Ann Berwick has a long, storied career getting renewable energy policies enacted at the local and state levels. In conversation with student advisor to the Bluedot Institute and Bluedot Living contributor Cleo Carney, Ann tells us why local matters, why she’s bullish on wind, and how to move people toward better choices (hint: make it easy to do the right thing!).
Watch the video or read the full transcript below:
Cleo Carney: Ann Berwick is currently the sustainability director for the city of Newton, Massachusetts. From 1991 to 1996 she was the chief of the Environmental Protection Division in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. Prior to that, Ann was a legal services lawyer and litigation partner at the Boston law firm, Goulston and Storrs. From 2007 to 2010, Ann worked as the Commonwealth Undersecretary for Energy, where she played a key role in developing the Green Communities Act. Subsequently, she was appointed chair of the Department of Public Utilities and served under Governor Deval Patrick until 2015. Now, she spends the majority of her time working on all things energy and climate for the city of Newton and writing articles as a freelance consultant on climate change. So welcome, Ann, and thank you so much for joining me. An excellent place to start would be if you could briefly provide some background knowledge on why it is so vital that we transition to renewable energy sources.
Ann Berwick: Sure, I’d be happy to do that — partly because it’s so important, and I feel so strongly about it. We use energy in this part of the world, mainly for keeping the lights on, charging our computers, electricity used in our homes, that we use energy for heating and cooling … mostly in this part of the world, natural gas and propane — well on Martha’s Vineyard, propane, and some on heating oil. And then we use energy to drive our cars. So that’s mainly gasoline and diesel. So of heating oil, and transportation fuels, the only energy sources we can really make clean are the sources that we use to generate electricity. So by replacing coal, oil, and natural gas, which are fossil fuels, with renewable sources of power, like solar, wind, and hydro, we can make electricity clean, [and] continue to use electricity, to power our lights and computers and such. And then also use electricity to heat our homes with now very efficient air source heat pumps, cook our food with induction stoves, and drive our cars, making them electric vehicles.
Cleo: Well, obviously, I agree, and I figured you would be one of the most experienced people to explain that to our audience. So thank you for that background research. But as you are a lawyer by training, beginning your career as a staff attorney at Seattle legal services, I’m very intrigued by what initially started or sparked your interest in green energy. Was there anything in particular that ignited you on a more climate-focused path?
Ann: Well, when I went to law school, there were no courses on environmental law. In fact, there was virtually no environmental law. There was a lot that was just starting, but there certainly were no courses on it in law school. So I started off being a legal services lawyer and practiced for some time in that capacity. But really, what drove me in this direction was that I like to hike, ski, and backpack, and everything about being outdoors. And so it was more looking to combine the passion in my life that I have for those activities with my work. And of course, I didn’t know how salient the interest in environmental issues was going to be.
Cleo: Yeah. Well, I also love to hike so I can agree! I mean, the beauty of nature and you see that, especially on Martha’s Vineyard, where you’re surrounded by every aspect of nature, it just makes you really want to try and do your best to cultivate and keep it prospering.
Ann: Exactly.
Cleo: You’ve demonstrated your capacity in many different roles, and you’ve accomplished a lot. But I want to know, what of your many roles have you felt have been the most impactful?
Ann: Well, working for Governor Patrick for eight years was definitely right up there. And five of those years I spent running the Department of Public Utilities, which is the state agency that regulates electric and gas utilities, and in a variety of respects also implements different environmental laws, including the law you mentioned, the Green Communities Act. So I would say that has been the most impactful and maybe the most fun as well.
Cleo: What was fun about it?
Ann: That’s a great question. What was fun about it — having a team of people who are really committed to the same objectives. And also what was fun about was it was really challenging, it kind of made me combine my legal expertise, such as it is, with the issues I really care about.
Cleo: I think also having [the] feeling that you’re making an impact [adds to enjoyment], especially in climate.
Ann: And it was also fun to work, in the Deval Patrick administration, with a team of people who were really committed to these issues, and a governor who was extremely progressive and supportive.
Cleo: Well, that’s wonderful. And on the topic of impactful roles, can you tell us about your involvement in the first major offshore wind farm in the US, which has just begun construction off Martha’s Vineyard?
Ann: So I’m on the board of Vineyard Power and also on the board of Island Wind. So in that role, you know, I have had some involvement with the Vineyard Wind project. I have to say, for the last, maybe two decades, I’ve been a huge supporter of offshore wind. And that started with Cape Wind, which never came to fruition. But in looking at the pros and cons of Cape Wind, I think it became quickly evident that offshore wind for this part of the country is the way to go with renewable energy. Different parts of the country have different sources of renewables, right? The Pacific Northwest is more hydro; the southwest, solar; and we have solar here that we need to absolutely use. But for us, because it’s so windy off our coast, and because the water is so shallow, relatively speaking, people refer to it as the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind. It’s the ideal location for offshore wind —and also for solar, which is great, even in New England. I mean, Germany has more solar per capita than any other country in the world. And we know we don’t think about Germany as a super sunny nation, right? So solar works fine in Massachusetts. But you start off with the sun, knowing that it’s not going to shine half the time, right? Automatically, you know, you’re going to have nighttime. And that’s not true with wind — we just can rely on wind more than we can rely on solar. It’s always ‘and,’ not ‘or.’ We need both. But offshore wind is an incredible resource for this part of the world.
Cleo: It’s great that there is a wind farm that is being built. Because you can even see my hair; I have experienced the beautiful Vineyard breeze. And it’s great that we can harvest it for energy and wonderful uses, rather than just letting it blow past. But speaking of things that generally — well, I guess there’s been more positive news lately with the federal government and climate, which is great — but I think I’m not alone in feeling that there is a bit of a sense of disconnect between the federal government and the need for urgency on climate action as a whole. But to end on a positive note, I would love [it] if you could speak to some of the ways we can metaphorically move the needle with policy at a state level and in the local community.
Ann: Yeah. So obviously, I’ve worked my whole career at a state and a local level, now at a city level — city of slightly less than 100,000. And before that, the state level. Obviously, I feel great about what happened in Congress the other day, but we shouldn’t stop activity at the state and local levels, because it looks like there’s no movement at the federal level. So I mean, states and cities and towns are where the rubber really meets the road, right? I mean, we can do, and are doing in Newton, thanks to an extremely progressive mayor, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, and also [a] progressive city council, we’re making a huge amount of progress on the ground, which, after all, is where it needs to happen. So we have now put solar installations at over 20 — I don’t know what the count is exactly at the moment — over 25 city facilities. So like schools, the library. That’s more, I think, than any other city or town in the Commonwealth, and not on a per capita basis, just [an] absolute basis. We have a program called Newton Power Choice, where you don’t have to take any action at all, it’s what’s called opt-out. So if you want to take action, you have to say I don’t want to be part of this program — you don’t have to join it — where you get the equivalent of 82% of your electricity needs [to fund renewable power]. That amount, the money you’re paying for that amount of electricity, is going to fund renewable sources of power. So almost everybody in Newton does that. We are putting electric vehicle chargers all over the place. The library, new north Newton, and south high schools have solar panels with electric vehicle chargers attached. So we’re just we’re doing everything we possibly can. And we’re supporting legislation that would … allow the city to require all new construction to be all-electric, no fossil fuels allowed on new construction.
Cleo: Everything you’ve just described is completely indicative of why we need to focus on local communities as well.
Ann: Absolutely. Because when you think about it, after all, the feds are gonna say to the cities and states ‘do this’, or ‘here’s money for this’, but then the rest gets done at the local level.
And it’s people, it’s everyone’s actions that make up, I mean, that is the thing with climate change. And the real challenge at the local level is to change people’s behavior. Right? Because, understandably, this isn’t the thing that people get up in the morning and go to bed thinking about. I mean, I do, but most people don’t. And so we need to change behavior. And the really hard thing is we need to retrofit the existing building stock, which is going to be super expensive. The low-hanging fruit is really building new buildings to be all-electric. But we’ve got to deal with existing buildings. I think vehicles are actually less difficult because the vehicle fleet turns over much more frequently than building.
Cleo: Well, I think that it’s very important, and it’s exactly what you’ve done with the opt-out notion; the world has evolved in a way that it has become very easy to do things that are negative for the climate and making it easy to do things that are good for the climate and hard to do things which negatively impact the climate is where the solution can lie. That was such a fascinating conversation. Thank you so much for your time, Ann. I know you’re a busy woman. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do next and I hope I can visit Newton, with all the wonderful solar panels. I greatly appreciate all the work you’ve done to help pave the way for green energy. Thank you.
Ann: Pleasure talking to you, Cleo.
