Related : A cold January brings a warning for New England’s electric gridĪt an annual ISO-New England board meeting opened to the public for the first time last fall, activists and advocates harangued board members and accused the grid operator of failing on its climate obligations.īut little seemed to change. “The people’s interest in having climate goals met shouldn’t have to run at cross purposes to their interest in keeping the lights on. “ISO is putting its thumb on the scale to choose fossil fuel-fired resources in the name of reliability,” said Amy Boyd, vice president of climate and clean energy policy for Acadia Center, a clean-energy advocacy group. They say that without more aggressively pursuing clean energy policies, the grid operator could wind up holding back the ambitious emissions plans of Massachusetts and other New England states. But advocates, legislators, and activists say ISO-New England could be doing more to speed the transition. The grid operator is adamant that it is moving as quickly as it can to bring renewable energy online, but that it must do so in a way that doesn’t hurt the reliability of the grid or force fossil fuel plants to shut down before there are sufficient clean sources to replace them. ISO-New England is the federally authorized, not-for-profit entity that’s charged with three jobs: coordinating and directing the flow of electricity across the region designing and operating the electricity markets and planning to make sure the region’s energy needs are met. “Right now, our grid system is part of the problem.”
“As things stand right now, ISO-New England is not being a very good partner to the states in facilitating the meeting of their climate goals,” said Mireille Bejjani co-executive director of the activist group Slingshot who helped the group No Coal No Gas identify activists to get elected to the ISO-New England group. Related : A decision made behind closed doors may set clean energy back by two years The campaign is aimed at ousting ISO-New England’s leadership and requiring the grid operator to have representatives from each New England state on its board while increasing public participation in grid decisions. That was the motivation behind the 2019 launch of a “Fix the Grid” campaign by several activist groups demanding more and faster clean energy.
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They argue that many of the state’s efforts to dramatically cut emissions - like enticing large numbers of drivers to switch to electric vehicles and homeowners to convert to electric heat - won’t make much difference if the grid continues to be largely powered by fossil fuels. Increasingly, climate activists, clean energy advocates, and legislators across the region are taking aim at ISO-New England, claiming the grid operator is dragging its feet on clean energy. They’re not the only ones putting the grid operator in their sights. The long-term goal? To try and force the grid operator to act more ambitiously on climate - hewing more closely to the emissions goals of most New England states - while also becoming more transparent about its policy decisions.
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