For climate action and energy policy in the Northeast, 2021 was a big year. Massachusetts and Rhode Island passed landmark climate bills, and climate councils in New York and Vermont adopted initial plans for decarbonizing their states. Those legislative and strategic imperatives, along with other efforts across the region, set up much more work for 2022, but one challenge stands out for Northeast states: They need a comprehensive, long-term way to pay for their plans to reduce emissions in the transportation sector.

No Plan B for TCI-P

The governors of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts pulled their support for the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P) in the fall. And other states that were eyeing TCI-P participation are now backpedaling on the idea.

TCI-P’s vision is to allow participating states to decarbonize transportation, which is the biggest emitting sector across the Northeast, and raise money for decarbonization strategies through a cap-and-invest system. While the region’s states have ambitious plans for electric vehicle adoption, charging infrastructure and alternative transport solutions, they have no long-term alternative plans for raising the funds expected from TCI-P.

That funding gap is a real problem, but for now, states are looking to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, along with utility investments, to make near-term funding progress. And in 2022, they will continue to consider longer-term strategies that will reduce sector emissions and produce funds for reinvestment in climate solutions.

In 2022, watch for these clean transportation funding efforts for the region:

• potential ARPA funding recommendation this month of $100 million to $150 million from the Vermont Climate Council for the state’s transportation sector;
• transportation sector funding mechanism recommendations for the Vermont Climate Action Plan update in the spring;
• transportation sector funding mechanism recommendations for the final New York Climate Action Council Scoping Plan due at the end of 2022;
• a directive to legislators from the new Rhode Island Electric Vehicle Charging Station Plan — due for release this week — to identify funding support for EV incentives; and
• a recommendation in Maine’s new Transportation Roadmap to develop EV infrastructure funding through new sources, such as a clean fuel standard, road user charge, gas tax or carbon mechanism.

Policy

In March, Gov. Charlie Baker signed the Next Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy, which set a mandate for the state to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Central to the state’s climate goals are two emission-reduction pathways that are now in jeopardy. In addition to losing the long-term emission reductions of the TCI-P, the state’s plan to supply 20% of its electricity from Canadian hydro resources via the New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line could fall apart.

Accessing Canada’s hydropower required siting part of the NECEC project in Maine, but residents there voted in November to halt the line’s construction activities. And Maine regulators have suspended an environmental permit for the project.

Climate advocates are hoping to see Massachusetts make up for the potential loss of hydropower with more offshore wind procurements. OSW supporters in the legislature want to pass new legislation “as soon as possible” to boost the state’s target for the resource, according to Kai Salem, policy coordinator at the Green Energy Consumers Alliance.

Before Massachusetts climate advocates hone their legislative priorities for 2022, they are waiting for the Baker administration to release the state’s Clean Energy and Climate Plan in July. They are also anxious to see the overdue Commission on Clean Heat kick into action. Stakeholders expect the commission to begin its work this month to meet a deadline for policy recommendations in November.

Rhode Island joined Massachusetts last year in the drive for net-zero emissions by 2050. Gov. Dan McKee signed the Act on Climate in April, making the target legally binding. By the end of the summer, climate advocates started criticizing the administration for being slow to address the act. McKee, however, directed the state’s Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council (EC4) at the end of September to step up the pace of its work to meet the act’s objectives.

With the upcoming release of the state’s EV charging station plan this month, the legislature will begin to consider follow-on policies in support of the plan. Up for immediate consideration will be a 100% Renewable Energy Standard; a mandatory public charging station minimum for the state; and code changes to make buildings ready for EV adoption.

Planning

Planning activities to address climate-related solutions have a wide footprint across the Northeast, and the work will have many deliverables in the New Year.

New York’s Climate Action Council spent last year developing its draft scoping plan, which it adopted right before Christmas. A key priority for the council this year will be to solidify its recommendation on how to value greenhouse gas emissions, which it refrained from doing in the draft plan. The council will now take public comments on the plan and release a final version in January 2023.

In addition, New York is gearing up to release its Great Lakes Wind Feasibility study this month. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will submit the study to the Public Service Commission. NYSERDA officials say the PSC likely will decide this year whether the state should develop OSW on the New York side of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Vermont’s Climate Council also released a climate action plan in December after a year of work. While the council works to fill certain gaps in the initial plan, including how to pay for decarbonizing the transportation sector, advocates will begin to push legislation for some of the plan’s major initiatives.

Those initiatives include:

• a Clean Heat Standard;
• a 100% Renewable Energy Standard;
• a scaled-up weatherization program;
• a formal environmental justice policy for the state; and
• a revamped transportation modernization bill.

In Rhode Island, the EC4 will spend most of this year updating the state’s 2016 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Plan, as required by the Act on Climate. The update will build a foundation for the EC4’s work to develop strategies by the end of 2025 for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. The council will start the year with a series of public sessions to help shape what net-zero emissions means for the state.

In 2021, Maine officials oversaw the development of a handful of reports that stem from the state climate council’s December 2020 action plan. Five new reports will help drive climate and energy policy efforts in the state in the New Year. They include the:

• Forest Carbon Taskforce report, which the group released in October with a recommendation to set an annual forest carbon sequestration target of 12 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent through 2045;
• Distributed Generation Stakeholder Group draft report, which is due this month and will inform a final report on potential programs and grid upgrades to expand DG in the state;
• Agricultural Solar Stakeholder Group report, which the group released in December and includes a recommendation to create a dual-use pilot program;
• Clean Transportation Roadmap, which lead state agencies released in late December and includes a recommendation to adopt California’s Advanced Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks programs; and
• Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap, for which working groups made initial recommendations in December that will inform early industry action, such as port development, and a finalized roadmap by November.