Three environmental groups – the Conservation Law Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Environment Rhode Island – yesterday blasted “National Grid’s attempt to skirt global warming standards that would require the company to invest in renewable energy projects, like wind and solar.”
But a spokesman for the utility said it was a non-issue.
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The groups were responding to an energy procurement plan, filed with the R.I. Public Utilities Commission, in which National Grid argued that it was not currently required to include long-term contracts for renewable energy.
“Grid is legally obligated to enter into long-term contracts as a part of meeting the [state Renewable Energy Standard] requirement,” the groups said in a joint statement.
The General Assembly’s intent when it approved the RES in 2004 “was for National Grid to enter into long-term contracts,” said ERI’s Matt Auten, “and that decision was reaffirmed by the PUC in 2005. … It is very disappointing that two years later, advocates are digging in for another fight … instead of digging the foundations of new renewable energy projects.”
“With the expected sea-level rise and temperature increases from climate change, it is utterly ridiculous that National Grid would try and ignore its responsibility to help curb global warming,” said Jerry Elmer, a CLF staff lawyer.
Ronald Gerwatowski, vice president of distribution regulatory services for National Grid New England, portrayed the set-to as a matter of interpretation.
The state RES requires that 16 percent of Rhode Island’s electricity come from clean, renewable energy projects by 2020.
“The regulations say that at some point, we must have some long-term contracts,” Gerwatowski said. Separate rules cover the period until 2009 and the end of the utility’s most common rate, the Standard Offer, he said. Until then, “the regulations, as we understood them, [called for] short- and medium-term contracts.”
The CLF “blasted us with an extreme position … which took us by surprise,” he said.
“This is not an issue,” Gerwatowski said. “We’re going to do whatever the Public Utilities Commission tells us to do. And we’re going to be buying renewable power, whether it’s in the short-term or the long-term.”
