 Alyssa Shepherd didn’t set out to be a trendsetter, but all of us should hope she becomes one. Sheperd is the general manager of highly regarded restaurant Toro in Boston’s South End. Toro is one of Chef Ken Oringer’s four area restaurants, the others being Clio (including its attached sushi bar, Uni), KO Prime, and La Verdad. 

You may have seen Oringer’s victorious turn on Iron Chef America, but recently it has been Shepherd's turn to do battle - against waste, pollution, and CO2. She, along with the rest of the management team, has set about greening the restaurant as much as possible. “With the growing awareness of climate change, we just felt that, as a restaurant, we should do our part.”

Anyone who has ever worked at a restaurant (and really, who hasn’t?) knows restaurants consume a lot of just about everything: bottles, boxes, water, energy, and more. From all this consumption comes a tremendous amount of waste. But a growing awareness of climate change and the environmental costs of food production and consumption provoked Shepherd to implement some simple, sensible measures to green Toro.

A Desire Named Streetcar

by Daniel E. Walsh  Author of Our Sunday "History & Reflections" Series

A favorite memory from my distant youth was the rides on the streetcars that ran near my home. When I stared up at the passing trees and lampposts, I thought the trees were moving—not the streetcar.

My family did not have an automobile. We were dependent on those rickety conveyances for all our transportation. They were just there. The whole neighborhood was built around them. We saw our neighbors at street level and we spoke to them. We didn’t know that this had been the plan of city designers. And we sure didn’t know that in the future this life would be the great desire of forward or progressive thinking urban architects.
.
A chorus of disparate voices has sung the refrain that the removal of the streetcar from the urban landscape was a giant mistake. I feel this way from a visceral level.

The early planners of the late 19th century factored in many aspects of urban life when they built around the lines. Houses were tight up to the curb. Automobiles weren’t invented yet; so conveniences for them were not an issue. Stores and shops clustered near the stops. Houses were concentrated and were on small lots. We carted things home for just a couple of blocks. Pedestrian life fostered sociability.

Federal Cap and Trade? Yes, but RGGI Was Here (First)

by Sue Kim

In the national media there is quite a lot of buzz on a Federal Cap and Trade Program,  that is – a plan to put a price on carbon emissions on a national scale. A variety of opinions have been expounded on this issue in the last few weeks since the President has included the $646 billion projected to be raised through his Cap and Trade plan in the future federal budget. The opinions circulating throughout the media range from our own Senator Kerry pressing the necessity of such a regime to Warren Buffet stating that Cap and Trade is essentially a regressive tax.

Regardless of the different positions that are taken on the issue of Cap and Trade, it is logical to assume that putting a price on carbon (so long as it has been set at a persuasive price on carbon emission permits where it is costly for utilities to emit) will encourage more clean energy and energy efficiency technology development.

A question that should come to mind is how a national Cape and Trade will ultimately go beyond the current regional efforts like RGGI – The Regional Green House Gas Initiative, a primarily Northeastern state based Cap and Trade regime (which the Commonwealth has been an early stage participant in!) The RGGI goals are modest at a reduction target of 10% carbon emissions from the power sector by 2018.