With a major shift from coal to natural gas and more efficient power plants largely complete in the Northeast, further reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will have to come from other sectors, according to a new report conducted by Massachusetts-based M.J. Bradley & Associates.
For states that have pledged emissions reductions, including Connecticut, there is more to be done in transportation and buildings, according to the report, which was funded by several foundations and other donors with environmental missions.
Continuing to “decarbonize” power generation will be important, as will a shift from gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles, and from fossil-fuel heating systems to electric heat pumps in buildings, if states are to hit their goals.
There are many potential hurdles to achieving further emissions reductions, including utility companies’ opposition to clean-energy tariffs, the economic struggles of nuclear plants, which do not emit CO2, and the relatively slow adoption of electric vehicles, the report said.
Connecticut and eight other states signed a pledge in 2013 to collectively put 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on the roads by 2025. But to get there, sales would have to grow by at least 400 percent over the next decade, according to the report.
In the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative region, which includes all of New England, emissions fell approximately 20 percent between 1990 and 2013, largely thanks to the shift to natural gas generation, which has cut the electric power sector’s emissions by 43 percent over that time.
Transportation remains the largest carbon-dioxide generator, accounting for 43 percent of the region’s 416 million short tons of CO2 in 2013. Meanwhile, the commercial, industrial and residential sectors accounted for 36 percent of the total.
