Summary of “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy”

On March 26, 2021, Massachusetts Governor Baker signed legislation, “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy” (“the Act”). The Act amends the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) and directs state agencies to set interim economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions limits, as well as sector-based emissions sublimits for certain sectors, every five years. It codifies the state’s long-term emissions limit of net-zero emissions by 2050 and directs the adoption of a 2030 emissions limit of “at least 50 percent below 1990 levels” and a 2040 emissions limit of “at least 75 percent below 1990 levels.” The Act also …

Resilience Roadmap: The Urgent Need for Climate Resilience Action

Building our nation’s resilience is an urgent priority. Our vulnerability to the stresses and shocks of climate change threatens US food, energy, water, transportation, and health security, imperiling our economy and our very well-being as a nation.

Our economy has never been more vulnerable to climate disasters such as droughts, flooding, storms, wildfires, and extreme weather like hurricanes and arctic storms. The consequences of this fragility disproportionally affect those already vulnerable or marginalized by structural economic, social, racial, and environmental inequities.

The Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious commitment to tackle the climate crisis offers a timely and unprecedented opportunity to address this …

Reuse and Economics Impacts: NIPSCO Power Generation Facility Michigan City, IN

The energy market in the United States is changing with growing community and economic pressures, and coal-fired power plants across the country are shutting down (Delta Institute 2018). Cleanup, demolition, and reclamation of coal-fired power plants will accelerate over the next decade as renewable energy development grows, and carbon dioxide emissions are reduced to counter the impacts of climate change. This supplemental report is part of the economic impact analysis of “Clean Closure” at the Michigan City NIPSCO facility described in KirK Engineering.

NIPSCO’s Michigan City Generating Station is located within the Michigan City municipal boundary and governed under local …

2035 2.0 Report: Accelerating Clean, Electrified Transportation by 2035: Policy Priorities

This report is a guide and reference for policymakers leading this transition and serves as a companion to the 2035 2.0 Report. The policy recommendations in this report are designed primarily to achieve the 100 percent EV sales by 2030/2035 targets from the 2035 2.0 Report DRIVE Clean Scenario, while also addressing social equity. We highlight the near-, mid-, and long-term actions that the federal government, states, local governments, and utilities should take to: 1) accelerate the transportation sector’s transition away from fossil fuels within the decade; and, 2) overcome the most common barriers to transportation electrification.

The policy and …

Fossil Fuel Racism: How Phasing Out Oil, Gas, and Coal Can Protect Communities

Fossil fuels — coal, oil, and gas — lie at the heart of the crises we face, including public health, racial injustice, and climate change. This report synthesizes existing research and provides new analysis that finds that the fossil fuel industry contributes to public health harms that kill hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. each year and disproportionately endanger Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor communities. President Joe Biden and the 117th Congress have a historic opportunity to improve public health, tackle the climate crisis, and confront systemic racism at the same time by phasing out fossil fuel production …

The U.S. Solar Workforce: Powering the American Economy

President Biden’s climate plan calls for ambitious carbon emissions reductions with an emphasis on environmental justice and well-paying jobs. The solar industry strongly and unequivocally supports all of these endeavors.

The U.S. solar industry offers well-compensated jobs with room for growth. Since 2010, the number of solar jobs has grown from 93,000 to 250,000 – spanning sales and distribution, construction and development, manufacturing, and operations/maintenance. Over the next several years, as solar deployment continues to ramp up in response to consumer demand and climate goals, the industry anticipates creating hundreds of thousands of new careers that reflect the diversity of …

2030 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act Plan

The 2030 GGRA Plan sets forth a comprehensive set of measures to reduce and sequester GHGs, including investments in energy efficiency and clean and renewable energy solutions, clean transportation projects and widespread adoption of electric vehicles, and improved management of forests and farms to sequester more carbon in trees and soils. In addition to reducing GHG emissions, these measures will make our economy stronger, create thousands of Maryland jobs, and improve the health of communities throughout the state. The plan advances each of these measures with an eye toward how they can best benefit overburdened and underserved communities and address …

Ceres 2021 Policy Outlook

President Biden’s executive actions on climate change in his first week in office show that he is hitting the ground running when it comes to climate policy. He has already taken steps to recommit the U.S. to the Paris Agreement, revoke the Keystone XL pipeline permit, elevate climate change to a national security priority, create several new positions within the government focused on environmental justice, explore a potential ban on new oil and gas leasing on federal land, and expand conservation of federal land and water.

In his inaugural address, President Biden said “A cry for survival comes from the …

2021 Policy Agenda

The U.S. faces unprecedented challenges in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic while building a secure and affordable energy future to overcome the climate crisis. Perhaps more than any other energy resource, energy efficiency holds tremendous potential to address these challenges by creating jobs and economic activity while sharply reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and slashing energy costs for households and businesses. This document outlines the Alliance to Save Energy’s immediate policy priorities for stimulating investment and activity in the efficiency sector that President-elect Joe Biden’s administration and the 117th Congress should address in the early months of 2021. In addition …

Pathways for Just Transitions: Gender-Responsive Policies and Place-Based Investment

Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to the planet, requiring rapid economic and social transformations that will affect workers and communities and have broader impacts on society. Governments, labor groups, investors, civil society, and environmental organizations are increasingly using the principles of just transitions to address the social implications of climate policy and ensure that workers and communities are supported and empowered through these changes. There is ample theoretical guidance on how to pursue just transitions at a societal level, but it is essential to make the tools and strategies for just transitions more accessible and relevant to policymakers. This …