The Connecticut Project is an effort by Earth Markets to help residential electricity customers participate in environmental markets – like renewable portfolio standards (RPS), energy efficiency resource standards (EERS), and carbon offset projects. By allowing residential ratepayers an opportunity to participate in these markets through aggregation of verified energy savings, policymakers can turn a public policy cost into a public policy benefit.
In Connecticut, Earth Markets has been focused on establishing a national precedent for aggregating residential energy and demand savings through the Class III RPS – the state’s EERS – that will allow households an opportunity to participate and benefit from the emerging environmental markets for clean energy, energy efficiency, and climate change.
As the U.S. debates energy and climate change policy like Markey-Waxman’s “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009,” it should be acknowledged that residential customers should be able to participate in the environmental markets that these public policies propose to institute.
In Connecticut, a leading state in clean energy, energy efficiency and climate change, there is an engaged citizenry at the community level focused on taking action to help our state transition to a 21st century clean energy economy. In 2005, the Connecticut Clean Energy Communities program was launched by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. This program was created by Earth Markets Co-Founder and Chief Community Officer, Bryan Garcia, as a way to engage and reward local citizens to support clean energy through municipal resolutions and sign-ups to the CTCleanEnergyOptions program.
Through the Connecticut Community Energy Savings Project, Earth Markets proposes to work with local citizen leaders in Connecticut’s Clean Energy Communities to advance residential energy efficiency initially through the installation of energy star compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Earth Markets seeks to demonstrate through a pilot project that renewable energy credits can be created and sold into the market through the aggregation of residential energy savings from more efficient lighting.
Once it has successfully completed its pilot project, Earth Markets will then launch a statewide campaign with local leaders within Connecticut’s Clean Energy Communities to install up to 3 million CFLs that will reach over 150,000 households resulting in nearly $250 million in energy savings and the avoidance of over 800 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.
Next, once Earth Markets reduces electricity usage from lighting in Connecticut households, it will then pursue other measures including appliances, heating, air conditioning, water usage, and insulation that will require more complex financing strategies in addition to the Class III RPS including forward capacity markets, municipal tax district financing, and state and federal tax incentives.
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