Authors: Joshua Castigliego and Liz Stanton, PhD
February 2021
On February 25, 2021, Researcher Joshua Castigliego and Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD presented on the future of gas in Massachusetts for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Mr. Castigliego and Dr. Stanton spoke on today's planned gas investments, the transition towards cleaner energy sources to meet the Commonwealth's climate goals, and the declining cost of electric heating over the next decade.
Client: Earthjustice
Authors: Bryndis Woods, Sagal Alisalad and Liz Stanton, PhD
March 2020
On behalf of Earthjustice, Researcher Bryndis Woods, Assistant Researcher Sagal Alisalad and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD prepared a report that reviews New York State’s past progress on its new climate law as it applies to the electric sector. We find that the state has its work cut out for it in meeting its ambitious targets regarding: renewable energy development, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Given historical trends in these areas, New York will need to dramatically scale up its efforts, beginning immediately, to reach its goals. Importantly, we also find that solar, wind and solar plus storage technologies are feasible and immediately available, and that currently planned gas capacity is at odds with the state’s renewable energy and emission reduction goals and will, therefore, impose unnecessary costs on New York consumers.
Photo of Mankato Energy Center from POWER Engineering news article
Client: Sierra Club
Authors: Sierra Club with assistance from AEC (Tyler Comings, Liz Stanton, PhD, and Eliandro Tavares)
March 2019
On behalf of Sierra Club, Senior Researcher Tyler Comings, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD and Assistant Researcher Eliandro Tavares assisted with comments on Xcel Minnesota's proposal to acquire the Mankato natural gas plant. The Sierra Club concluded that the proposal should be denied because it was not economically justified and ran counter to the utility's greenhouse gas emission goals.
Source: Energy News Network
Clients: Citizens Action Coalition, Valley Watch, and Sierra Club
Tyler Comings
August 2018
On behalf of Citizens Action Coalition, Valley Watch, and Sierra Club, Senior Researcher Tyler Comings testified on Vectren's plan to install a new natural gas plant and retrofit an existing coal plant. Mr. Comings recommended that the plan be rejected. He found that the Vectren's plan was not least cost, nor least risk--even according to the company's own modeling. He concluded that the company was overbuilding capacity, exposing ratepayers to excessive market risk, and biased against alternative resources.
Client: Conservation Law Foundation
Liz Stanton, PhD
February 2018
On behalf of Conservation Law Foundation, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD, provided an Applied Economics Clinic testimony in Docket No. D.P.U-17-175 provides an expert opinion as to whether or not Eversource Energy's application for natural gas transportation agreements are consistent with the Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies. Dr. Stanton concludes that Eversource Energy does not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that their proposed natural gas transportation contracts align with their shared objective to provide the least-cost supply and demand resource mix.
This testimony is one of four on behalf of Conservation Law Foundation that examined the consistency of the applications with each Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered, and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies.
Client: Conservation Law Foundation
Liz Stanton, PhD
February 2018
On behalf of Conservation Law Foundation, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD, provided an Applied Economics Clinic testimony in Docket No. D.P.U-17-174. Dr Stanton provided an expert opinion as to whether or not National Grid's application for natural gas transportation agreements are consistent with the Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies. She concluded that National Grid does not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that their proposed natural gas transportation contracts align with their shared objective to provide the least-cost supply and demand resource mix.
This testimony is one of four on behalf of Conservation Law Foundation that examined the consistency of the applications with each Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered, and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies.
Client: Conservation Law Foundation
Liz Stanton, PhD
February 2018
On behalf of Conservation Law Foundation, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD, provided an Applied Economics Clinic testimony in Docket No. D.P.U-17-172. Dr Stanton provided an expert opinion as to whether or not Columbia Gas of Massachusetts' application for natural gas transportation agreements are consistent with the Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies. She concluded that Columbia Gas of Massachusetts does not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that their proposed natural gas transportation contracts align with their shared objective to provide the least-cost supply and demand resource mix.
This testimony is one of four on behalf of Conservation Law Foundation that examined the consistency of the applications with each Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered, and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies.
Photo Credit: GreenNewton
Client: Conservation Law Foundation
Liz Stanton, PhD
February 2018
On behalf of Conservation Law Foundation, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD, provided an Applied Economics Clinic testimony in Docket No. D.P.U-17-145. Dr. Stanton provided an expert opinion as to whether or not The Berkshire Gas Company's application for natural gas transportation agreements are consistent with the Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies. She concluded that The Berkshire Gas Company does not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that their proposed natural gas transportation contracts align with their shared objective to provide the least-cost supply and demand resource mix.
This testimony is one of four on behalf of Conservation Law Foundation that examined the consistency of the applications with each Company's energy portfolio objectives, the adequacy of alternatives considered, and the consistency with Massachusetts state environmental policies.
Client: Natural Resources Defense Council
Rachel Wilson, Sagal Alisalad, Emrat Nur Marzan, and Bryndis Woods
December 2017
On behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Senior Researcher Rachel Wilson, Researcher Bryndis Woods, and Research Assistants Sagal Alisalad and Emrat Nur Marzan, prepared an Applied Economics Clinic report regarding the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The Atlantic Coast Pipeline had been planned to travel through West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina and was intended to bring natural gas to markets in those states. Dominion Transmission, Inc., the leading percentage owner of the pipeline, made several arguments in favor of the project based on reports it commissioned from ICF International and Chmura Economics & Analytics. In this report, AEC staff examined the merit of each of these claims and found them to be unsupported based on available data.
Client: Environmental Defense Fund
Rachel Wilson, Tyler Comings, and Liz Stanton, PhD
September 2017
On behalf of Environmental Defense Fund, Senior Researchers Rachel Wilson and Tyler Comings, along with Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD prepared an Applied Economics Clinic report to determine whether a 20-year contract for firm natural gas transportation on the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), entered into by Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (ConEd), would result in unjust and unreasonable costs to the utility's ratepayers. Ms. Wilson, Mr. Comings, and Dr. Stanton found that recent new and expanded natural gas pipeline capacity has caused natural gas prices between regions to equilibrate, and that any expected benefit of the MVP contract was disappearing at the time that ConEd signed the transportation agreement. Narrowing basis differentials for natural gas across regions turned a net present value ratepayer benefit of more than $1 billion into an anticipated $630 million cost given current natural gas pricing. Costs of the transportation contract will be paid by New York ratepayers, and the New York Public Service Commission should consider ConEd's ownership interest in the pipeline when evaluating the cost of the agreement.
Client: Sierra Club
Author: Liz Stanton, PhD
August 2017
On behalf of Sierra Club, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD submitted testimony in Docket No. 20170057-EI. Dr. Stanton provided an expert opinion that the dramatic increase in natural gas investments have exposed Florida customers to price volatility and that greater investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency would have yielded extensive customer savings. She concluded that the exclusive use of financial hedges to control customer exposure to natural gas price volatility is not in the best interest of Florida consumers and that Florida utilities should instead evaluate and pursue generation diversity, especially through added solar and energy efficiency.
Link to Southeast Energy News Article Citing Stanton Testimony
Client: Alternatives for Community and Environment
Author: Liz Stanton, PhD
June 2017
On behalf of Alternatives for Community and Environment, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD submitted testimony to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution in the matter of Brockton Power's application to construct a new 350 megawatt natural gas power plant. Dr. Stanton's testimony demonstrated that the greenhouse gas emission limits set out in Brockton Power's revised application are not consistent with Massachusetts' compliance with its climate law, called the Global Warming Solutions Act.
Client: Clean Air Council
Author: Liz Stanton, PhD
April 2017
Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD provided Clean Air Council with analysis regarding the economic need for new supplies of gas liquids carried by the Mariner East 1 & 2 pipelines. Sunoco Pipeline claims that the Pennsylvania public will benefit from the pipelines. Dr. Stanton assisted Clean Air Council in reviewing this claim including present and expected future supply and demand of gas liquids in Pennsylvania and, given this information, the extent to which new supplies of gas liquids can reasonably be expected to benefit the Pennsylvania public.