Global Warming Solutions Reports

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Executive Summary

As the new home of MASSPIRG's environmental work, Environment Massachusetts can be contacted regarding this report.

More than three years after the region’s governors adopted a landmark agreement to reduce New England’s contribution to global warming, emissions of the leading global warming gas—carbon dioxide—continue to increase in the region. While many of the New England states have taken positive steps to limit global warming emissions, the most recent trends in energy use and emissions suggest the region has much more to do.

New England’s emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading global warming gas, declined slightly between 2000 and 2001, but more recent trends in energy consumption suggest that carbon dioxide emissions have risen since then.

Carbon dioxide emissions in New England in 2001 (the last year for which full data are available) were 0.6 percent below 2000 emission levels. However, the
decline was likely due to that year’s economic recession and not to any permanent shift in energy use patterns in the region. In addition, the decline experienced
in New England was smaller than the rate of decline in the United States as a whole (1.1 percent).

New England is consuming more of the fossil fuels that represent the bulk of the region’s contribution to global warming. In the most recent 12 months for
which data were available, fossil fuel consumption in the region had increased from 2001 levels in six of seven categories studied. Because carbon
dioxide emissions are directly related to fuel consumption, this suggests that the region has increased its overall global warming emissions since 2001.

Among the seven categories of fossil fuel use addressed here, the most significant trends are the continued increase in emissions in the transportation sector (primarily
from cars, light trucks and SUVs) and the increase in fuel consumption for electric power generation.

Given the recent increases in emissions, the region will need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions significantly over the next five years to meet the regional goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2010.

Several New England states have adopted strong policies and approaches to reduce global warming emissions, but serious shortcomings remain.

- State global warming plans: Since 2001, four of the six New England states have developed or adopted plans to reduce global warming emissions (Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) and two states have formally adopted the regional goals through legislation (Maine and Connecticut). However, two states, New Hampshire and Vermont, have not yet developed comprehensive plans for reducing emissions.

- Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI): Representatives of New England and other Northeastern states have been meeting in an effort to developa cap-and-trade program to limit global warming emissions from the electric power sector. The RGGI effort holds the potential to help the region attain its goals—but only if it includes a strong carbon cap that drives significant reductions in emissions from power generators within the region.

- Transportation: In the last year, three more New England states have moved toward full adoption of California’s vehicle emission standards. As a result of the advanced technology requirement in the new standards, they will likely result in modest reductions in global warming emissions and will set the stage for adoption of California’s forthcoming standards for global warming emissions. However, no state has yet launched a coherent strategy to reduce the growth in vehicle travel, which is a primary cause of increasing emissions from cars and light trucks.

The New England states should prioritize the following steps in the year ahead:

1) Achieving a strong carbon cap within the RGGI process that will guarantee emission reductions of at least 10 percent below current levels by 2010 and 25 percent below current levels by 2020.

2) Adopting California’s standards for vehicle global warming emissions once they are finalized.

3) Developing a coherent strategy to reduce growth in vehicle travel.

4) Adopting other policies (such as stronger building energy codes and appliance efficiency standards) to improve the energy efficiency of the region’s economy.