No Coal No Gas activists in tyvek suits walking along a road near the coal-fired power plant in Bow NH in 2019.
Together with 350NH and the Climate Disobedience Center, we started this campaign in 2019 with the goals of building community, showing what’s possible, and shutting down the last coal plant in New England. This spring, we accomplished our goal when the owners of coal-fired Merrimack Generating Station in Bow announced a shutdown date for the plant.
But that doesn’t mean that we’re finished. As long as the people in power refuse to do what’s necessary to address the climate crisis, we will keep using direct action to shut down fossil fuels and transition the grid ourselves. We hope you will read this incredible article about our work written by the amazing Siobhan Senier, and read on for a recap of our work this year!
If you would like to donate to support our continued mischief, please consider contributing to either the Climate Disobedience Center or 350NH!
Peaker Plant Actions
This spring, we announced our new goal: to shut down all fossil-fuel fired peaker plants in New England. Usually owned by private investment firms, peaker plants are generation facilities that only turn on when electricity costs are the highest. These plants are responsible for disproportionate pollution, disease, and storm damage in environmental justice communities across the region. Despite being the most inefficient and uneconomical power plants, they receive yearly subsidies in the form of ratepayer-funded “forward capacity payments” simply for existing, and directly contribute to the soaring costs of our utility bills. They also hoard access to otherwise-unused grid connection points and substations that could be used to bring renewables online. These plants are a massive obstacle to a just transition, so we are doing what must be done to shut them down!
No Coal No Gas started off the year with a cohort program designed to train new leaders and welcome new activists to the campaign. Cohort participants met to practice skills together- working on projects from soil remediation to scouting to art projects. At the same time, we were researching all of the fossil fuel peaker plants in the region and strategizing for this new phase of regional organizing. Over the summer, we built teams across the region ready to take direct action at their local peaker plants, and supported protests and art installations by local allies in Vermont and Maine.
Large yellow and black banner that says “No Coal no Gas” handing off the side of a big smokestack at Newington Station power plant.
In August, we formally launched the new phase of our campaign with distributed actions at all of the fossil fuel peakers in NH (all of which, by the way, are owned by Granite Shore Power and its hedge fund parent company Atlas Holdings). On August 11, activists infiltrated every remaining fossil fuel peaker in the state, installing art installations at Schiller Station and White Lake Station, planting a guerilla garden at Lost Nation Station, and dropping a 270 foot banner off the smokestack of Newington Station, before reuniting across the river from Merrimack Station for a community celebration of its shutdown. 5 people were arrested and are currently navigating the court system.
Our August launch was just the beginning! In recent months, No Coal No Gas has worked with local activists to host actions at the Berlin Peaker in Vermont, the Montville Peaker in Connecticut, the Tanner Street Generator in Massachusetts, and the Cape Gas Turbine in Maine. We are also currently challenging the permits for White Lake station, and the ratepayer-funded subsidies given to these and other fossil fuel peakers by regional grid operator ISO New England. We are determined to continue building the power needed to shut these and other fossil fuel peakers down!
ISO-NE Work
Much of our organizing over the past year has focused on New England regional grid operator ISO-NE, which is responsible for propping up fossil fuel peaker plants through ratepayer-funded “forward capacity payments.” We began the year by challenging the auction that awards these payments, and filed comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) opposing the continued subsidies for fossil fuel plants. After a lengthy back-and-forth in the docket between us, FERC, and ISO-NE, FERC ruled that our arguments about ISO’s violation of its own mission were “outside the scope” of the proceedings. FERC recommended that we take our concerns to the “stakeholder advisory process,” otherwise known as NEPOOL.
Marla and Nathan with a big banner that says “FERC” sent us, in New Hampshire at the NEPOOL weekend.
NEPOOL is a clandestine industry council of transmission companies, power plants, and corporate businesses that is responsible for approving ISO policies, budget, and mission changes. It is also subject to strict secrecy guidelines and high membership fees, making it extremely inaccessible to everyday ratepayers. So, we decided to make it more accessible, by showing up to NEPOOL’s yearly retreat at the Bretton Woods resort near Mount Washington, NH. For three days, our presence at the hotel wreaked havoc amongst the NEPOOL participants, eventually resulting in a meeting with NEPOOL leadership and permanent observer status for our elected Consumer Liaison Group Coordinating Committee (CLG CC) members.
The CLG CC is the only ratepayer-elected body within the ISO-NE power structure. As the coordinating committee, it is responsible for planning quarterly meetings between ISO board members, staff, and the general public. In Dec 2022, we took over the CLG CC in the election that has since become known as the “ballroom coup,” and since then our CLG CC reps have been using their new platform to change the narrative surrounding grid transition.
In this years’ CLG meetings, we advocated for “conservation demand response”- the practice of conserving electricity instead of turning on more fossil fuel peaker plants during times of peak demand. In March, we announced a grassroots effort to organize ordinary ratepayers to do this work ourselves, and respond to demand on a scale that could render peaker plants obsolete. Since then, we’ve been building pods of neighbors committed to learning about demand response and disrupting ISO’s market system together.
No coal no gas friends at a CLG meeting in Boston.
These efforts were a clear threat to the existing power structure at NEPOOL and ISO-NE. Business representatives at NEPOOL even responded to a CLG CC email advocating for conservation by calling for the abolition of the CLG! Yet despite clear efforts from ISO-NE to sabotage CLG meetings, public participation has only continued to grow. Each quarter, ratepayers are showing up to demand that the ISO board and NEPOOL cease their roles as corporate business power brokers, and allow us, the true “stakeholders,” to build a grid that works for all of us. All of these efforts culminated in the Dec 4 CLG meeting, where we once again elected a slate of candidates–thirteen this time!–to serve on next year’s CLG CC. We are so excited to work with them to continue stirring the pot at ISO-NE in the new year!
Thank you all so much for being a part of No Coal No Gas this year, and we can wait to scheme with you!
Lots of love,
— on behalf of No Coal No Gas
Kendra speaking to a crowd of No Coal No Gas supporters at our fossil fuel free future festival to celebrate the end of coal.
