Acadia Center

Acadia Center We advance bold, effective clean energy solutions for a livable climate in the Northeast and beyond. State and community action is needed now more than ever.

Acadia Center was founded in 1998 with the belief that we cannot wait for federal climate policy, and that states can ignite national action. We are committed to helping meet and exceed the climate goals that will improve the lives of people and their communities.

06/11/2026

It’s not a question of IF but HOW New England will expand clean energy, grid infrastructure and other technologies to meet decarbonization goals in the coming years—especially with energy affordability now a top concern across the region.

Acadia Center and Clean Air Task Force have identified a huge opportunity to effectively meet both goals—decarbonization and affordability—through public financing of transmission optimization.

👉 Transmission investment can lower system costs because it allows cheaper, cleaner generation to interconnect more quickly, while reducing reliance on natural gas—the key driver of regional electricity supply prices.

👉 Public financing has the potential to deliver billion-dollar savings to New England ratepayers as the region invests in the build-out and modernization of its power grid.

Don’t miss our latest joint report: A Smarter Way to Pay: Public Financing for Affordable Transmission Development and catch the webinar replay.

🔗 Links to download and watch in bio.

“It was a privilege to have the opportunity to discuss with legislators how energy bills are lower today because of rene...
05/26/2026

“It was a privilege to have the opportunity to discuss with legislators how energy bills are lower today because of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and how cuts to those same programs will lead to increased household costs, pollution and undermine the state’s climate strategy.” - Will Taylor, Strategy Director of Infrastructure and Resilience

“Thank you to Rep. Carson and House leadership for the opportunity to present on energy costs and affordability last week. We’re grateful for the chamber’s continued leadership on clean energy solutions.” - Emily Koo, Senior Policy Advocate and Rhode Island Program Director

Last week, Will and Emily represented Acadia Center in front of the Rhode Island House to demonstrate how clean energy and energy efficiency make energy more affordable for Rhode Islanders, not less.

04/22/2026

In 2012, Acadia Center – then known as ENE, or Environment Northeast – filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The claim was deceptively simple: the rates these utilities were charging to transmit electricity across their lines were too high.

Unjustly, unreasonably high.

For more than a decade, the case, docket EL13-33, Environment Northeast (now Acadia Center) v. Bangor Hydro-Electric Company, dragged on. The case was consolidated with ones filed by the Massachusetts Attorney General and others. Years passed, administrations changed, and the case traveled circuitous routes through appeals and review.

Fourteen years later, FERC issued a decision, and Acadia Center won. The Commission’s ruling accepted the core argument that had been sitting in that 2012 filing: the transmission rates were not just and reasonable.

The decision will force a recalibration of how utilities recover costs and earn returns on equity in the Northeast. It will lower barriers for renewable energy to connect to the grid. It will save ratepayers money.
This ruling will rewrite the rules for millions of people and, by some estimates, more than $1 billion is expected to be returned to ratepayers from years of overpaying.

The lesson from Acadia Center’s fourteen-year campaign is not that justice is swift.
It’s that justice is stubborn. Progress doesn’t always arrive in a blaze of glory.

Sometimes it arrives in a decision dated years after you filed. Slow progress doesn’t mean no progress. In the end, the New England consumers didn’t win because Acadia Center was bigger, better funded, or more influential.

New Englanders won because Acadia Center was right, and because we refused to believe that a fourteen-year wait wasn’t still worth the fight.

Happy Earth Day to everyone in New England and beyond – from Acadia Center.

Oil and gas prices are raising our energy bills. We can’t afford to backtrack on clean energy. Support cleaner air and l...
04/09/2026

Oil and gas prices are raising our energy bills. We can’t afford to backtrack on clean energy. Support cleaner air and lower bills.

Send a letter to your legislator: www.nyforcleanair.com/take-action

🔗 in bio

04/08/2026

The cheapest megawatt is the megawatt you don’t use. Now is not the time to roll back energy efficiency — it only leaves RI more exposed to expensive, volatile fossil fuels. Acadia Center’s Emily Koo, testifying in opposition to an arbitrary cap on energy efficiency, proposed in Governor McKee’s budget, before House Finance Committee.

Climate action and energy affordability already go hand-in-hand. But so too must courage: courage to do what is right ba...
04/01/2026

Climate action and energy affordability already go hand-in-hand. But so too must courage: courage to do what is right based on the facts, even though and because it is hard, and even though failure is possible.

On March 20, 2026, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signaled her Administration’s proposal to roll back the state’s landmark Climate Act in critical ways, arguing that changing the landmark law would be necessary to “protect New Yorkers’ pocketbooks and economy.”

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Never before in human history have changes to the means of energy production, consumption, and storage been developing so rapidly.

The numbers supporting clean energy benefits to the economy and quality of life are staggeringly positive – so much so that policymakers must stop and ask what the cost of slowing or inaction is, more so than the cost of acting.

New York can’t afford to miss out on the immensely positive impact that the Climate Act promised, which will touch every corner of the State – via economic growth, technology adoption, improved air quality, public health savings, enhanced resilience, and beyond.

Governor Hochul has the chance to lead New York into the next round of this fight and leave her own positive mark on the pressing energy, climate, and affordability debates of the day. Acadia Center laid out the blueprint for how the Climate Act stays in place while insulating everyday families in New York from rising costs.

Visit acadiacenter.org to download the report, link in bio 🔗

03/20/2026

This week in DC, Acadia Center’s Anya Poplavska joined Senators Heinrich, Whitehouse, Blumenthal, Markey, Van Hollen as well as former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and other clean energy experts from Sierra Club and Grid Alternatives at a Senate roundtable on energy affordability, exposing how policies under the Trump Administration have driven energy costs to record highs.

Offshore wind isn’t just a climate solution, it’s a reliability and affordability solution. The data backs this up: Revolution Wind Project alone could have saved New England ratepayers $400 million last year and lowered energy prices by 11%.

Nationwide, blocking offshore wind could cost families $45 billion over the next decade.

Because it is reliable, local and cost-effective, offshore wind is one of many clean energy technologies that will keep America’s energy future on track. Visit acadiacenter.org for clean energy fact sheets and more.

Acadia Center applauds for doubling-down on a strategy that will actually deliver energy independence and affordability...
03/18/2026

Acadia Center applauds for doubling-down on a strategy that will actually deliver energy independence and affordability to the Commonwealth with Monday’s Executive Order to promote the cheapest, fastest-to-deploy clean energy resources.

➡️ Read the full press release at Acadia Center’s website - 🔗 in bio

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02/26/2026

“...the proposed $75 million cap on energy efficiency investment ‘leaves a lot of benefits on the table...’”

Acadia Center’s Director of Climate, Energy and Equity Analysis, Ben Butterworth, shared his analysis of both energy efficiency and solar programs that are currently under threat in Rhode Island with the Brown Daily Herald:

“If it is no longer financially feasible to produce solar energy in Rhode Island, the industry would ‘essentially just pull out of the state.’”

🔗 Visit the link in bio to find out what state-level changes are being proposed in the wake of federal reversals on climate policy.

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As MTA Chief, Policy and External Relations John J. McCarthy has said: “Traffic and pollution are DOWN, business is UP, ...
02/14/2026

As MTA Chief, Policy and External Relations John J. McCarthy has said: “Traffic and pollution are DOWN, business is UP, and every other metric shows congestion relief is WORKING!!”

According to the MTA data:

⬇️Traffic volumes are down: “11% fewer vehicle entries between January and October”

🚌 Buses are more reliable, “Bus speeds in the CRZ increased 2.3% YoY between January and September,” and “Bus ridership increased by 8%

💨 Emissions have eased, “Total GHG emissions in PM2.5, NO, NO2 levels decreased 6.1% YoY between January and September.”

💵 Transit funding has increased, “$468M in net revenue raised through October”

🚑 Less vehicle crashes “a 21% decrease” in crashes involving trucks in the CRZ amore storefront traffic

🚕 Taxis did not suffer “Taxi and FHV trips increased 1.4% within the CRZ January through September.”

These results matter and they are exactly what urban economics theory says should happen when implementing congestion pricing.

Stay tuned for our upcoming blog that dives deep into all th benefits we’re seeing from this great policy one year in.

Happy Valentines Day to our Congestion Pricing!

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