Guest MINDSETTER™ John G. Edwards: Electric Rate Hike Result of Limited Gas Pipeline Capacity

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

John G. Edwards, GoLocalProv Guest MINDSETTER™

 

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As was recently stated in a commentary piece circulated by Justin Katz of the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, the public and the media should demand a more coherent view of the real costs of our energy, and the issues behind the recent 23.6-percent rate hike requested by National Grid. But the public isn’t certainly going to get that from a right-wing think tank that bills itself as a proud part of the State Policy Network, a Koch-connected organization that uses dark money to push conservative, corporate-friendly policies in states across the country.

National Grid

National Grid has been very clear about the fact that its request is the result of high costs caused by limited gas pipeline capacity, not renewable energy requirements. Our conventional electric power plants run largely on natural gas, and their needs, combined with – and competing with – the demand for natural gas used in residential heating, means the limited capacity of the pipeline is in great demand. Even Katz, deep into his piece, admitted that “the latest rate increase comes mostly from the commodity price of the energy.” 

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This is a regional problem, not just a problem here in Rhode Island. In Massachusetts, National Grid’s rates are increasing this winter by a whopping 37 percent, because neighboring Massachusetts relies on the same overcrowded network of pipelines. 

Politics

Many political leaders, including myself, my colleague Rep. Dennis Canario (D-Dist. 71, Portsmouth, Tiverton, and Little Compton), and House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello have forcefully urged National Grid to find ways to reduce the hike to avoid its potentially devastating effect on our state’s economy, and the General Assembly has also taken steps to allow increased gas pipeline capacity.

But most importantly, we have been working diligently for years to address the source of the problem by increasing the diversity of our energy portfolio and encouraging the development of home-grown, increasingly affordable renewable energy. We have been successfully moving toward using more renewables, and less of the dirtiest fossil fuels, like the coal that is used at the Brayton Point power plant in Somerset, Mass., which is the biggest source of pollution in Rhode Island. That power plant is scheduled to close in 2017, and while that’s a blessing for our environment, it does mean we need to step up local production of renewable energy.

While the so-called Center for Freedom and Prosperity would like you to think that renewable energy is inherently more expensive than fossil fuels, if we were producing enough renewable energy right now, the rate hike in question wouldn’t even be on the table. We’d be using more clean energy produced right here in our own state by Rhode Islanders, creating jobs and supporting the local economy instead of importing gas from other regions or countries, thereby reducing the demand on the pipelines. 

Renewable Energy

The long-term renewable-energy contracts that the writer decries would be stable, as opposed to the volatile fossil fuel market influenced by worldwide political and climate events that are entirely out of the state’s or National Grid’s control. 

This year, the Assembly expanded the “distributed generation” program that encourages wind and solar installations. The new law benefits ratepayers by encouraging the continuing downward trend in renewable energy prices  It does this by using a competitive bidding process for large and commercial-scale projects and by reducing developers’ financing costs through a guaranteed long-term revenue stream. 

Under the 2011 pilot program, there was a steady and significant decline in the prices of renewable energy in the state, including a 50-percent drop in solar energy prices in the program’s first two years. The law also creates jobs by enabling the growth of the small-scale residential solar generation industry.

Under the pilot program, Rhode Island’s total solar generation capacity grew from 1.2 MW in 2011 to 21.65 MW, including all projects that were at least under contract by the end of 2012. And as more projects are built, jobs are added. The number of jobs in the state’s solar industry grew from 210 in 2012 to 360 in 2013. This bill was the rare bill that enjoyed support from the generally opposing forces of business community and labor, environmentalists and the utility company. 

Likewise, this year we also encouraged the creation of less-expensive renewable energy by passing legislation to encourage an industry that would turn food scraps into energy, among other things. While also saving landfill space and accomplishing other laudable goals like job creation, this bill would further reduce our reliance on the out-of-state fossil fuels behind this rate hike.

What needs to change

The status quo is not working, as is evidenced by National Grid’s request for higher rates. We don’t have an endless supply of fossil fuels, and getting them to this region is becoming less and less affordable.

Your General Assembly is working to change the sources of our power to include more of the cleaner, homegrown renewables that get more affordable as we produce more of them, and that keep Rhode Islanders’ energy spending in the local economy, supporting local jobs.  

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Rep. John G. Edwards, a Democrat, is the House Majority Whip and represents District 70 in Portsmouth and Tiverton.

 

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