From left to right: Marc Breslow, Mark Sylvia, Barbara Kates-Garnick, Tedd Saunders, Don Reed, Dianne Callan, Phil Griffith, Berl Hartman, Jay Baldwin, Rick Sullivan, Dan Goldman and Dave Miller.Click to enlarge image.

E2 New England has a strong history of partnering with state officials to work towards common objectives. To further that goal, the entire team of E2 New England Directors met on October 5th with Rick Sullivan, Massachusetts’ Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, and his entire team of energy and environmental officials.

Regional Issues: RGGI and CFS

The discussion included some regional issues, such as lowering the GHG emission limits in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and implementing the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Clean Fuels Standard (CFS). In both cases, Secretary Sullivan agreed that Massachusetts should take a leadership role. The Secretary pointed out that the plan to meet the requirements of the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act assumes that we have both of those policies in place.

Safer Alternatives for Toxic Chemicals
 
E2 Director Tedd Saunders discussed the Safer Alternatives for Toxic Chemicals bill, which has been under discussion for the last three sessions of the legislature. He mentioned his very personal reason for supporting the bill: his mother died of lung cancer at age 57, probably due to the chemicals she was exposed to as an interior designer. You can see a video of Tedd and others who testified at the hearing discussing the need for Safer Alternatives here. Tedd also said the bill would be good for business, based on his experience with his family’s Saunders Hotel Group, which reduced its use of toxic chemicals in a very cost effective manner. The Administration is very supportive of the bill and believes this may be the year that it finally passes. 

Oil Heat Efficiency Bill

E2 Director Jay Baldwin pointed out that Massachusetts’ households spend, on average, $2.5 billion on heating oil and $100 million on propane. While Massachusetts electric and gas utilities have energy efficiency programs in place to help with this problem, there are no formal programs available statewide for homeowners and small businesses using heating oil and propane.

The bill we are supporting would reduce the amount of money consumers needlessly spend to heat leaky homes and businesses. Those saved dollars, rather than leaving Massachusetts, would be put to work in our local economy, saving Massachusetts’ consumers money, creating local jobs and reducing climate and other pollution.

Secretary Sullivan agreed with the bill in concept, but expressed concerns about the implementation and design details. We are working closely with Environment Northeast and other organizations to resolve those issues.

Wind Siting Reform

Lengthy and unpredictable siting issues are a well-documented impediment to achieving Massachusetts’ aggressive renewable energy goals. A bill to streamline the process, while still maintaining local control and environmental review, nearly passed in the last session of the legislature.

Now, a new bill has been proposed, and a series of hearings on it are being held throughout the State. E2 Director Dianne Callan has been tracking this issue for the past two years and attended the day-long hearing before the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Energy and Utilities, held on Cape Cod on October 20th. Dianne testified on behalf of E2 in support of the bill, which will facilitate investment in wind energy, create green jobs, combat climate change, and stabilize energy prices. Secretary Sullivan suggested that we write a letter of support to Senate President Therese Murray and others who have concerns about the bill. 

Defense of the Green Communities Act

One of the State’s landmark achievements in 2008 was passing the Massachusetts’ Green Communities Act, which contained many innovative programs for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Among them was a provision that electric and gas distribution utilities increase investments in energy efficiency and demand resource programs by mandating investment in all demand side resources that are cost-effective or cheaper than supply.

This has been an unqualified success, as shown by the fact that the widely recognized authority on energy efficiency, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), recently declared Massachusetts the number one state in energy efficiency - surpassing California, the previous leader.

The bill had many other provisions, including increasing the State’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) target to 15% by 2020 and creating the Green Communities program, to provide funding to qualified municipalities for energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives. Thus far 74 Massachusetts towns and cities representing over 2.5 million citizens are participating. These communities are implementing new programs such as energy efficiency audits, tighter building codes, improved procurement for energy efficient products and services, and streamlined permitting for renewable energy projects.

Nevertheless, the bill has come under attack and the legislature will hold an oversight hearing on November 9th. E2 plans to submit written testimony in defense of the bill and to meet with the Chairs of the Massachusetts’ House and Senate Energy Committees.

E2 Directors Dan Goldman and Dave Miller defended the Act, pointing out that from their perspective as investors the state has done a good job of setting a policy framework that sends the right market signals for investment. Dave Miller, who has recently completed building a zero net energy home in Newton, MA talked about the programmatic help he received from various sources including several state programs.  

Gas Pipeline Safety

Currently, the Commonwealth's natural gas pipeline infrastructure has more than 20,000 known leaks contributing to more than 8 billion cubic feet of annual unaccounted for natural gas, also known as methane. The problem can create an extreme public safety hazard when fires occur or buildings explode. In addition, methane is a dangerous greenhouse gas that is at least 21 times more potent than CO2. 

State Representative Lori Ehrlich has introduced a suite of bills to address this problem. E2 Director Berl Hartman raised the issue at the meeting and showed a graphic mapping of gas leaks in and around Boston. The administration agreed it is a problem and is examining the bills to address it.

In addition to Secretary Sullivan, state officials at the meeting included: Phil Griffiths, Undersecretary for the Environment; Mark Sylvia, Commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources (DOER); Barbara Kates-Garnick, Undersecretary of Energy: and Marc Breslow, Director of Transportation & Buildings Policy. 

When he’s not spending his free time in Utah on the many mountain biking trails surrounding Moab, Sam Weaver is President and a co-founder of Cool Energy, Inc., a power conversion equipment company located in Boulder, CO. The main applications of Cool Energy's products are waste heat recovery, solar power, and biomass power, and the scale of the equipment is intended for on-site and remote power generation.

Sam first came to E2 in 2009 after hearing about E2 through a friend. “The hardest part of joining was the financial commitment. It’s a pretty big donation to join, but I’ve really seen how worthwhile that donation is." "It is more than just writing a check. E2 asks for a much more important thing than money. It takes a position on legislation and asks its members to do the same. It also provides a great place to talk with other members.”

Sam enjoys discussing federal clean energy policies, which serves him well in his roles as Secretary of the Board of Directors for the State of Colorado Clean Energy Development Authority (CEDA), and member of the Board of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association. “You have more impact on state policies, but you learn a lot at the federal level.” On the April 2011 Washington D.C. Advocacy trip, Sam had the opportunity to weigh-in on these federal policies. “I got to see what staffers respond to and what they don’t respond to. I got to see how business-like the military is and how committed they seem to cutting their carbon footprint and reducing our dependence on oil. I was especially impressed by how professional all of the executive folks were in their approach to solving problems and thinking about solutions to problems. Overall the trip was well-organized and we were busy all day from morning to night. It was effective from an advocacy perspective and it was eye-opening as a business person to see where opportunities exist.”

	From left to right: Berl Hartman, Jay Baldwin, Pat Cloney, Wayne Davis, Dianne Callan

We've all heard about the many obstacles facing renewable energy: unreliable government policies; lack of a level playing field with traditional fossil fuels; difficult financing - to name just a few. At the September 28th luncheon in Boston, E2 New England members and guests were encouraged by the presentations of three remarkable innovators who are blazing a trail and succeeding in renewable energy.

Pat Cloney, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, described the Wind Technology Center, a new facility located in nearby Charlestown, as the “most functional and most flexible blade testing center in North America - if not the world”. This facility was a recent recipient of start up funds from the MassCEC, created by the Green Jobs Act in 2008 to invest in clean technology, workforce development and support the development of a clean energy cluster. The WTC, opened in 2011, has an 18-month testing pipeline and created 300 construction and 10 permanent jobs. Another recipient of MassCEC funds, Next Step Living, provides energy efficiency services for homeowners, utilizing employees trained through MassCEC’s  “Pathways Out of Poverty” green jobs training program.

Harvest Power, is “empowering organics” - turning organic waste into renewable energy and soil enhancement products. Wayne Davis, VP of Incentives and Government Affairs, presented Harvest’s impressive business strategy to finance, design, build, own, and operate state-of-the-art organics recycling centers for North American communities and corporate partners. Founded in late 2008, Harvest employs nearly 400 employees, processing more than 1.8 million tons of waste material per year.

ACCIONA Energy North America, is the North American branch of one of the world’s largest renewable energy companies. Globally, ACCIONA has more than 9000MW of renewable energy, representing eight different technologies. Dan Foley, as CEO of ACCONIA, was well qualified to give the E2 audience a primer on the “New Wind Economics,” including recent performance increases, the favorable LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) compared to all new generation sources, and the job creation potential of wind energy.
 
E2 would like to thank our host, the law firm Mintz Levin LLP, for the use of its conference facilities and the luncheon fare.

On Oct 12, New York E2 members and guests attended an EcoSalon entitled, “Technology to Dollars: Converting Building Efficiency to Competitive Advantage.” The event, focused on efforts to accelerate the scale-up of energy efficient retrofits, featured remarks by Suki Paciorek, Vice President of Corporate Sustainability for Vornado Realty Trust; Peter Malik, Director of NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation (CMI); and Susan Leeds, CEO of the New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation (NYCEEC). Over fifty people attended the event, which was held at 330 Madison Avenue, a newly renovated building owned by Vornado and one of the participating properties of CMI’s demonstration project to showcase and measure the benefits of energy efficient build-outs.

Suki Paciorek outlined Vornado's major strategies for promoting energy efficiency and environmentally-friendly building practices across their portfolio. As in 330 Madison, Vornado largely focused on improving energy efficiency and energy management issues, and they have done so through benchmarking their whole portfolio and using LEED as a framework. Tenants have encouraged the firm's commitment to sustainability because they benefit from cost savings as a result of efficiency improvements. Shareholders and investors are also increasingly asking for sustainability, which they now see as one of the components that make for more efficient buildings and add to asset value. Vornado has already LEED-certified 10 million square feet of its existing property and has committed to ensuring that all new buildings going forward conform to LEED standards.

From left to right: Ron Gonen, Judy Albert, David Moyar, Susan Leeds, Suki Paciorek and Peter Malik. Click to enlarge image.

Peter Malik explained that scaling and financing the energy efficiency retrofit market is one of the main focuses of NRDC’s CMI. One of the barriers to developing this large scale market, especially in the commercial building sector, is the lack of clear data about the actual savings and return on investments from energy efficiency improvements. In order to change this, CMI has teamed up with Vornado and other industry leaders on a high performance demonstration project to measure and showcase the economic benefits of energy efficient build outs. The list of collaborators has grown in the past few months with the Clinton Global Initiative, Bloomberg and LinkedIn all coming on board. Please read Peter Malik’s blog here.

Susan Leeds explained that NYCEEC was created as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s Greener, Greater Building Plan intended to reduce the carbon footprint of the City’s built environment. NYCEEC seeks to leverage federal stimulus money, along with philanthropic contributions and private sector capital, to provide up-front capital in a variety of forms for energy retrofits in commercial buildings and low-income housing. The goal is to increase demand from building owners for retrofits to create a large-scale retrofit industry, and the jobs that come with it.

E2 would like to thank Vornado Realty Trust and 330 Madison for hosting this event.

From left to right: Carl Nettleton, Lee Stein, Elizabeth Dreicer McPhail, Bryce Rhodes

The E2 San Diego Chapter held an EcoSalon on Thursday, October 20, titled, “Energy Security and the Impact on the Economy.” The event was held at Chapter Co-Director Lee Stein’s home and featured three panelists: Leendert "Len" Hering Sr. RADM, USN (ret.); Stephen Mayfield, UC San Diego Professor of Biology and Director of San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology; and Marney Cox, Chief Economist for the San Diego Association of Governments. E2 San Diego Chapter Co-Director Carl Nettleton moderated the session. 

San Diego is a hub for both the military and alternative fuels development and the panelists discussed the national and local imperatives driving the military’s emphasis on reducing or eliminating fossil fuel use. According to Chapter Co-Director Elizabeth Dreicer McPhail, the event met the goal of bringing together a small but quality group of business and community leaders to provide visibility for E2 while researching locally important issues and appealing to potential new members.

E2 Pacific Northwest welcomed NRDC President Frances Beinecke to Sazerac at Seattle's Hotel Monaco for a breakfast on September 27.  E2 Pacific Northwest Chapter Directors Mark Liffmann, Scott Elliot, Van Katzman, and Mike Orr were honored to have the opportunity to share Northwest's viewpoints and listen and learn from one of the most effective environmental leaders on the planet.

On Monday, October 17, a half dozen Pacific Northwest E2 members joined NRDC Energy Program Attorney, Noah Long, for an intimate lunch in Seattle. The event was hosted by Beacon Law Advisors, a boutique corporate, securities and technology firm, where Chapter Director Van Katzman is a Principal. In addition to enjoying beautiful views of Elliot Bay on Puget Sound on one of Seattle's rare clear fall days, E2 members were briefed on a number of energy policy issues that NRDC is currently working on, including renewable siting in the west, the status of electric rate decoupling and California Governor Brown's distributed generation plan.

The discussion also touched on a local opportunity regarding electric car integration: the Seattle metropolitan area is one of five cities getting 2,500 charging stations under a recent federal program. "This is the type of event, with deep and relevant policy content directly applicable to our businesses, that only E2 can produce. We are very lucky to have the great team at NRDC to draw upon for regular policy briefings for our members," said Mark Liffmann, E2 Pacific Northwest Chapter Director.

Coming November 15th:  E2 joins the Oregon Environmental Council in sponsoring a focus meeting on "Clean and Local Fuels for a Strong Northwest Economy." Prompted by the observation that the importing of foreign oil accounts for more than half the total US trade deficit, with more than five billion dollars annually flowing out to purchase dirty fuels in Oregon alone, this event will explore the Northwest's leadership in responding with positive action: biofuels, natural gas, electric vehicles, and policy. Presenters will include representatives of Oregon's state government and the clean tech industry. The event will be kicked off with a facility tour led by Tyson Keever of SeQuential Biodiesel.

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