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September 7, 2024

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Texas RE Urges Tightening Password Security

Staff at the Texas Reliability Entity warned utilities this week that they need to keep working on the systemic weaknesses that led to last year’s Colonial Pipeline shutdown.

The ransomware attack on Colonial led the company to shut down its entire 5,500-mile pipeline network for almost a week. The network transports more than 100 million gallons of petroleum products daily, supplying about 45% of all fuel consumed on the U.S. East Coast. (See Biden Directs Federal Cybersecurity Overhaul.)

Although the hackers — identified by the FBI as the Eastern European cybercrime group DarkSide — did not manage to compromise the company’s operational technology (OT) systems, they did encrypt several computer systems, including the billing system. This led the company to shut down the pipeline because it had no way to bill customers for their fuel. The attackers demanded 75 Bitcoin (then about $4.4 million) in return for a decryption tool; Colonial CEO Joseph Blount authorized paying the ransom, though subsequent media reports alleged that the tool worked so slowly that the company decided to restore its systems from backups instead.

At Thursday’s Talk with Texas RE, William Sanders, a cybersecurity principal at the regional entity, reminded attendees that incidents like the Colonial attack don’t need to involve sophisticated hacking techniques; in many cases, simple carelessness provides plenty of opportunities for hackers to get a foothold in a system. Vulnerabilities such as recycling user names and passwords from one system to another are easy to warn against but can be incredibly hard to eradicate.

“Studies have shown that over half of respondents are reusing passwords … and of those, 44% admitted to reusing passwords between personal and work accounts. So this can be very problematic,” he said.

Password reuse may have enabled DarkSide to first gain entry into the Colonial network. The hackers used the password of an employee to gain access to Colonial’s system on April 29, initially performing reconnaissance before launching their attack several days later. But access alone was not enough to cripple the company, because several other often repeated security recommendations had to be ignored for the gang to infiltrate critical systems.

“We don’t know how the password was acquired, but it has been discovered in a Dark Web leak, so the password is publicly available,” Sanders said. “It’s possible that the Colonial Pipeline employee had reused a password between work and personal accounts, and the Colonial account was no longer in use, but it had not been disabled; it was still enabled and had access to their VPN [virtual private network] … and the VPN did not require multifactor authentication.”

While NERC’s Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards already require changing passwords at least every 15 months, Sanders observed that this only applies to high- and medium-impact bulk electric system (BES) cyber systems. However, the Colonial incident shows that low-impact systems — even non-OT systems like billing — may also be used to impact an entity’s operations.

For this reason utilities should consider requiring users of other networks to change their passwords frequently too — though changing passwords too often may cause employees to reuse or cycle through credentials, which should also be avoided.

Sanders suggested utilities can consider expanding other CIP requirements that don’t currently apply to low-impact systems, such as disabling accounts that are no longer needed and implementing multifactor authentication wherever feasible.

“Accounts protected with multifactor authentication are 99% less likely to be compromised,” Sanders said. “It’s still possible for them to be compromised, but the level of sophistication and effort [needed] is much greater than [for] those accounts that are only protected with a single-factor password.”

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Utilities Warned of Cyberattacks amid Russia Tensions

The U.S. government is warning the cybersecurity community, particularly those responsible for American utilities and other critical infrastructure, to brace for a wave of cyberattacks that might be launched by Russia ahead of military action against Ukraine.

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been rising over the last couple of months, with Russia stationing thousands of troops on the border and conducting joint military exercises with neighboring Belarus. Russian President Vladimir Putin denies he plans to invade but has also demanded concessions from the U.S. and its allies, including an end to military activities by NATO in Poland and other former Soviet republics, and denying Ukraine membership in the alliance. U.S. and NATO officials said Wednesday that they had rejected both demands.

There are also signs that the conflict is spreading into the electronic realm. Earlier this month Ukrainian officials reported cyberattacks against the websites of multiple government departments, including the ministries of foreign affairs, defense and education. While the hackers have not been identified, their messages contain multiple references to past conflicts between Ukraine and the Soviet Union, leading Ukraine’s government to suspect Russia’s involvement.

With U.S. officials fearing similar attacks against their public and private sectors, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the FBI and National Security Agency, issued a joint cybersecurity advisory earlier this month urging cybersecurity workers to “adopt a heightened state of awareness and to conduct proactive threat hunting” against tactics used in previous Russian-attributed cyberattacks.

Those attacks include assaults in 2015 and 2016 against Ukraine’s power grid, for which a Pittsburgh grand jury indicted six Russian military intelligence officers in 2020. (See Six Russians Charged for Ukraine Cyberattacks.) CISA also accused Russia of sponsoring an “intrusion campaign” against the global energy sector that spanned the better part of a decade, along with 2020’s hack of the SolarWinds Orion product that may have infected thousands of organizations with malware, including the Department of Energy and FERC. (See FERC, E-ISAC Report Details Reach of SolarWinds Compromise.)

The advisory includes tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) commonly seen in Russia-sponsored hacking operations, such as the use of virtual private servers to route traffic to targets; brute-force password guessing, password spraying and spearphishing campaigns; compromising trusted third-party software to gain access to victim organizations; and using previously compromised accounts to raise their user privileges on compromised systems.

CISA also provided tips on detecting when malicious actors have established a presence in a company’s network. Suspected victims are advised to implement robust log collection and retention to help investigate incidents and discover suspicious activity. Behavioral evidence such as the same user logging in from geographically separate locations, along with electronic artifacts created by bot activity, can also provide evidence of dangerous activity.

Additional recommended steps for enhancing organizations’ cyber readiness include preparing response plans that assign main points of contact, as well as roles and responsibilities, in a suspected incident, and detail staffing plans to avoid overwhelming IT staff. The agencies also advise cyber professionals to conform to strong identity and access management practices such as strong passwords, multifactor authentication and secured credentials, and to ensure their software, including antivirus programs, are kept up to date.

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In Late Twist, ISO-NE Calls for 2-Year Delay on MOPR Elimination

After months of moving forward with a plan to eliminate the minimum offer price rule (MOPR), ISO-NE is changing course and proposing a two-year transition period that would maintain the rule for the next two capacity auctions.

In a memo ahead of next week’s NEPOOL Participants Committee meeting, ISO-NE COO Vamsi Chadalavada wrote that the new plan is based on stakeholder suggestions for a “more gradual” removal of the MOPR that reduces risk.

Under the transition proposal, which Chadalavada said is “clear and predictable,” 700 MW of capacity from state-subsidized resources would be able to enter the market through the renewable technology resources (RTR) exemption in FCAs 17 and 18, and the MOPR would be fully replaced by FCA 19.

Specifically, the plan, which closely mirrors a proposal from Calpine and Vistra, allows for 300 MW of RTR exemptions in FCA 17 and 400 MW in FCA 18. The exemption is designed to let a limited amount of renewable resources offer into the auction at prices lower than those set by the MOPR.

“The transition proposal will not impede the ability of the sponsored resources under long-term contracts to continue their path towards commercial deployment,” Chadalavada said.

The decision could reignite a debate over renewables and reliability, as ISO-NE explicitly states that its intention with the transition is to slow the entry of renewable resources into the capacity market in the interest of energy security.

“The proposed MOPR transition sets a steady pace for new, sponsored technologies to displace existing resources over two auction cycles. More certainty around the quantity of sponsored resources entering the market should attenuate the potential for inefficient retirements and the ensuing reliability risk,” Chadalavada wrote. “The two-year, 700-MW transition should help quell a sudden, voluminous and permanent shift that could otherwise occur between entering and exiting resources that may not equivalently contribute to reliability in the commitment period.”

The reliability risks, which have been a long-time subject of debate by stakeholders in New England, lie at the intersection of “inefficient” retirements by existing generators and a lack of ability to measure the contributions of new technologies, the memo says.

ISO-NE pointed to conditions in other regions to justify its decision.

“Insufficient dispatchable (natural gas-fired) generation contributed to [California’s] inability to serve load during August 2020, and it continues to pose challenging summer operating conditions in that region,” Chadalavada wrote. “As the MOPR is eliminated in New England, stakeholders should seek to avoid similar reliability consequences as the region’s growing sponsored resources prompt accelerated resource retirements.”

The change of plans could lead to a contested vote at the PC meeting next week; the Calpine/Vistra plan was voted down by the Markets Committee in its last meeting. (See NEPOOL MC Approves ISO-NE Plan to Eliminate MOPR.)

And it could also put ISO-NE at odds with the FERC majority, which has pushed for removal of the MOPR and just last week called again for it to be eliminated “expeditiously.” (See FERC Weighs in as ISO-NE Prepares for Capacity Auction.)

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Maine Supports Early Insights on PFAS and Air Quality

With a landmark “forever chemicals” ban on the books and new bills introduced to regulate their release into Maine’s environment, the state is working to understand the connection between synthetic fluorinated chemicals and air quality.

Much of the current focus on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Maine is about land and water contamination, but the state is one in a small group helping investigate PFAS in the air, according to Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Melanie Loyzim.

PFAS “is a family of chemical compounds that most people in Maine had never heard of in 2019, but now we’re not doing enough fast enough to deal with it,” Loyzim said during an Environmental and Energy Technology Council of Maine webinar on issues before the Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee.

In July, Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill that bans the use of PFAS in products by 2030, sets a drinking water standard and provides funding to test and treat drinking water in areas where wastewater sludge was spread as fertilizer. New bills under consideration in the ENR Committee seek to curtail distribution or disposal of sludge and leachate that has not been properly tested for PFAS.

The legislative efforts to prevent PFAS release are based on clear connections between spreading activities and contaminated land and water. Some states, however, are identifying PFAS contamination on locations “with no identifiable source … except atmospheric deposition,” Loyzim said. That means PFAS is likely moving from the atmosphere to land and water.

A Maine PFAS task force released a report in 2020 recommending that the state consider establishing an air deposition sampling program for a suite of PFAS. And last fall, the U.S. EPA released a PFAS roadmap that includes a directive for the Office of Air and Radiation to address PFAS air emissions.

“Under the Biden administration, the EPA is rushing to catch up with states like Maine to provide toxicity factors and water quality criteria that we can use to set more standards,” Loyzim said.

EPA on Monday added four PFAS to its Toxics Release Inventory list, bringing the number of PFAS on the list to nearly 200. Chemicals on the list are known to cause chronic human health effects, such as cancer. In a 2018 report, however, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control made a direct link between certain PFAS in carpets and global warming.

For example, the global warming potential (GWP) of one PFAS — perfluoropolymethylisopropyl ether — ranges from 7,620 over 20 years to 12,400 over 500 years, relative to CO2, the department said. Hydrofluorocarbons, which are known to have some of the highest GWPs, have comparable ranges.

Maine is now conducting deposition monitoring at one site through rainwater collection and analysis. EPA pays for the site, according to Loyzim, so the agency owns the site data.

“We’re waiting for the first dataset to come back so we can see what our results are,” she said.

Meanwhile, the DEP is studying other data related to PFAS in the air.

“We’re looking at information that’s been gathered in other states around emissions from sewage sludge incineration,” she said. “We’re really interested in understanding what the various air emission impacts would be of different kinds of treatment methods.”

Sludge drying, she added, could allow the material to be a “stable agent in landfills,” but applying too much heat in the process could “liberate PFAS into the environment.”

“Air emissions is one of the areas where the science is the most difficult because these compounds are so tricky to measure,” she said.

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Fishing Industry Concerned About NY Bight OSW Plan

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) new plan for addressing fishing industry fears over offshore wind projects drew a skeptical reception last week at a public hearing on six projects planned for the New York Bight.

Under the proposed “engagement” plan, an offshore wind developer would have to meet with stakeholders — including fishermen, Native Americans, disadvantaged communities and other ocean users — document issues raised and provide BOEM a report showing adjustments the developer made to address the concerns. If BOEM is not convinced that the developer has done enough, the agency could determine that the lease is not in “good standing” and stop the project until the concerns are resolved.

The hearing came a week after the Biden administration announced the auction of six lease areas in the New York Bight on Feb. 23 that would generate at least 5.6 GW. (See BOEM to Auction Six New Lease Areas in NY Bight.)

The proposed lease areas and the planned engagement process were shaped in part by opinions voiced in the four earlier meetings with the fishing industry, BOEM Director Amanda Lefton told the 130 people attending the online forum.

“Based on your feedback from the proposed sale notice, we’ve built a strong foundation for enhancing engagement,” she said. “This foundation is designed to embed transparency, accountability and communication into the process.”

Mitigation or Compensation

That approach involves a four-step process that BOEM believes will air stakeholder concerns and, through transparency and public pressure, push developers to address them.

BOEM officials said they will require leaseholders to identify the stakeholders affected by the projects and create a plan to communicate with them. The leaseholder must file a report with BOEM every six months detailing the engagement between the stakeholders and the lessee, said Zachary Jylkka, a renewable energy program specialist for BOEM.

“This report is not just a list of meetings that have occurred,” he said. “There’s a requirement that the lessee must document how, if at all, the design or implementation of the project has been informed by, or altered, to address the potential effects of the project.”

BOEM will then review the reports, “ensure that comments from the previous reporting period were addressed,” and post them on the agency website so that the public can comment on them, he said. The lessee is then “required to adequately address those comments,” he added.

If the lessee does not address issues, “BOEM reserves the right to require specific mitigation, including but not limited to requiring third party verification or mediation at the lessee’s expense, increased recording frequency or designation that the lease is not in good standing,” he said.

“If a lease is designated as not in good standing, BOEM will withhold approval of any pending plans from that lessee (such as the site assessment plan or construction and operations plan) until the identified issue is resolved,” said BOEM spokesperson Olivia Woods in an email.

Problems that cannot be mitigated could result in the lessee paying compensation to the injured stakeholder, BOEM officials said.

Industry Skeptical

Yet several fishing industry representatives said they were not convinced the new rules would make the government and wind industry more responsive to their concerns.

“I don’t think any of this has any teeth,” said Scot Mackey, a lobbyist for Garden State Seafood Association, a 1,200-member industry group that represents fishers of scallop, clam and other fish, in an interview after the hearing. “They’re making recommendations to developers. But there’s … nothing behind it. As far as I can see, if developers choose to [ignore complaints] they can.”

Ronald Smolowitz, a technical adviser to the Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents scallop fishermen, said the key issues facing the projects are “compensation, research and mitigation.” He said the NY Bight projects would “probably impact $15 million worth of [fish] landings a year.” How much revenue could be lost is unclear, he said.

The industry’s experience with the Vineyard Wind project in Massachusetts, the East Coast project that is closest to fruition, has not been good, he said. “The fishing industry has been totally left out of the conversation,” he told the hearing. After the hearing, Smolowitz said in an interview that he does not expect BOEM’s new engagement proposals to result in much of a change in the fishing sector’s treatment by wind developers.

Without an “overpowering authority” to make developers “do something — and BOEM doesn’t have the authority to make them do something — then these companies will just do what they want to do, regardless of what the fishing industry says,” he said.

Biggest Single Auction

The six NY Bight leases are the most ever offered in a single auction, totaling 480,000 acres. BOEM had solicited commercial interest for 1.7 million acres in the Bight but excluded 72% of the area to reduce environmental impacts and avoid conflicts with the commercial fishing industry and other ocean users.

The Biden administration has set a goal of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030, with states on the East Coast already committed to a pipeline of 39 GW by 2040.

New Jersey, with a target of generating 7,500 MW of wind power by 2035, has set three wind projects in motion in two phases. Offshore wind farms would generate 23% of the state’s energy under Gov. Phil Murphy’s effort to reach 100% clean energy by 2050.

The state Board of Public Utilities in 2019 approved the 1,100-MW Ocean Wind 1 project, developed by Danish developer Ørsted and on June 30 approved Ørsted’s 1,148-MW Ocean Wind 2 and the 1,510-MW Atlantic Shores project, a joint venture between EDF Renewables North America and Shell New Energies US. The BPU is planning to hold three more solicitations over the next five years. (See NJ Awards Two Offshore Wind Projects.)

Parts of the fishing industry oppose these projects, as do some property owners and representatives of the tourism sector, who fear that turbines could mar coastal views and reduce the number of visitors.

Fishermen fear the projects will damage habitats, perhaps scaring fish away from long-time fishing areas, and that it will be dangerous to fish around the turbines. Fishing representatives say the combination of the weight of the fishing nets and the impact of the waves, wind and tides passing through rows of turbines can make it difficult and dangerous to maneuver a fishing vessel. Some in the industry have asked for more space between the turbines, to avoid problems. (See Fishermen Fear the Impact of NJ Wind Farms.)

Lefton told the fishermen at the hearing that BOEM reduced the number of prospective offshore wind development areas from eight originally planned to six, in large part because of feedback from them and other ocean users. The mission of the hearing was, in part, to “discuss how we can ensure that there is a seat at the table for ocean users like the commercial fishing industry moving forward.”

“I realize that you’ve all heard some version of this before,” she said. “I know you’ve been frustrated by a perceived lack of communication and transparency from us, that you take time to provide feedback and you don’t know where the information goes or what changes result from it.

“I want to note that we hear you,” she said. “We’re approaching things differently beyond the NY Bight thanks to your feedback.”

Parts of the process sound like a “step in the right direction” said Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which works to ensure that coast development does not harm the fishing sector. In the past, she said, developers had to file engagement reports, but it was often too late in the process to have much impact.

Still, she said, she has concerns about some elements of the engagement proposal and whether it would “perpetuate the status quo or actually change engagement.”

“By the time six months go by, you know, they’ve put plans in place and procurements, materials and that kind of stuff,” she said. “How do we know that that’s going to be seen and responded to? And it’s not like six months is going to go by and then we’re going to hear ‘Oh, it’s kind of too late to address that.’”

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Colorado Utilities Choose WEIS over WEIM

Colorado utilities Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), Platte River Power Authority and Black Hills Colorado Electric (NYSE:BKH) said Tuesday they plan to join SPP’s Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) market over CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market.

The utilities said the move will allow them to provide cost savings to customers and improve operational efficiencies. They expect to join WEIS in April 2023 and will continue to study long-term solutions for joining or developing an organized wholesale market.

“As we look at opportunities moving forward, this short-term step meets our energy needs to deliver clean, reliable and affordable energy to customers right now,” PSCo President Alice Jackson said. “The energy imbalance market allows us to participate in an organized market while giving us the flexibility to explore a more permanent solution that will help us integrate more wind and solar energy onto our system.”

SPP’s Board of Directors on Tuesday approved an amended Western joint dispatch agreement (JDA) brought forward by the Western Markets Executive Committee that incorporates terms and conditions agreed upon by participants in the PSCo balancing authority. The WMEC met three times the week of Jan. 17 to hammer out differences.

The board’s approval cleared the way for the three utilities to join SPP’s WEIS. The JDA enables generation within its BA to be shared with Platte River, Black Hills and Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU).

PSCo paused a previous decision to join the EIM when CSU said last May it had decided to join WEIS. The Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) subsidiary approached SPP in August to begin negotiating its BA’s membership in WEIS. (See Xcel Delays Joining EIM to Examine Options.)

A CAISO spokesperson said the grid operator was disappointed to learn PSCo had “decided to change course.”

“We understand and respect its decision. We remain committed to continued collaboration with PSCo as the Western markets evolve,” Anne Gonzales said.

“We’re proud that our relationship-based approach and valuable portfolio of services continues to attract utilities looking to modernize and regionalize the way electricity is delivered,” SPP CEO Barbara Sugg said. “And we’re confident SPP and our WEIS participants will not only benefit from this expansion but will also help these utilities meet their goals of making power delivery more affordable and reliable.”

SPP began operating its WEIS market on a contract basis in February 2021, centrally dispatching energy from the region’s participating resources every five minutes. It currently comprises six members, including Tri-State Generation & Transmission. CSU will join in August.

Tri-State said in a release that PSCo’s decision will bring the remaining 20% of its member load into an organized market. Its Eastern Interconnection load became part of the SPP RTO in 2015.

“We welcome additional participants into the SPP WEIS, which increases the efficiency of the market, lowers power costs and further helps to reliably and cost-effectively integrate renewable energy resources,” Tri-State CEO Duane Highley said. “Our membership in the SPP WEIS has already greatly benefited our members with lower costs, higher reliability and more efficient dispatch of resources.”

Tri-State and CSU are among several WEIS members exploring membership in SPP’s RTO West. The grid operator is also offering a Markets+ service for parties that value RTO benefits but aren’t ready for membership. It has been a reliability coordinator for several Western entities since 2019.

Meanwhile, WEIM is welcoming four new utilities this spring (Avista Utilities, Bonneville Power Authority, Tacoma Public Utilities and Tucson Electric Power). When it adds El Paso Electric, Avangrid and the Western Area Power Authority’s Desert Southwest region in 2023, WEIM will cover almost 80% of the Western Interconnection.

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Calif. EV Incentive Comes with Tax Bill, Some Residents Find

Low-income residents in certain parts of California can receive as much as $9,500 to scrap their old car and replace it with a cleaner vehicle, but the incentive may also increase their income tax bill, according to speakers at a workshop last week.

Two of the four air districts that are running the incentive program, called Clean Cars 4 All, issue 1099 forms to participants, according to Anthony Poggi, an air pollution specialist with the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The 1099 form is used to report non-employment income to the Internal Revenue Service.

Poggi said that in addition to facing an increased tax liability, Clean Cars 4 All participants who receive a 1099 form may also lose their eligibility for other income-based programs because the incentive adds to their reported income.

“[It] really can lead to a nasty surprise tax bill when they have to file,” said Chris Chavez, deputy policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air.

The discussion of 1099 forms came during a Jan. 20 CARB workgroup meeting on proposed changes to the Clean Cars 4 All program.

Air Districts Administer

CARB provides funding for the Clean Cars 4 All incentive program to air districts that administer it. The four districts with incentive programs include the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (AQMD); the Sacramento Metropolitan AQMD; the South Coast AQMD, which calls the program Replace Your Ride; and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (APCD), which calls the program Drive Clean in the San Joaquin.

The incentives vary depending on where a participant lives, their income level and the type of replacement vehicle being purchased. In the San Joaquin program, for example, the maximum incentive of $9,500 is available to someone who lives in a disadvantaged community, has an income of 225% or less of the federal poverty level, and is buying a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle.

A participant buying a plug-in hybrid or a zero-emission vehicle may also receive up to $2,000 for electric vehicle supply equipment or pre-loaded charge card, according to CARB’s program criteria.

After receiving a new car, the participant must drive their old car to an approved dismantling facility. Participants also have an option to buy an electric bike or receive a prepaid public transit card instead of buying a new car.

Poggi noted that CARB does not issue 1099 forms for vehicle incentives it administers, such as the Clean Vehicle Rebate Program. He said CARB has been searching for assurances that the 1099 forms aren’t necessary for the Clean Cars 4 All program.

“We’re doing everything we can … trying to reach out to different agencies and different folks in government to kind of get a grasp on what it would take,” he said.

Program Expansion

The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District is in the process of developing a Clean Cars 4 All program, which it hopes to launch this year.

And more districts may soon be able to participate. CARB’s current Clean Cars 4 All rule limits participation to air districts with populations greater than one million. But a proposed revision to the regulation would remove that restriction.

Smaller districts that don’t have resources to complete tasks such as outreach and education would be able to work with a program administrator selected by CARB. The next public meeting on Clean Cars 4 All will likely focus on CARB’s solicitation of a public administrator.

The proposed regulation would also give districts more flexibility to set requirements for the incentive. A district could decide to make income limits more stringent, such as capping eligibility at 300% of the federal poverty level rather than the 400% that is in CARB’s criteria.

A district could also further restrict eligible types of replacement vehicles in the program. CARB’s criteria allow replacement vehicles to be hybrid vehicles that meet or exceed a specified fuel economy rating, a plug-in hybrid or a zero-emissions vehicle. A district could decide to remove hybrid vehicles from the list.

A district would be required to include its changes to income requirements or eligible vehicles in an implementation proposal that is submitted to CARB.

In November, the CARB board approved $75 million in funding for Clean Cars 4 All for 2021-22. (See CARB Approves $1.5B Clean Transportation Package.)

The board allocated $28 million to South Coast AQMD; $15 million each to the Bay Area AQMD and San Joaquin Valley APCD; $2 million to Sacramento AQMD; and $5 million to San Diego APCD. Another $10 million was set aside in a strategic reserve.

Funding for a potential expansion of Clean Cars 4 All won’t be finalized until after lawmakers approve the 2022-23 state budget.

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Robo Stepping down as NextEra’s CEO

Jim Robo said he is stepping down Tuesday after almost 10 years as CEO of NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), concluding what he characterized a “long-term succession process” he has undertaken with the board of directors during the last six years.

Jim-Robo-RTO-Insider-FI.jpgJim Robo is stepping down after 10 years as NextEra’s CEO. | © RTO Insider LLC

“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as CEO. I’m as excited as I’ve ever been about the future prospects of NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Partners,” Robo, 59, said during NextEra’s quarterly earnings conference call with financial analysts.

Saying part of a CEO’s legacy is the “new leader in the next-generation leadership team that follows,” Robo introduced as his successor John Ketchum, a 19-year NextEra veteran, CEO of NextEra Energy Resources (NEER) and president of NextEra Energy Partners.

Ketchum said he intends to remain “intensely focused” on delivering and building upon NextEra’s “long track record of success.”

“I believe there is no company better positioned to lead our country’s energy transformation than NextEra Energy,” he told analysts.

John Ketchum (NextEra Energy) Content.jpgJohn Ketchum | NextEra Energy

Under Robo’s guidance, NextEra has become the world’s largest generator of renewables, operating more than 17 GW of wind and solar energy. With a market cap of over $147 billion, it is bigger than any other utility in the world. However, efforts to acquire other utilities, including Hawaii Electric and Texas’ Oncor, fell short before it acquired Gulf Power from Southern Co. in 2018.

Robo joined NextEra in 2002, becoming CEO in July 2012. Since then, the company’s share price has gone from $17.08 to more than $300 in 2020, surpassing even ExxonMobil before a four-for-one stock split that October.

The company’s share price plunged on the news, dropping 4.5% from $81.87 when the market opened. Shares closed at $75.10, down $6.77 (8.3%).

Robo will serve as NextEra’s executive chairman during a brief transition period expected to end in April.

The Florida-based company announced several other leadership changes, effective March 1:

  • Eric Silagy, president and CEO of NextEra subsidiary Florida Power & Light, will become the utility’s chairman.
  • CFO Rebecca Kujawa was named president and CEO of NEER, succeeding Ketchum.
  • Kirk Crews, NEER’s vice president of business management, was named NextEra’s CFO, replacing Kujawa.

NextEra also reported its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings Tuesday. It said quarterly earnings were $1.2 billion ($0.61/share), compared to 2020’s fourth-quarter loss of $5 million. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 39 cents/share; they came in at 41 cents.

For the year, earnings came in at $3.6 billion ($1.81/share), compared to $2.9 billion ($1.48/share) in 2020.

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Facebook Founder Donates $50M for Hawaii Climate Research

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan have pledged to donate $50 million to the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), the university said last week.

The seven-year funding commitment will go to two departments within SOEST, the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and the Department of Oceanography, to fund research on climate change impacts and mitigation efforts in Hawaiian coastal waters.

“Hawaii has one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world, and having a deeper understanding of this ecosystem is the key to preserving and protecting it,” Zuckerberg and Chan said in a statement.

The funds will go to programs that focus on climate change impacts, coral reef restoration, ocean acidification prevention, conservation of large predators, resource management via indigenous means and community partnership growth, Marcie Grabowski, SOEST outreach coordinator, told NetZero Insider.

The research will be spearheaded by mature programs and initiatives that have already made significant contributions in ocean conservation and marine ecosystem knowledge, Grabowski said. “The gift is aimed at amplifying and expanding those efforts.”

More specifically, the research will:

  • more clearly define the extent of climate change impacts in Hawaiian coastal waters;
  • increase the accuracy of climate change forecasting for ocean conditions;
  • increase climate change resilience in coral reef ecosystems;
  • improve the understanding of shark behavior to help in their protection and conservation;
  • improve outreach efforts to inform the public and policy makers on research findings;
  • train the next generation of ocean scientists; and
  • revive indigenous resource management practices.

Although no new programs are slated to be created, the funds will pay for acquisition of “saildrones,” sailing vehicles that can gather oceanographic data autonomously. The solar- and wind-powered saildrones will be used to collect data to strengthen computer models for climate change forecasting.

Grabowski noted that the $50 million will not be used to explore efforts to specifically reverse climate change, instead focusing on data collection, mitigation and resilience.

HIMB Director Eleanor Sterling said that “this generous gift is a wonderful opportunity to support much needed interdisciplinary work that will help us to better understand ocean systems and indigenous management strategies and to develop effective approaches for ocean conservation.”

Interim SOEST Dean Chip Fletcher pointed to the increased public and governmental outreach efforts made possible by the grant.

“Through internships, mentoring, community engagement efforts and graduate research fellowships, we will grow our pool of scholars, policymakers and conservationists from underrepresented communities around our state,” Fletcher said.

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Without TCI-P, Vt. Will Explore Joining Western Climate Initiative

The Vermont Climate Council is considering the option of having the state join the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) as an alternative to its plan to reduce transportation sector emissions through the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program (TCI-P).

Joining WCI for transportation only could help fill an emission reduction gap in the council’s initial Climate Action Plan that was left when TCI-P destabilized in November. (See Vt. Climate Council Adjusts Course on TCI-P.)

The council released its plan in December without a clear alternative to TCI-P, instead including language that further studying other options is needed this year. Without the multistate cap-and-invest program, the plan has a 26% gap — equivalent to 0.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) — in emission reductions needed by 2030, according to a transportation task group of the council’s Cross-Sector Mitigation Subcommittee.

Under the 2020 Global Warming Solutions Act, transportation sector emissions must decline by 0.5 MMTCO2e by 2025 and an additional 1.38 MMTCO2e by 2030.

WCI is one of two options that the task group supports as needing further exploration because of their ability to reduce emissions equitably and cost-effectively, according to a memo the group shared with the council Monday. The WCI price per ton in November was $28.60, while the projected price per ton for TCI-P was $6.60 starting in 2023. Vermont already participates in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which saw its highest auction price in December at $13/ton.

Under WCI, which California and Quebec participate in to cap and reduce emissions economy-wide, Vermont could tailor its program requirements for transportation to meet unique economic and environmental circumstances, the memo said.

As a complement to WCI, the task group recommended exploring a low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) similar to programs already adopted in California, Oregon and Washington. Vermont has reduced emissions significantly in its electricity sector with a clean energy standard, and the council recommended in its initial plan that the state adopt a clean heat standard to reduce emissions in the buildings sector.

An LCFS, the memo said, could come at a higher cost than a cap-and-invest program. The latest program prices in California and Oregon were $147/ton and $126/ton, respectively. Vermont, however, could act independently to implement an LCFS without relying on the interstate collaboration necessary for other options, like TCI-P and WCI, to work, according to the memo.

Secondary to a cap-and-invest strategy in the council’s initial plan was a recommendation for Vermont to adopt California’s pending Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) regulation. ACCII, as proposed, would reduce emissions from new light- and medium-duty vehicles, while increasing zero-emission vehicles sales between 2026 and 2035.

The regulations could help Vermont achieve 11% of the 26% emission reductions needed in transportation by 2030, according to the memo, but the task group said that ACCII is not “sufficient on its own.” Additional policies and actions are needed to increase public investment in charging infrastructure and an expansion of electric vehicle purchase incentives.

The Agency of Natural Resources is already preparing to initiate a rulemaking for ACCII and California’s Advanced Clean Trucks regulation, as recommended in the council’s plan. However, a final rulemaking package for ACCII by the California Air Resources Board is not expected until June.

Members of the transportation task group will continue with an analysis of TCI-P alternatives and deliver a final recommendation to the council by May, and the council expects to adopt a final recommendation by June.

With the Vermont legislature scheduled to adjourn in May, any meaningful legislative action on a TCI-P alternative potentially could not happen until 2023. The council, however, expects the state can make short-term progress on transportation emissions with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Gov. Phil Scott introduced his recommended fiscal year 2023 budget Jan. 18, with transportation funding of $40 million from ARPA. In addition, the state expects to receive $1.7 billion in IIJA funding over five years for transportation.

Those resources come with timing and funding matching requirements that limit how they can benefit long-term emission reductions, so they would not be available when the state needs to scale its efforts “massively” to meet 2030 requirements, the memo said.

The task group cautioned that, absent a framework for medium- and long-term emissions reductions combined with a dedicated funding mechanism, transportation sector investments from ARPA and IIJA will “fall off a cliff in 2027.”