2024-05-31T14:45:07-05:00 2023-12-31 010523282 Berry Dunn McNeil & Parker LLC 2211 Congress St Portland ME 04102 990 2023-01-01 010518193 Acadia Center ACAD 2072366470 PO Box 583 Rockport ME 048560583 Daniel Sosland President 2072366470 2024-05-31 1 Daniel Sosland 999009999 1 Melissa Magoon CPA P01712842 2077752387 2024-05-31 2 AAL1 IAL1 2023 2023-04-26 12:10:37Z Daniel Sosland PO Box 583 Rockport ME 048560583 4141672 0 X https://acadiacenter.org/ X 1998 ME Acadia Center advances bold, effective, and equitable clean energy solutions for a livable climate and a stronger, more equitable economy. 11 10 18 10 0 0 1575151 3382002 0 0 8942 60421 -15446 -751 1568647 3441672 0 120000 0 0 1580035 1503430 0 0 113603 391498 480781 1971533 2104211 -402886 1337461 3778311 5211484 142136 179934 3636175 5031550 X Acadia Center advances bold, effective, and equitable clean energy solutions for a livable climate and a stronger, more equitable economy. 1 0 336364 120000 Energy Efficiency and Building Decarbonization:Acadia Center is transforming the region's building systems to make them more efficient and healthier. The project seeks to advance energy efficiency programs that provide incentives and support to consumers to improve the efficiency of their homes and businesses, shifting billions of utility dollars from purchasing power plant contracts into energy efficiency programs including through state energy efficiency planning bodies across the region as well as through emerging policy concepts such as Clean Heat Standards (CHS). The project focuses on transitioning buildings to clean, efficient, all-electric heating and cooling systems and pursues this work through coalitions, state policies, a building-science approach, and innovative methods that make energy efficiency programs easier for consumers to participate in, specifically in environmental justice, rural and other historically underserved communities. These efforts encompass improving weatherization and addressing pre-weatherization barriers for the region's aging building stock, driving flexible loads and grid-interactive buildings, and synchronizing in-building electrification strategies with broader community- and neighborhood-level solutions like networked geothermal. The project further works to sustain and advance energy efficiency as a resource at a regional level, where it contributes some 12-14% of the region's power needs. 589556 Clean Energy and Infrastructure:Acadia Center advocates for accelerating the deployment of clean energy on the power grid, from large-scale resources like offshore wind to local, distributed renewables like community and rooftop solar. This work extends to the complex area of reforms to remove barriers to clean power in the regional electricity grid, where our goals include articulating the consumer, health, environmental justice, and climate case against persistent reliance on fossil fuel for electricity in the region. In addition to overarching reform work, the organization has initiated a suite of new grid- and infrastructure-focused projects intended to improve the responsiveness of power grids to consumer, climate, and equity goals. These include creating a forum for northeast regional grid planning across New England, New York, and eastern Canada; a set of analyses on the barriers to and solutions for harmonious siting and community engagement around large-scale grid infrastructure projects; and a novel effort to plug municipalities into the important work of the regional grid operator and help them shape outcomes there to advance local and state policy priorities.Clean Energy:Shifting electric power generation to zero and low-carbon resources is central to Acadia Center's core program work. As building and transportation sectors electrify, securing renewables and clean energy resources on the grid is vital to ensuring adequate renewable supply to keep pace with rising demand, power vehicles and heat pumps with clean electrons, and deliver economic and public health benefits to local communities. Acadia Center is focused on accelerating the deployment of diverse renewable resources that are and will be part of an optimized renewable portfolio for the region, including offshore wind, onshore wind, utility-scale solar, community solar, rooftop solar, clean hydropower, and beyond. The program undertakes policy advocacy and market reforms needed to remove barriers and spur adoption at the local, state, and regional levels from renewable portfolio standards to net energy metering rules, solar incentive programs, and large-scale procurements.Acadia Center has long advocated for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) program, which has delivered over $6 billion in funds to invest in clean energy and consumer benefits in 11 participating states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region. We lead regional advocacy calls on RGGI, develop recommendations to the states and RGGI, Inc., and prepare analyses and reports on both the program's benefits and ways to improve it.Clean Grid:Acadia Center has long played an important advocacy role before ISO-NE, NEPOOL, and their respective stakeholder committees and bodies, such as the Consumer Liaison Group (CLG). In conjunction with this work, the organization launched a new Communities and Clean Grid project focused on providing energy education resource material about the power grid to municipalities in the region. The objective of this project is to equip and empower local communities to understand better and potentially engage in and influence deliberative ISO New England grid planning and management processes, aiming to 1) place local communities on an equal footing with other stakeholders seeking to influence ISO-NE grid planning and management, and 2) enlist them in the region-wide effort to implement equitable, affordable clean energy solutions.Northeast Grid Planning Forum:The Northeast Grid Planning Forum (NGPF) is a deliberative stakeholder dialogue designed to formalize and deepen collaboration across northeast U.S. states and Canadian provinces around interregional energy systems and grid coordination. Acadia Center and Nergica, independent US and Canada-based non-profit corporations serve as co-convenors for this effort. The dialogue will be convened via three distinct roundtable processes: 1) environmental justice and community mobilization, 2) interregional planning, and 3) clean energy procurement and market development. Interregional grid coordination in this context includes a range of planning, investment, market design, community benefits, and operational approaches. Northeast states already share electrical connections with their Canadian neighbors, but a more holistic approach to planning and implementing improvements to the regional energy system will deliver significant value to New England ratepayers.Infrastructure and Community Engagement:Acadia Center is addressing the issue that to meet climate goals successfully, a large increase in renewable generation will require sufficient transmission and other infrastructure to be built. That increase will occur when communities and stakeholders value and support infrastructure development. This will require improvements in permitting processes to be inclusive and trustworthy of community and stakeholder participation. One near-term project Acadia Center is undertaking to understand better community needs in infrastructure siting and permitting is a partnership with colleagues at the Clean Air Task Force (CATF). Acadia Center and CATF are working together to design and understand better and help overcome barriers to the responsible siting and development of clean infrastructure in the region, including barriers related to community engagement and needs in permitting and siting processes. 350027 Utility Innovation and Accountability: Acadia Center advances thought-leading reforms in state and regional utility regulation so all parties engaged in the energy system utilities, regulators, and consumers work together to achieve shared goals. The program builds awareness about how outdated financial incentives influence utility decision-making and can misalign with clean energy deployment, climate goals, and ratepayer benefits. The program has significant reforms of public utility commissions and state regulatory oversight so that they consider climate impacts and equity imperatives alongside reliability, affordability, and safety. Program goals seek to catalyze modernization of the grid and the utility system of the future, with a focus on performance-based regulation, utility performance incentive mechanisms, rate-design for electrification and DERS, integrated distribution system planning (gas/electric), non-wires alternatives, and inclusive stakeholder engagement. 479847 Climate Policy and Solutions:Every program and project at Acadia Center touches on climate policy and solutions. Climate Policy represents a dedicated set of activities specifically focused on addressing opportunities for states and the region to achieve overarching climate targets, which require deep, economy-wide decarbonization and phaseout of the use of fossil fuels. Program area activities include engaging with states on comprehensive climate planning studies, modeling, and energy system strategies. This work advances long-term, "big picture thinking," which is needed to ensure that comprehensive and cohesive strategies for decarbonizing entire economies are considered. Climate Policy includes work in Acadia Center's CLEAN-E Analysis team. It embraces three project areas that are essential to the achievement of near- and long-term climate targets at a state and regional level: 1) Fossil Fuel Phase-Out, and 2) State and Regional Climate Policies, which includes work on programs that set binding caps on emissions (e.g., RGGI, cap-and-invest).Climate, Energy, and Equity Analysis (CLEAN-E):Acadia Center develops analytic materials and independent, thought-leading recommendations across various clean energy and climate issues. Work products created by our Climate, Energy, and Equity Analysis program include 1) comprehensive, proactive reports, 2) analytically focused comments to government agencies and filings with regulatory bodies, and 3) rapid response offense/defense analysis. In recent years, we have produced groundbreaking reports about building electrification, the RGGI program, and issues around claims for clean fuels. Work performed in 2023 includes comprehensive assessments of the climate impacts of fuels such as hydrogen and "renewable natural gas; in-depth analyses of technical issues related to shaping an effective Clean Heat Standard for building decarbonization; and original research that found sizeable public health impacts of smaller fossil fuel powerplants that fall under the radar in policy arenas.Fossil Fuel Phase-Out:To meet climate goals, the region must almost entirely phase out its use of fossil gas, commonly referred to as natural gas and other fossil fuels. Acadia Center seeks to replace fossil gas with clean energy alternatives in electricity production, building heating, and transportation. This conversion necessarily requires the downsizing and decommissioning fossil fuel infrastructure and supply chain networks, such as gas distribution system transition. This project advances proposals to level the playing field for renewables and efficient electric technologies and shrink the reliance on fossil fuels across the region and all program areas. As the electric sector faces an approaching need to develop and deploy dispatchable, emissions-free resources (DEFR) such as long-duration storage, green hydrogen, and other potential resources, Acadia Center is engaging closely on the question of how to address reliability and resource adequacy role currently served by fossil fuels, including reliance on dual-fuel oil/gas and LNG resources for winter reliability.Transportation and Mobility:Acadia Center accelerates the transition to low-carbon transportation. We advance policy approaches that address transportation emissions and invest in equitable access to clean mobility solutions, including solutions that specifically focus on disproportionate impacts and gaps in service in underserved urban and rural communities. The solutions we promote range from electric vehicles and zero-emission buses and trucks to transit, rail, and biking/walking infrastructure, among other measures to reduce emissions and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). We strive to help states evolve the way they and their DOTs plan for and invest in their traditional transportation assets to a model that is compatible with emissions reduction requirements while also ensuring that the region's construction workforces see a vibrant future even as funding is shifted away from, e.g., highway expansion projects. Our vision also includes place-based decarbonization interventions at key hubs within the region's transportation system, including ports, freight terminals, and airports. After the Transportation and Climate Initiative's (TCI) cessation, Acadia Center continues to coordinate advocates working on transportation and equity issues. It may resume focusing on the potential for cap-and-invest to drive equitable transportation emissions reductions through broader economywide models.Equity and Environmental Justice:Embedded across Acadia Center's work is addressing climate and clean energy policies and solutions designed to improve the lives of all residents and specifically redress the detrimental impacts of a fossil fuel economy on lower-income urban and rural communities. Acadia Center internally applies diversity, equity, and environmental justice through staff discussions, materials, approaches, and engagement. Programs seek to connect and build relationships with community-based organizations and diverse stakeholders to improve energy system decisions and planning to be inclusive and responsive to community needs. These efforts seek to place and keep environmental justice solutions at the forefront of state and regional initiatives that formerly overlooked this vital imperative.Communications and Public Engagement:A core focus of Acadia Center's approach to climate is to consider how the organization's program efforts should resonate with decision-makers, media, communities, and the broader public. To those goals, program work includes developing educational and explanatory materials that raise awareness about the benefits of a clean energy economy in accessible, digestible formats. Using top-notch graphic design, these innovative materials connect clean energy and climate progress with issues of concern to the public's daily lives, such as economic prosperity, equity, health, quality of life, and climate benefits. Acadia Center staff participate in numerous public forums and produce original analyses and reports. In 2023, the organization launched a new Climate and Energy Explainer Series that has addressed complex issues that the organization is addressing in its program work, such as clean energy technologies available on the power grid, the lifecycle implications of claims for "renewable natural gas; what a Clean Heat Standard is and why it can be a powerful building decarbonization tool if done correctly and other topics. The Climate and Energy Explainer Series will continue with monthly reports throughout 2024. 479847 1755794 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 14 0 1 18 1 0 1 CA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 11 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 ME AR AL CA FL GA KS KY MA MD MI MN NC NH NJ NY OR RI SC UT VA WI CT X X X Daniel Sosland 2072366470 PO Box 583 Rockport ME 048560583 Daniel Sosland President 40.00 X X 243295 0 23093 Daniel Hildreth Co-Chair 1.00 X X 0 0 0 Phyllis Theermann Co-Chair 1.00 X X 0 0 0 Elizabeth Carroll Vice Chair 1.00 X X 0 0 0 Eric Graber-Lopez Treasurer 1.00 X X 0 0 0 Joyce Kung Secretary 1.00 X X 0 0 0 John DeVillars Director 1.00 X 0 0 0 Peter Rothstein Director 1.00 X 0 0 0 Mitch Tyson Director 1.00 X 0 0 0 Don E Wineberg Director 1.00 X 0 0 0 Daryl Wright Director 1.00 X 0 0 0 Benjamin Butterworth Dir. Climate/Energy/Equity 40.00 X 107795 0 6360 351090 0 29453 2 0 1 0 0 311499 3070503 3870 3382002 60421 60421 700000 700000 0 0 Loss on Currency Excha 900099 -751 -751 -751 3441672 0 0 59670 X 120000 120000 266388 239810 12604 13974 1009928 911019 46227 52682 56073 49395 3564 3114 66334 58435 4215 3684 104707 92238 6654 5815 66693 66693 823 819 4 242292 157954 81428 2910 12361 5705 1573 5083 38305 24475 1248 12582 54323 49977 2173 2173 3322 2985 97 240 6203 6066 65 72 21579 19853 863 863 7686 2864 4698 124 Miscellaneous 12170 2400 953 8817 Communications 10652 8692 1739 221 Books and Subscriptions 4372 3107 16 1249 2104211 1755794 234814 113603 X 150001 2496 3099240 2743008 97403 976165 14414 25189 145002 143398 23183 1604 302890 1345369 25105 16239 66075 101414 3778311 5211484 53786 65111 88350 114823 142136 179934 X 3612841 3464566 23334 1566984 3636175 5031550 3778311 5211484 1337461 57914 0 X 0 1 X 0 0 X 1918983 2396957 2506882 1575151 3382002 11779975 1918983 2396957 2506882 1575151 3382002 11779975 4404845 7375130 28170 11476 5379 8942 60421 114388 11894363 13877 0.62010 0.65210 X RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED 0 13598 13598 2090613 2104211 255211 63803 0 0 247674 257483 248577 255211 1008945 1513418 10599 35073 13775 13598 73045 61919 64371 62144 63803 252237 378356 145002 143398 1604 1604 Deferred Compensation 98584 Operating Lease Liability 16239 114823 X 3421711 57914 57914 3363797 77875 77875 3441672 2026336 0 2026336 77875 77875 2104211 Part X, Line 2: The Organization is exempt from federal and state income taxes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) and has been determined not to be a private foundation within the meaning of Section 509(a) of the Code. The Organization is required to assess whether it is more likely than not a tax position will be sustained upon examination on the technical merits of the position assuming the taxing authority has full knowledge of all information. If the tax position does not meet the more likely than not recognition threshold, the benefit of that position is not recognized in the financial statements. The Organization has determined there are no amounts to record as assets or liabilities related to uncertain tax positions. Part XI, Line 4b - Other Adjustments: Consulting Fees 77,875. Part XII, Line 4b - Other Adjustments: Consulting Fees 77,875. 1 North America 0 0 Grant Acadia Center and Nergica will launch the "Northeastern Grid Planning Forum" a durable, deliberative stakeholder process designed to formalize and deepen collaboration amongst the northeast US states and provinces around interregional system planning, transmission development and clean energy procurement. The respective provinces and states will participate on a voluntary basis and will develop a shared toolset. 120000 0 0 0 0 0 0 120000 0 120000 North America Acadia Center and Nergica will launch the "Northeastern Grid Planning Forum" a durable, deliberative stakeholder process designed to formalize and deepen collaboration amongst the northeast US states and provinces around interregional system planning, transmission development and clean energy procurement. The respective provinces and states will participate on a voluntary basis and will develop a shared toolset. 120000 Wire Transfer 0 Book 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Part I, Line 2: To ensure the responsible and transparent use of incoming grants and shared grants with international partners, Acadia Center utilizes a comprehensive control system. This includes thorough pre-award due diligence on both donors and partners, clear agreements outlining terms and conditions, milestone-based fund disbursements, and stringent monitoring and reporting requirements. All grant-related documentation will be meticulously maintained, and compliance with relevant laws and regulations will be strictly enforced. The Deputy Director, Finance and Operations, alongside the executive leadership team, will oversee these controls, which will be reviewed annually by the executive committee to ensure ongoing effectiveness and compliance. X X X 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Daniel Sosland President 215724 0 0 0 27571 0 14640 0 8453 0 266388 0 0 0 Part I, Line 4b During calendar year 2023, Daniel Sosland participated in a 457f plan but there were no contibutions made. Form 990, Part III, line 2 Acadia Center undertook two new specific projects in 2023. The Communities and Clean Grid project is exploring energy education and outreach with communities around New England regarding their knowledge and interest in the activities of the regional grid operator, ISO-New England. The other project is the Northeast Grid Planning Forum. This project is engaging with stakeholders in a dialogue process to ascertain interest in advancing greater coordination of bordering power grids in Northeast North America. Greater coordination could provide substantial consumer, equity, cost, system reliability and climate benefits. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 11b A copy of Form 990 is provided in final draft form to the board upon receipt from the independent accounting firm. The board is provided an opportunity to review the 990 and discuss it at a regular or special board meeting. Acadia Center then files Form 990 after board comment and review. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 12c Conflicts are monitored by requiring staff to identify any activities they seek to engage in during or outside the scope of employment that might impact Acadia Center. These issues are brought to the president's attention, who then determines whether there is a conflict; the finance and operations director is also included in that process. Acadia Center staff participate in standing conference calls each week that offer opportunities to raise questions around any issue that might raise an actual or appearance of conflicts and are discussed with the team on the call. Acadia Center has a standing policy to not solicit donations or other revenue from private corporations, including but not limited to utilities and other energy companies, and to selectively seek government funding only when it supplements and furthers the Organization's mission and does not present any actual or appearance of conflicts. Form 990, Part VI, Section B, line 15 The board's Executive Committee reviews the president's salary level in a closed session. Acadia Center management researches and provides the board with summary memos comparing the salary level to positions at other non-profits. The president's compensation is compared to similar positions at regional organizations, program directors at national organizations, and organization founding officers. For other employees, Acadia Center's procedure is for the president and supervisors in the staff Executive Committee to establish individual compensation levels supported by input from other staff, peer groups, and field research. Acadia Center reviews compensation levels of employees of compatible non-profits and government positions through the information available in 990 filings, GuideStar, conversations with other organizations, and salary surveys when available. Form 990, Part VI, Section C, line 19 Acadia Center seeks to fully comply with any public inspection requirement, provides materials on its website, and offers to make materials available for public inspection upon request. 990 returns and annual reports are available to the public. Form 990, Part IX, line 11g Other Professional Fees: Program service expenses 157,954. Management and general expenses 3,553. Fundraising expenses 2,910. Total expenses 164,417. Consulting Fees: Program service expenses 0. Management and general expenses 77,875. Fundraising expenses 0. Total expenses 77,875. Form 990, Part X, Line 10: Land, Buildings, and Equipment Section 1.263(a)-3(n) Election: Acadia Center PO Box 583 Rockport, ME 04856-0583 EIN: 01-0518193 Acadia Center is electing to capitalize repair and maintenance costs under Regulation Section 1.263(a)-3(n).