Clean up the New England Grid!

We have until May 5 to convince the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and New England electrical grid operator (ISO-NE) to clean up the New England grid, and stop investing millions of ratepayer dollars in dirty, inefficient fossil fuel power.

Here’s what’s going on. Last month we gave you the good news that, New England’s last coal-fired power plant without a shutdown date — the one in Bow, NH that we’ve told you about before — had failed to win funding at a “forward capacity auction” for 2026-27. But despite our sending them literally hundreds of faxes and comments (thanks to everyone who chipped and in and set comments!) the owners of the plant have declined to shut it down. And now ISO-NE is asking FERC for permission to spend hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars on the coal plant and other dirty, old, fossil fuel power plants until through May 2027.

Click here to send a quick comment to the FERC Office of Public Participation telling them to clean up the New England Grid! We’ll also connect you to additional tools and trainings with the No Coal No Gas coalition to help you submit your comment and follow up!

This whole saga stems from the New England Forward Capacity Market. It’s a technical and complicated system created to discourage dissent, and keep New England ratepayers hooked on fossil fuels — and paying for them.

But the truth is simple: electrical generation is one of the most profitable industries on the planet, and we’re being required to fund bonus payments to dirty power plants that are slowing down our transition to green energy

Thanks to our friends at No Coal No Gas, you don’t have to understand every intricacy of the Forward Capacity Market But you do have to act fast. We only have until May 5th to submit public comments opposing federal approval of the full auction results.

Submitting FERC comments is complicated, so here’s what we’re doing to keep it simple:

  1. Use our comment page to send a quick comment to the FERC Office of Public Participation.
  2. Before you submit your comment copy the text of your comment, and the docket number, and save it in a new document on your computer – like a word doc, a google doc, etc.
  3. After you hit submit on the comment, we’ll record a copy of it, and we’ll submit them all via fax and email, just like we did with the messages to the coal power plant’s owners last month.
  4. We’ll also redirect you to a toolkit from our friends at the No Coal No Gas coalition, which has detailed instructions on how to create your own FERC comment account, and submit the comment you saved in step two to FERC. Submitting a public comment is a simple and powerful way to join together in community, demand that our electric grid manager stop funding fossil fuels, and insist that our ratepayer dollars be put to better use. You can also join one of the comment-writing parties to get help, and meet your fellow commenters!:
    1. Thursday April 27 at 7pm – RSVP Here
    2. Sunday April 30th at 7pm – RSVP Here
    3. Thursday May 4 at 11am – RSVP Here

Take action today to tell FERC and ISO-NE to clean up the New England Grid!

2 Comments

  1. Katherine Landesman

    Stop investing our money in dirty fossil fuels!! Enough!!!!

  2. The results of the forward capacity auction make clear that the Bow power plant has run its course and is ready to be shut down. Given the Biden administration’s recent decision to move ahead with the Willow project, there is an especially strong imperative to act on climate in other ways. Please don’t let this plant stay open.