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National Grid's Efforts to Address Climate Change

National Grid truly cares about social & environmental issues and is committed with our customers to help protect our environment.

What is National Grid doing to address Climate Change in the Northeast and other places?

National Grid Electric Generation

The Natural Resource Defense Council rates National Grid as one of the cleanest utilities in the country and we have been given an 'A' by Innovest, a financial services company that rates the environmental performance of major corporations.

National Grid has invested over $100 million dollars since the early 1990's to add natural gas burning capability and other emission control systems to our power plants. Burning natural gas reduces our power plant CO2 emission rate by 30% compared to fuel oil. And National Grid's annual CO2 emissions from all our power plants combined in 2006 were some 37 lower than in 1990. National Grid plans to spend over $100 million on additional efficiency improvements and emission control systems at our Northport and Port Jefferson, Long Island plants over the next 4-5 years to lower CO2 and NOx emissions even further.

National Grid Service Vehicles

National Grid operates a low emitting utility vehicle fleet that includes approximately 1,200 vehicles running on Compressed Natural Gas.

National Grid Customers

Since 1991, more than 400,000 National Grid customers throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire have taken part in our energy efficiency programs. While that has meant a total savings of more than $875 million for our customers, just as importantly is the fact that we have conserved enough energy to heat more than 24,000 homes for 20 years! In fact, National Grid was the first natural gas distribution company in New England to introduce energy saving programs in the early 1990's, and since then we have invested nearly $140 million in programs and services that help their customers use less energy.

Below are some of the ways we keep the Northeast green with energy.

Download our Green with Energy [PDF] for a more comprehensive look at our efforts.

National Grid and the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative.

In the absence of a federal program, the northeast states developed a regional CO2 cap and trade program for electric generating units greater than 25 MW, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The states participating in this initiative include ME, VT, NH, CT, NY, NJ, DE, with MA, RI and MD poised to join. During the development of the program, the states developed a comprehensive stakeholder process, in which National Grid was an active participant. National Grid has long been a proponent of a national CO2 reduction program, and had expressed the opinion that RGGI should be developed as a template for a national program. National Grid publicly endorsed this initiative after it was signed by the participating states and will be working to achieve the objectives of the program at its facilities. The program, which begins in 2009, will impose a CO2 cap on the electric generating sector based on stabilization of emissions at current levels. The program will then phase in a 10% reduction of the cap from 2014-2018. The program also provides for funding for energy efficiency and consumer benefit projects.

What is National Grid doing to help Individuals be green? What is National Grid doing to help Communities be green?

The National Grid Economic Redevelopment Program contributes nearly $1 million annually to commercial projects in designated economic target areas.

National Grid offers several other programs, including: