New England’s Electric Grid Operator Stands in the Way of Clean Energy
New England won’t be able to meet its climate goals and enjoy the benefits of clean energy unless our grid operator undertakes serious reform.
![Community choice energy can help lower both electricity costs and polluting emissions.](https://www.clf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Detail-CommunityChoiceSolar-Shutterstock-600x375.jpg)
New England won’t be able to meet its climate goals and enjoy the benefits of clean energy unless our grid operator undertakes serious reform.
Ensuring a just economic recovery from the pandemic means not following a business-as-usual model. Instead, we must prioritize people’s health, provide direct relief to families and individuals, and invest in the future of our communities.
“President Biden’s ambitious goal promises the aggressive push we need to confront the existential threat that is the climate crisis,” said CLF President Bradley Campbell. “Several New England states have already committed to strong, science-based reductions in climate-damaging emissions, and it’s time the rest of the country catches up with our leadership.”
We find ourselves on the cusp of a sea change in how we transport people and goods as we urgently work to cut the climate-damaging emissions that spew from New Englanders’ tailpipes.
As a reporter for The Boston Globe and a documentary filmmaker, David Abel casts light on serious environmental issues by crafting compelling stories that inspire action.
Biden’s infrastructure package represents a critical investment in our future, infusing much-needed funding to ramp up New England’s transition to a carbon-free economy by 2050.
We’re tackling transportation from all sides.
“After four years of Trump obstructing clean energy and promoting dirty fuels at every turn, President Biden’s focus on offshore wind comes not a moment too soon,” said Bradley Campbell, President of CLF. “Wind has the potential to power our homes, our green economy, and our transition away from polluting fossil fuels for good. However, projects must be responsibly sited to protect ocean life as well. Today’s announcement should be a boon to New England’s nascent wind industry and a strong start to the administration’s pledge to have a zero-emission grid by 2035.”
“The Supreme Court correctly rejected this baseless challenge to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument,” said Peter Shelley, Senior Counsel at CLF. “The science supporting the need for this critical protected area—the only one along the Atlantic seaboard—has only gotten stronger and more compelling. The Biden Administration must now reinstate the ban on commercial fishing within the monument’s boundaries as soon as possible.”
“It’s concerning any time you get a statement like this from a justice, especially from the chief justice,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “The tea leaves of this statement are going to be read closely by people with very different perspectives.”