Tag Archives: #es399

Making Energy Connections

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Governor Baker signs Massachusetts energy bill, August 2016

“This is a win for the environment, the economy and the people of the Commonwealth,” said Massachusetts house representative Thomas Golden, Jr. He was celebrating Massachusetts’s historic energy bill which committed the state to 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind energy generation by 2027. At that scale, wind energy could power 240,000 homes statewide.

Despite Golden’s excitement, the bill was also met with a storm of criticism. “More can and should be done to lower carbon dioxide emissions. This plan, may be the most expensive way to get there I’ve seen,” the New England Power Generators Association’s president Dan Dolan wrote in response. There are many concerns surrounding this energy bill, specifically about utility rate increases and more generally about the reliability of wind power.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has answers for both Representative Golden and Mr. Dolan. The NREL is a national laboratory funded by the United States Department of Energy that researches renewable energy and energy efficiency. In a new study they modeled a full year of eastern electric grid operations with increasing amounts of renewable energy generation, up to 30% of wind and solar. NREL published their results this summer in the Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study (ERGIS). Their research shows that the eastern grid can accommodate far more renewable energy than expected, however to comprehend their findings it is important to first understand the basics of the electric grid.

Massachusetts is part of a regional electric grid that connects all states east of the Rockies. The electric grid is made up of electricity generators, transmission lines, and control centers. Like train tracks linking major hubs, transmission lines connect generators to the homes needing electricity while the control centers coordinate the electric grid, like the operators of railroad switches. The NREL studied this system with a model that includes more than 5,600 electricity generators and 60,000 transmission lines.

The ERGIS study revealed three key lessons that suggest the goals of Massachusetts’s energy bill are more achievable than critics claim and give suggestions for best implementation.

First, more multi-regional coordination through transmission lines and enhanced communication of control centers will best allow for the utilization of renewable energy generation. A scenario with added transmission lines had more than 50% more exchange of electricity between regions of the grid. The study also found that daily flows of power were more frequent with increased wind and solar generation. By applying this lesson to the energy bill, offshore wind won’t just benefit Massachusetts. Homes in New Hampshire could benefit from Massachusetts wind if excess clean energy is diverted instead of wasted. But this endeavor would require new transmission lines and increased coordination of the grid, potentially through innovative smart grid technology.

Second, the existing electric grid can effectively balance renewable and non-renewable sources of energy surprisingly well, even under the most challenging conditions. For example, spring poses unique challenges for integrating renewables. Wind is especially variable during these months. In the summertime, the challenge is different. The high demand for electricity, especially for air conditioning, requires a constant base load which wind cannot always meet. Despite these concerns, the ERGIS study revealed the grid was successful in balancing production with demand through coordination and regional interchange. So when wind generation was over-predicted, the real time management of the grid allowed for supplementing with conventional sources. More renewable energy sources required more system coordination, but did not result in a deficient energy generation.

Third, increasing renewable energy generation has economic benefits and reduces pollution. Production costs were lower by a third in the 30% renewable energy generation scenario compared to the benchmark scenario. Additionally, CO2 emissions decreased by 33% as the renewable energy sources primarily displaced fossil fuels. Pocketbooks and polar bears agree, renewable energy is ready for wide-scale implementation.

The ERGIS study counters Dolan’s concerns about price and reinforces Golden’s excitement surrounding Massachusetts’s energy bill. The electric grid is ready to integrate renewable energy. The wind has always been blowing, but finally Massachusetts is going to harness it.

The Road to a Sustainable Future: Urban Transportation Policy Reform

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Atlanta, Georgia, known as the “poster child of sprawl,” may not be the first place you think of when imagining a forward-thinking city, however, an innovative project aims to combat the issue of congestion as Atlanta’s population doubles in the next fifteen years and turn Atlanta into a walkable and bikeable city. Like New York City’s High Line or Chicago’s 606, 22 miles of disused railroad tracks are to be transformed into a greenway loop by 2030, open to pedestrians and cyclists. This so-called “BeltLine,” proposed in 2001, is a breakthrough in the way that urban planners approach cities — in terms of sustainability, livability, and coherency.

According to the United Nations, more than half of the world’s population resides in urban areas, and this number is predicted to rise to two-thirds by 2050. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for 21st-century metropolises to lessen the Western world’s dependence on fossil fuels and provide citizens with alternatives such as bicycling, public transit and walking, following Atlanta’s example. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one-seventh of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by transportation and that number is also rising. By pursuing options that use less energy and cleaner forms of it, we will be able to not only prevent further global warming but also to improve the quality of life in cities by reducing traffic and smog.

In this beat I will explore the complex challenge of implementing innovative transportation policy reforms as well as sparking a cultural paradigm shift towards the goal of sustainable city-living. How do the obstacles facing the global South in this regard differ from those in the global North? What approaches are working well and in which areas could improvements be made? What roles will technology and lifestyle play in the future to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions? In order to answer these questions, I will examine individual cities as case studies to formulate a hopeful yet critical view of the current state as well as the future of urban transportation.

Opportunity Blows in the Wind

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Offshore wind turbines offer clean energy and jobs to MA

Swirling autumn leaves, winter blizzards, sweet summer breezes. What if our classic New England weather could be our source of energy too? A largely untapped renewable energy source, offshore wind offers clean energy and a boost to the local economy that Massachusetts can capitalize on.

With recent international agreements and Obama’s proposed plan on climate change, the United States energy sector is at a precipice of change and opportunity. In the midst of retiring power plants, energy sources are in flux. Natural gas and renewable energy compete to takeover as major energy sources. Infrastructure commitments made today will last for 60 years, with far reaching consequences for the climate. The choices we make today are critical.

As a global issue, climate change requires global collaboration. But this starts with a local commitment to clean energy. Here in Massachusetts, we have an opportunity to demonstrate that this commitment is both feasible and beneficial. Massachusetts is already a leader for energy efficiency. And with our coastal location and classic New England weather, Massachusetts is poised to become a leader in offshore wind production as well. In August, Governor Baker of Massachusetts signed a historic energy bill with a major commitment to offshore wind. The bill commits to 1,600 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind, the largest pledge to this renewable energy source in the United States. Once implemented, this could power 240,000 homes in the state. This was a bold move considering that the infamous Cape Wind Project off Cape Cod failed after 15 years of public opposition and controversy.

The Massachusetts government is willing to gamble on offshore wind, due in large part to economic considerations. Massachusetts is 45th in total energy production and almost three-quarters of the state’s electricity generation is fueled by imported natural gas. Without local ties to the energy production, Massachusetts has the freedom to try energy alternatives. And investment in offshore wind will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions and particulate pollution, it will also create local short-term and long-term jobs. Offshore wind can bring energy production for Massachusetts to Massachusetts.

If Massachusetts’s new commitment to wind energy is going to avoid the same fate as Cape Wind, there are some big questions that need to be answered. What lessons can be learned from the failed implementation of Cape Wind? How can a repeat be avoided in future offshore wind projects? And in contrast, what lessons can be taken from the successful European large-scale offshore wind projects and applied to Massachusetts? Are local utility companies willing to cooperate with offshore wind production companies? Achieving the offshore wind commitment outlined in the energy bill will not be simple. As the failed Cape Wind Project demonstrated, economics, politics, and public opinion complicate the process and require careful, deliberate approaches. By investigating current offshore wind technology, lessons from previous energy projects, and the political tensions of state energy, I will examine the possibilities and challenges of implementing this energy source in Massachusetts.

A Toolkit for Transition: A Review of Take Back the Economy

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In one of the cities most impacted by the decline of the United States’ economy, change is happening. Cleveland, Ohio used to be one of the epicenters of America’s industrial heartland– now it is serving as a model for how a city can recover from economic decline and urban decay. This model for change, known as “The Cleveland Model“, is centered within the Evergreen Cooperatives– a group of worker-owned cooperatives that are commited to building sustainable and democratic workplaces that benefit their communities.

Specifically, the Evergreen Cooperatives target the needs of Cleveland’s most dependable institutions, such as hospitals and universities, to ensure that jobs will stay in the city. Currently, Evergreen Cooperatives consists of a solar installation and weatherization program, an industrial-scale laundry service commited to a low environmental impact, and the largest urban food-producing greenhouse in the United States. Not only are these cooperatives owned by the workers themselves, but each is committed to employing those who live in some of the poorest neighborhoods of the city, where poverty rates can reach 30 percent.

A diagram depicted the exchange of resources in the Cleveland Model.

A visualization of the Cleveland Model via community-wealth.org

The Cleveland Model demonstrates how a community can ethically and sustainably redevelop, but how do other communities follow suit? In their book, Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide to Transforming our Communities, a team of geographers shows how people around the world are building such resilient community economies. Although the authors J.K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Stephen Healy are all geographers with specialties ranging from feminism to the environment, the book is not a scholarly review. Rather, Take Back the Economy tells the stories of successful and inspiring projects while also providing tools and resources to help guide readers to make change themselves. In that way, Take Back the Economy is more than a book– it is a toolkit that can be used by activists, leaders, students, and academics alike.

The book explores how communities can make change happen in five different sectors of our community economies: work, business, markets, property, and finance. Each of these sectors is reframed to take into account our ethical responsibility to one another and our natural world. This approach helps us to see that places like Cleveland can serve as a compelling model for rethinking both work and business. Far beyond Cleveland, the book provides countless examples of groups of people who are making change happen in each of the five sectors of our community economies.

For instance, Take Back the Economy reframes work as a means to surviving well, which can benefit our material, social, community, and physical well-being. With the Cleveland Model, the cooperative-style of business gives marginalized workers a means to improve their material well-being, build stronger interpersonal relationships, and give back to their communities.”Evergreen has changed my life. It enabled me to be a contributer, not only to the community, but to society as well,” stated one worker. With the Cleveland Model, work is not just a means to make income, but it is also a way to increase personal well-being.

Take Back the Economy additionally provides tools that help us to rethink the different sectors of our community economies. In the case of business, the book provides an exercise called the “People’s Account” which breaks down business models to see how much revenue workers generate versus how much they actually get paid. In a typical corporation, minimum-wage earning workers only receive a small fraction of the profits they generate from working, leading to surplus profits that don’t always benefit the workers. While some surplus may be used to sustain the business, a lot is left to accumulate in the pockets of CEOs. Even so, CEOs can pack up and leave a community when a business model in another part of the world becomes more profitable, making these business models even less sustainable.

However, in cooperatives like those used in the Cleveland Model, workers collectively determine their wages so that they earn a reasonable income for the value of their work. At the same time, the cooperatives can generate collective wealth that can be invested back in their business and in their community. Especially important to Cleveland, the businesses are owned by members of the community, meaning the businesses are more likely to remain invested in the city, creating long-term and reliable jobs. As one worker in Cleveland noted, “I am an owner, not just a worker. I help to make decisions within the community.”

Take Back the Economy goes even further to explore redevelopment strategies ranging from alternative currencies to communal ownership of land. No matter the topic, the stories, tools, and frameworks provided by the book are both accessible and empowering to the reader. While considerable engagement, organizing, and work is needed to transform our communities, the ideas and examples in Take Back the Economy can serve as a starting place. With many communities already paving the way, more can work together to a build a more ethical and sustainable world.

The New Ground Zero of Climate Change

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Bridge over river with cars moving. Man on boat on river. Overcast skies over building.
Bridge over river with cars moving. Man on boat on river. Overcast skies over building.

Overcast skies over the Gulshan Banani Bridge in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo credit: Catherine Baltazar

Amidst the conversations regarding climate change, the usual questions that arises is: “who are the biggest contributors to climate change?” In most cases, the common responses are: the United States, India and China –countries with large populations. Other times, people connect the answer to this question with socioeconomic wealth and assume that countries with money can simply afford to shrug these problems away or place the burden on those with less. What if we were to take the question and reverse it: “who are the most impacted by the effects of climate change?” This questions will be at the heart of the beat I am proposing.

With four times as many people as California squeezed into an area the size of the state of Georgia, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated nations on our planet with 156.6 million inhabitants. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its Fifth Assessment Report, which revealed various long-term implications for Bangladesh of highly probable catastrophic events and other climate change impacts. These effects would be manifested in manny forms including sea level rise, lack of economic resources, agricultural destabilization and decreasing access to safe drinking water. For Bangladeshis, the negative effects of climate change are occurring today. Every time a natural disaster hits, the people of Bangladesh muster their strength to collect their belongings and rebuild their homes, continuing where they left off. They progress at the best of their abilities. They have become the definition of resiliency. Survival, however, becomes difficult when the effects of climate change magnify the issue at hand.

The geographical location of the country, with its many rivers and tributaries, has always made the country extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Climate change will intensify the frequency and strength of storms, which can have a rippling effect across the country. I would like to focus my beat on further understanding the implications of these effects on various communities.

People Power: The Fight for Environmental Justice Continues in Southeast Los Angeles

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Community members rally in front of a school near Exide in Maywood, CA.

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The unexpected closure of the Exide Technologies facility in Vernon, California in March 2015 left the communities of Southeast Los Angeles with more questions than answers: What is the full extent of the Exide’s contamination given their egregious record of environmental violations? Why are governmental agencies not responding more quickly to this public health emergency? And why is there a lack of resources and funding allocated to address this environmental justice issue? Although Exide’s contamination is a local problem, the answers to these questions provide ethical, political, economic, and social implications that are transferable to other communities negatively impacted by the activities of the lead-acid battery recycling industry.

Recent news reveals that over 10,000 homes in East and Southeast Los Angeles have been contaminated with lead, arsenic, and other hazardous chemicals that are characteristic of Exide’s activities. In the process of separating parts of lead-acid batteries and melting the lead that could be reused, Exide was responsible for emitting lead and other chemicals into nearby communities. The sheer number of homes and people affected should have prompted a quick response, but the failures at the Department of Toxic Substances Control prevented such action. Although the Department earmarked $9 million to remediate about 200 homes, the thousands more homes that require remediation could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. These revelations have created outrage and distrust among community members who believe the Department continues to perpetuate environmental injustice despite the fact that it was created to protect the public’s health.

Exide’s history in Vernon is not an anomaly, but it is representative of how a politically and socially disenfranchised community continues to be marginalized even after overcoming the hurdle of closing a polluting facility. Documenting the aftermath of Exide’s closure would increase visibility of this issue and also create a historical account for future reference.