The RGGI cap-and-trade program is touted as a precursor to a national program from the Obama administration. But the weak economy and decisions by power companies to switch to cheaper natural gas have dropped real carbon dioxide emissions in the region to a level about 19 percent below the RGGI caps. Some argue this has made the government-set caps meaningless and undercuts the value of the program; others disagree.
But there is little dispute the program is achieving one main goal, to finance an aggressive expansion of energy efficiency programs. The first auctions of carbon dioxide allowances held in September, December and March produced $262 million for the programs, just the beginning of a steady stream of funds being funneled to the 10 participating states.
The states, in turn, have started distributing grants to utilities and organizations that will run the programs, which have started hiring contractors like CSG to do the actual work.
That is nurturing efforts small and large. On Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, a contractor for the Cape Light Compact has hired four new energy auditors to inspect low-income homes. In Clinton, Maine, Weatherization Wizards, a start-up company, has added a third van and workers to meet insulating demands resulting from audits. On the Native American reservation of the Passamaquoddy tribe in eastern Maine, three homes are being inspected to provide a blueprint for weatherizing many of the tribal members' 412 homes.
On a larger scale, National Grid will be hiring 100 more people just to administer the energy efficiency programs in Massachusetts. "We are very pleased," said Tim Stout, vice president for energy efficiency at the utility, which already has seen a sharp increase in energy savings by customers. "The demand for the programs has gone up dramatically, even with the economic downturn."
Saving energy is seen as the easiest and cheapest method of reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Efficiency programs typically spend about 3 cents to save a kilowatt hour of electricity that would otherwise cost from 6 to 19 cents to produce by coal, natural gas or oil power plants. And improvements such as insulation, newer efficient boilers and tighter windows can repay the homeowners' investment by lowering utility bills.
The efficiency programs that were hatched for environmental goals have taken on greater importance as the recession has created a need for new jobs. The RGGI cap-and-trade money is arriving just ahead of an even bigger – but likely short-lived – flush of federal stimulus money also earmarked for energy efficiency programs.
"This is actually going to help revive the economy," said Frank Gorke, director of energy efficiency programs for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. The state has had such programs for about two decades, but with the RGGI and stimulus money, the state will probably "triple or quadruple" the $125 million now devoted to the programs, said Gorke.
"It becomes a question of how much you can spend, how quickly you can ramp up, how quickly you can have the people on the ground," he said.
The number of jobs created will depend greatly on how states shape the programs. It requires far more workers, for example, to inspect and upgrade scores of individual residences than if the program is aimed at commercial users. But improving efficiency at a few big industries could provide greater energy savings.
Kevin Doyle, who runs the Green Economy consulting firm in Watertown, Ma., cautions against hyping the jobs to be created by these programs. In a study he is preparing on Massachusetts for the New England Clean Energy Council, Doyle estimates the RGGI and stimulus programs will support the equivalent of about 1,100 direct, full-time jobs in the next two years in the state.
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Add CommentHey! We are on the way to recovery. 70 hires? Only a few more million hires and we'll be there.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOh, bye the way. Call me when the next round of hiring starts--I need the job!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismss712- you must report for retrainig at the soonest opp.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf cap on trade gets in it will cost every household $3760.00.
Energy will lead the way, however passed on energy cost will drive food, water, transport and many other things to many to list.
Jobs in chem steel and fabrication will be lost because other countries do not have this expensive energy TAX.
Calling CO2 a greenhouse gas is just not scientifically correct.
The people doing this are going to change your lives adversely.
The EPA will overstepp your rights job and later your freedoms, and if they do not congress will. Call your reps or you will pay many times over.
You're a republican, aren't you?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can't wait to pay 3x more every month for my energy! Does this "job creation" take into account the jobs that will be lost when heavy industry moves to China/Africa?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThose jobs left a long time ago and the era of cheap energy is over. Accept the fact that the planet is over populated and all the "wealth" that the U.S. and to a lesser extent Europe has accumulated over the last century has been nothing more than stolen from a carbon"bank" that took millions of years to produce. The mortgage/financial collapse is just one small example of the type of mindset that we are "entitled" to cheap energy, bigger houses, cheap food, SUV's, etc. without working or sacrificing for them. Instead we kept "refinancing" and spending our "equity" without replacing it. Cap and Trade or not one way or another we will pay. The party is over. It doesn't matter whether global warming gets us or another ice age or neither. The planet can no longer tolerate us. The planet will survive as it has done since long before Man showed up so don't worry about that.--It is our extinction that we should mourn.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow...I'd always imagined that this blog (and this kind of science news in general) was read and written by rational, level-headed people who are able to perceive the broader perspective, rather than the narrow, ill-informed, anthropocentric views elucidated here. I'd also imagined a more enlightened readership that could actually put two sentences together. Get a grip - quit being bitter , short-sighted and frightened that your world is going to change. True visionaries embrace this kind of challenge to forge a better society, no matter how long it takes or how ill-fated it might seem at first; those who rebel against this progress because they are too mired in superficiality to see beyond the discomfort such new measures will cause to their own lifestyles are antiquated and virtually useless. People like you are holding us back; we don't need you.What did you think? That it would be seamless and easy? The way we've been living in post-war America is aberrant and illusory and needs radical alteration. Visionless people see this way of life as not only the norm, but the way it should always be. For them, any attempt to curb it is a threat to their supposed rights and liberties, when too many of their "rights" evolved on the basis of decades-old legislation passed in a simpler world with little awareness of their broader impacts and ripple effects. Your diatribe reminds me of NYers who complain about congestion pricing as a violation of their rights, when their only justification is that previous legislation permitted them to drive wherever wanted. This is an illogical way of thinking. Just because the legislation didn't exist before doesn't mean that it is our God-given right to drive wherever we want, whenever we want. To be blunt, maybe some of what we believe to be our rights need to be reconsidered. Nor should your energy bills of the past be considered "normal" simply because they were lower than they would have been had we been managing our resources properly from the start.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are plenty examples of societies that have crumbled because of pride, myopia, and extravagant wastefulness; but no societies have crumbled because they adapted a longer view toward efficiency, sustainability or balance. One of the best gifts a scientific mindset grants us is the ability to see this larger perspective beyond ourselves. You, my friend, clearly haven't gotten that lesson. Time for you to start your freshman year core science and ethics courses over again, my friend. As it stands right now, I don't think you've yet to learn a thing.
Cap and trade creates jobs the same way Wal-Mart does. It creates them in China.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd what happens in 20 years when solar energy is more efficiently harvested and used at a cheaper rate than burning coal?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolar and Wind prices are decreasing while coal and petroleum will naturally go up, regardless of the legislation
So much is said about socialist legislation, loosing rights, changing our lives, but take for example the tranisition into renewable energy.
Some people are paying the price now for the transition, high costs of installing PV arrays and buying recycled products, all the time fueling the industry and improving the technology. While people complaining about losing their rights and fight the transition to better technology as hard as they can. Eventually the oil will run out, but before it does the price will skyrocket. The land used for coal will be more profitable if it is used for harvesting renewable energy (depending on the location) and those prices will go up. Then, all the people that fought the transition will throw in the towel and make the switch to the cheaper energy.
Like to talk about conspiracy and loosing your rights? Then voluntarily opt out of using the new technology once it becomes convenient to use. Why should it be shared to people that fought it! Look whos paying for the future.