Environment Northeast

ENE was founded in Rockport, Maine in 1999, and currently maintains offices in  Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts; and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, with additional staff located in Farmington, Maine; Tucson, Arizona; and Los Angeles, CA. ENE has a staff of 14, including six attorneys and seven policy analysts with advanced degrees in pertinent areas including resource economics, forestry, environmental management, environmental science, and environmental economics. ENE has three major program areas:  Climate and Energy; Forests and Land Use; and Transportation. Each of these incorporates work at the state, regional and federal levels. ENE’s Canada Program implements our organizational objectives in the Eastern Provinces and at the federal level in Ottawa.  ENE’s Climate and Energy Analysis Center houses the best regional energy data in the region and supports through comprehensive technical analysis all of ENE’s program work.

Awards & Recognition

• 2008 Champion of Energy Efficiency Award from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE)
• U.S. EPA Region 1 Environmental Merit Award in 2009.
• Listed on Charity Navigator’s top ten small “Charities Worth Watching” in the United States, and maintains Charity Navigator’s highest four-star ranking.

Climate and Energy

• Spearheaded nationally significant state and regional energy reforms that will triple efficiency investments in MA, RI, ME and CT and increase representation of consumers and environmental interests in energy planning – programs that will save consumers billions of dollars through lower energy costs. ENE helped establish and serves on innovative stakeholder boards that oversee the implementation of efficiency, and advocated efforts to ensure that new programs reach underserved sectors, such as low-income communities and small businesses.
• Worked with Congressional leaders in Washington to articulate the need for significant federal stimulus dollars to be earmarked for state efficiency programs.
• Played a leading role in launching the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the first mandatory cap and trade program in the country. RGGI is designed to reduce GHG emissions from regional power generators, and reinvests almost all allowance proceeds in state efficiency programs that bring energy cost savings back to customers.
• Published Climate Change Roadmap for New England and Eastern Canada (2006) detailing steps for reducing GHGs in all sectors at the state, provincial and regional levels. 
• Advanced state climate laws that set mandatory targets for reducing GHG emissions in all sectors.

Transportation

• Led New England Diesel Initiative and helped form coalitions of community and health advocates in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to advance funding solutions and state commitments to clean up diesel emissions. The project targeted priority fleets and communities, such as buses in urban neighborhoods.
• Advanced a process through which 11 Northeast and mid-Atlantic states committed to advance a regional low carbon fuel standard (LCFS). The LCFS is a market-based approach to reducing GHGs in the transportation sector by encouraging the development of cleaner, affordable alternatives to traditional fossil fuels.
• Helped launch Project Get Ready in Rhode Island, which is working with agencies, utilities, businesses and beyond to advance electrification of the transportation sector.

Forests and Land Use

• Presented a unique assessment of the greenhouse gas impacts of a major new proposed development in Maine, highlighting for the public and decision makers how development can create emissions and what steps can be taken to reduce this impact.
• Led an effort with the Maine Forest Service and colleagues to craft detailed, peer-reviewed forest offset protocol recommendations for RGGI that were submitted to RGGI, Inc. and are an important model for a federal offset program. 

Climate and Energy Data Analysis Center

• Produced numerous studies quantifying the economic, environmental and other benefits of the procurement approach, and used that compelling information to build strong and unique alliances with businesses, utilities, consumer groups and low-income organizations. 
• Published several groundbreaking reports, including:
  • New England Energy Trends and Policy Solutions delivered up-to-date information on emissions and energy trends in New England, and charted a clear course toward a more sustainable energy economy.
  • Energy Efficiency: Engine of Economic Growth is a comprehensive macroeconomic study that demonstrates how investments in efficiency can lead to increased productivity, savings and job growth for states. 
  • RGGI Auction Trackers and Emissions Trends Reports detail auction results RGGI auctions through its first year and key trends information such as how much of the allowance proceeds have been earmarked for efficiency investment and overall impacts on GHG emissions from the power sector.

Canada and Cross-border Initiatives

• Worked with allies in Prince Edward Island to promote adoption of a least cost procurement mandate for electric utilities to advance efficiency investments and to establish an energy efficiency stakeholder board. In Nova Scotia, ENE provided energy expertise to support local work to increase utility efficiency funding to 5% of total customer spending (a leading level by U.S. standards) and was one of four invited presenters before a government-initiated committee to explore new efficiency agency administrative models.
• Invited presentation before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development as an expert witness on U.S. climate and energy policy, informing the committee’s review of bill C-311 (November 2009).
• Invited presentations at various regional climate and energy-focused events including: a keynote address at the 2008 Renewable Energy Conference; a panel presentation at the 2009 annual conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG-ECP); and presentations at a New Brunswick System Operator Energy Conference and an NEG-ECP meeting on carbon regulatory frameworks. 
• Tracked key processes and decisions related to power generator siting, electric transmission grid expansion and creating access to low and no-carbon power sources.