To: Jaffrey Energy Committee members

From: Dick Ames

Re: Policy, Legislative, Regulatory, Funding and Other Developments of Interest

Date: January 29, 2009

- At 2nd RGGI auction on 12/17/08, NH sold 1.2M allowances (tons of CO2 emitted) at $3.38/allowance, for total receipts of about $4M. NH expects revenues for the year to total about $18M. The revenues should go to energy savings, energy efficiency and alternative energy programs. The funds are being managed by the PUC’s Energy Efficiency & Sustainable Energy Committee. An RFP for the use of about $2M of the RGGI funds is expected to come out in February. The NH Municipal Association (NHMA) has asked municipalities for a list of possible projects for RGGI funding. There is a growing concern that political efforts will be made to divert the funds to NH’s general fund to help cover the deficit.

- The pending federal economic recovery act will almost certainly include significant funds for conservation and alternative energy programs: e.g., the House bill has $6.2B for weatherization, $3.5B for energy efficiency and conservation block grants, and other funds for retrofitting public buildings. Weatherization funds for Cheshire County towns will probably go through Southwestern Community Services. Not clear how the block grant funds will be handled as this federal program, authorized in 2007, has not been funded until now. The NH Office of Energy & Planning appears to be the lead state agency for coordinating/managing use of these funds.

- The Governor’s NH Climate Change Policy Task Force is preparing its final action plan with an expected March release date. Significant initiatives are included (e.g., public utility revenue decoupling, energy efficiency procurement standards for utilities, reinforcement of the utility renewable portfolio standard and of RGGI, promotion of “low and non-CO2-emitting distributed generation,” identification and deployment of the next generation of electric grid technologies, provide for the establishment of local energy commissions) some to be funded with the RGGI funds. Information is posted at des.nh.gov.

- Carbon Coalition’s Local Energy Committee Working Committee and its Panel of Advisors met on 1/27/09 with excellent turnout & participation from a broad range of public & private agencies. Convened by the Carbon Coalition and Clean Air Cool Planet with purpose to support local energy committees. A statewide conference for energy committees is being planned, probably for a Saturday in June. The Carbon Coalition would like to see all LECs develop year 2005 baseline greenhouse gas emissions and energy use data and has developed a “small town carbon calculator” to help in doing that.