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: Maine Governor’s Energy Office
Authors: Bryndis Woods, PhD and Liz Stanton, PhD
February 2021
In collaboration with Energy and Environment Economics (E3), Senior Researcher Bryndis Woods, PhD and Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD prepared a report on behalf of the Maine Governor’s Energy Office, where E3’s role was to evaluate the options for meeting Maine’s renewable targets over the next decade and AEC’s role was to assess the equity impacts of those options. By 2030, Maine aims to have 80 percent of the State’s electricity come from renewable sources.
The report analyzes six future scenarios to meet Maine’s renewable energy targets and finds that Maine will likely need to add 800 to 900 megawatts of new renewable sources between 2026 and 2030. E3 and AEC find that achieving Maine’s renewable energy goals may result in at least three benefits for its vulnerable communities: 1) reductions in emissions resulting in corresponding improvements in air quality and human health, 2) renewable resources increasing the energy supply’s safety and resiliency, and 3) clean energy development creating employment and community investment. Ensuring energy equity is prioritized during Maine’s clean energy transition will require careful attention to resource diversity, customer-sited resources, geographic resource distribution, and the cost impacts experienced by vulnerable communities.
Source: Greentech Media
Client: Sierra Club
Author: Tyler Comings
February 2021
AEC Senior Researcher Tyler Comings assisted in Sierra Club's comments on Xcel Energy’s 2020-2034 Upper Midwest Resource Plan--along with Synapse Energy Economics, Grid Strategies, and Telos Energy. Mr. Comings developed alternative modeling assumptions, including for wind, solar and battery storage costs. Mr. Comings also contributed to comments on Xcel's methodology and its plans to build a new natural gas combined cycle plant.
Authors: Sagal Alisalad, Eliandro Tavares, Tanya Stasio, and Myisha Majumder
February 2021
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had massive impacts on nearly all aspects of human life—from jobs to food security to healthcare. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are disproportionately impacted by this unprecedented health crisis as a result of preexisting socioeconomic and environmental disadvantages. Assistant Researchers Sagal Alisalad and Eliandro Tavares, and Research Assistants Tanya Stasio and Myisha Majumder prepared an AEC policy brief that focuses on the relationship between preexisting racial inequality and the economic and health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this brief, AEC finds a substantial overlap between vulnerability to COVID-19 and vulnerability to climate change. Much like the global climate crisis, some groups, especially Environmental Justice communities, are more likely to bear the brunt of the ongoing health crisis.
Client: HEET
Authors: Joshua R. Castigliego, Sagal Alisalad, Tanya Stasio, and Liz Stanton, PhD
January 2021 (Updated March 2021)
On behalf of the HEET, Researcher Joshua Castigliego, Assistant Researcher Sagal Alisalad, Research Assistant Tanya Stasio, and Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD compared the annual energy cost of heating the average-sized home in Massachusetts using either a gas furnace or electric heat pumps. This analysis focuses exclusively on a home’s annual heating bill as it is the most relevant measure for Massachusetts households. Home heating bills influence fuel choice and put a disproportionate burden on low- and moderate-income families that spend a larger share of their income on energy bills. In this white paper, AEC finds that while today’s gas heating bills are less expensive than the electricity needed to run an air-source heat pump (ASHP), this relationship will reverse. Heating with ASHPs will become less expensive than heating with gas, with an inflection point occurring at some point between 2026 and 2030.
Source: Charleston Gazette-Mail
Client: Earthjustice
Author: Tyler Comings
December 2020
AEC Senior Researcher Tyler Comings testified before the West Virginia Public Service Commission on the economics of the Fort Martin and Harrison coal units. Mr. Comings found that the costs of the units would likely exceed their market value, and therefore the units should be subjected to a forward-looking analysis prior to any further investments. He also recommended that the owner of the units be required to report on the impact of their coal contract obligations on the operating decisions.
Authors: Joshua R. Castigliego, Tanya Stasio, and Liz Stanton, PhD
December 2020
In response to a question posed by Gas Leak Allies, Researcher Joshua Castigliego, Research Assistant Tanya Stasio, and Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD prepared a policy brief that calculates the costs (including financial returns to investors) of repairing Massachusetts' leaky gas system. Our assessment finds that it would take over 90 years to fully pay off the $15.5-$16.6 billion required to replace Massachusetts' leak-prone gas infrastructure. However, new gas pipes installed today will become obsolete in 30 years as Massachusetts makes the changes needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. To stay on track to meet the Commonwealth's 2050 climate goals, the gas industry needs a managed transition geared towards the most efficient and equitable outcomes for customers.
Client: GreenRoots
Author: Bryndis Woods, PhD
December 2020
On behalf of GreenRoots, Senior Researcher Bryndis Woods provided written comments in response to a February 28, 2020 EFSB Tentative Decision that recommends approval of the proposed location of the substation in East Boston and the two underground transmission lines in Everett, Chelsea, and East Boston.
On Wednesday, December 16, 2020, EFSB held the first of two public online forums to listen to comments and vote on whether to approve, approve with conditions or amendments, or reject a Tentative Decision issued by the Siting Board. At a second forum on February 8, 2021, Dr. Woods presented her written comments on the matter, which recommend that EFSB vote to reject the Tentative Decision issued by the Siting Board given that Eversource has failed to provide sufficient information to allow third-party review of its needs and reliability assessment of the proposed East Eagle Street Substation.
Source: The Times and Democrat
Client: Sierra Club
Author: Liz Stanton, PhD
On behalf of Sierra Club, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD provided expert testimony to Dominion Energy South Carolina’s 2020 Rate Case (Docket No. 2020-125-E) before the Public Service Commission of South Carolina. In her testimony, Dr. Stanton evaluated the economics of the coal-fired units owned by Dominion and assessed the degree to which both recovery of capital costs incurred at the Wateree, Williams, and Cope plants during the period from 2012 through 2019 and continued investment in and operation of these units in the future are just and reasonable.
Her recommendations to the Public Service Commission of South Carolina for the Wateree, Williams, and Cope plants included a cap on future capital expenditures intended to prolong the lives of the coal units, as well as requiring DESC to seek approval of any expenditure that exceeds that cap before that expenditure can be recovered from ratepayers.
Source: The Durango Herald
Client: Sierra Club
Author: Tyler Comings
October 2020
(Updated: December 2020)
AEC Senior Researcher Tyler Comings filed testimony in Arizona on the economics of the Four Corners Units 4 and 5. Mr. Comings found that Arizona Public Service (APS) has repeatedly failed to justify continued investment in the units, and that the units should be retired sooner than currently planned. Mr. Comings analysis showed that there would be substantial savings to ratepayers if the units were to retire in 2023.
Link to Surrebuttal (December 2020)
Client: Energy Foundation
Authors: Bryndis Woods, PhD, Liz Stanton, PhD, Eliandro Tavares, Sagal Alisalad, Myisha Majumder; and Dennis Wamsted from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)
October 2020
On behalf of the Energy Foundation, the Applied Economics Clinic and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) prepared a report that assesses the substantial risks to financial entities investing in natural gas-fired power plant development in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) region—the largest independent power system operator (ISO) in the United States.
AEC and IEEFA identify six overarching threats that pose growing risks for investors in new PJM gas-fired power plants: increasing price competitiveness of clean solar, wind, demand response and battery storage alternatives; significant existing over-capacity, flat demand growth and market turmoil; high-impact, unpredictable global events such as COVID-19 that radically reshape markets and expectations of future demand; uncertainty over the future direction of gas prices, particularly given the substantial increase in U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports; actions by state governments within the PJM market to limit future fossil fuel generation and/or even withdraw from the market entirely; and public opposition that can delay project development and raise overall costs.
Client: GreenRoots
Authors: Bryndis Woods, PhD, and Sagal Alisalad
September 2020
This Applied Economics Clinic policy brief—prepared on behalf of GreenRoots, a Chelsea-based organization working to achieve environmental justice—presents ways in which Community Choice Energy (CCE) programs can provide important benefits for vulnerable communities, including better community control and participation in energy choices, protection from predatory suppliers, more renewable content, and lower costs than Eversource and National Grid’s basic electric service rates.
Client: Massachusetts Climate Action Network
Authors: Bryndis Woods, Sagal Alisalad, Myisha Majumder, Liz Stanton, PhD
September 2020
On behalf of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, the Applied Economics Clinic reviewed over 60 Municipal Light Plants (MLPs) and electric cooperatives across 27 states to identify leaders in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and beneficial electrification programs. This white paper includes case studies of effective programs implemented by electric providers in this assessment. Overall, AEC found that MLPs in Massachusetts can utilize energy efficiency, renewable energy, and beneficial electrification to improve their energy programs.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal
Client: Sierra Club
Author: Tyler Comings
August 2020
AEC Senior Researcher Tyler Comings testified on the prudence of fuel costs of the Evergy Missouri coal fleet. Mr. Comings found that Evergy should commit its units on a market basis and that some fuel costs should be disallowed because they could have been avoided.
Source: The Connection Newspapers
Client: Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia
Authors: Liz Stanton, PhD
August 2020
On behalf of the Office of the People’s Counsel for the District of Columbia, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD provided Applied Economics Clinic expert testimony to Formal Case No. 1162 before the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia. In her testimony, Dr. Stanton discussed Washington Gas Light Company's Application and rate proposals in the context of the CleanEnergy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018 and other relevant climate and clean energy goals. Dr. Stanton's analysis found that Washington Gas failed to meaningfully address or support the District's climate-related goals, including emission reductions, in an equitable and cost-effective manner.
Client: Renew New England
Authors: AEC Staff
August 2020
On behalf of the Renew New England coalition, AEC used publicly available data to produce visualizations of racial disparities.
There are three sets of data graphics:
1) The first set shows disparities in rates of incarceration, average income, COVID-19 cases, and unemployment across as many as five racial categories: Asian, Black, Indigenous, Latinx and white. This data is presented for each of the New England states and the U.S.
2) The second set shows Black/white disparities across as many as 23 measures (e.g. homelessness, infant mortality, educational attainment). This data is presented for Massachusetts and the total U.S.
3) Black/white unemployment for all U.S. states and the U.S. average.
The data demonstrate that racial inequalities are pervasive across common measures of well-being like employment, incarceration, poverty status and educational attainment. These inequalities are consistent across New England and the rest of the United States. For example, across the United States today, a Black individual is 6.4 times more likely than a white individual to be incarcerated, 2.4 times more likely to have a positive COVID-19 test, and 2.2 times more likely to be unemployed.
Authors: Liz Stanton, PhD
August 2020
On August 11, 2020, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD, presented at a meeting on Climate Impacts Considerations in Electricity Advocacy, held by the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates Electricity Committee. Dr. Stanton spoke on building electrification and the transition away from gas.
Windmill farm in Bradford County, PA. Photo Credit: Don Biresch
Client: MAREC Action
Author: Liz Stanton, PhD
July 2020
On behalf of the MAREC Action, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD provided Applied Economics Clinic expert testimony to Docket 20-3019522 before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. In her testimony, Dr. Stanton discussed the benefits of long-term contracts for renewables in the context of Duquesne Light’s Default Service Plan proposal. Dr. Stanton recommended that the Commission require Duquesne to issue a bundled renewables Request for Proposal, or require Duquesne to initiate a pilot program amounting to 10 percent or more of its total obligation. Lastly, Dr. Stanton recommended that, for optimal results for ratepayers, the Commission should direct Duquesne to collaborate with stakeholders to design a prudent mixture of resources to yield the benefits of long-term contracts for renewables. In response to several rebuttal testimonies, Dr. Stanton provided a surrebuttal testimony also on behalf of MAREC Action to provide additional information and updates relating to long-term renewable contracts.
Author: Bryndis Woods
July 2020
Researcher Bryndis Woods prepared a policy brief that investigates a hypothetical scenario: What could a 25-cent per month electrification surcharge on Massachusetts consumers’ electric bills buy? This policy brief presents different investment options for the Commonwealth, including installing high-speed electric vehicle chargers, installing electric air source heat pumps, providing used-electric vehicle rebates, and providing zero-interest loans on used electric vehicle purchases.
Client: DC Office of the People’s Counsel
Author: Liz Stanton, PhD
July 2020
On behalf of the DC Office of the People’s Counsel, Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD prepared an affidavit, which reviews the policy and economic aspects of AltaGas’ Climate Business Plan and the Renewable Natural Gas Study prepared by ICF Resources. Dr. Stanton concluded that while AltaGas’ analysis does not provide sufficient information regarding assumptions, data, and methods for a comprehensive review, certain AltaGas and ICF assumptions and conclusions are inconsistent with other recent analyses. Dr. Stanton recommended that the Commission continue to gather more information.
