Dyson College of Arts and Sciences

Historically, outside of a rather small subset of economic and business operations, society had apparently been willing to accept the level of reliability provided by the grid. This appears to have changed in recent years. The New York Times reported that manufacturers of emergency generators are reporting strong increases in sales growth rates. Belson, Ken. "Power Grids Iffy, Populous Areas Go for Generators." Http://www. nytimes.com/2013/04/25/business/energy-environment/generators-become-must- have-appliances-in-storm-battered-areas.html?_r=1. The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2013. Web. " Leading manufacturers like Generac and Honda, however, said sales had been unusually strong in the last several years and that the percentage of standby units had risen steadily as Tropical Storm Irene, Hurricane Sandy and other major storms had led to widespread failures along the Eastern Seaboard." 8 There is a growing unease that in the future severe weather events will become more frequent and acute. Policymakers in the Northeast are planning for a future where a "new normal" will exist in patterns of extreme weather events. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg formed the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR). In June 2013, the task force issued "A Stronger, More Resilient New York", a report providing a detailed plan for broad-based investments in resiliency measures. A fundamental premise of the report is the existence of a shift in the historical pattern of extreme weather events. " Although New York is clearly at risk today, long term changes in climate will make many extreme events and chroming conditions worse." 9 On January 14, 2014, former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick unveiled a new Coordinated Climate Preparedness Initiative. Launched with $50 million in funding, the Initiative set aside $40 Million, 80% of the total allotted, to a new Community Clean Energy Resiliency program. The grant program is designed to protect citizens from interruptions in energy services due to severe storm events that are expected to be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. Community Clean Energy Resiliency Previous storms in Massachusetts and throughout the region have demonstrated the importance of maintaining energy resources at critical locations. In order to increase the resiliency of our grid, the Department of Energy Resources launched a $40 million municipal clean energy resilience grant program to protect citizens of the Commonwealth from interruptions in energy services due to severe storm events exacerbated by the effects of climate change. 10 This perspective of a future of weather patterns more severe and distinctly different from the past has promoted a debate on adaptation measures designed to invest more in resiliency today, to lower expected losses in the future. There is some evidence that the public has responded in a like manner. There appears to be more invested in measures to adapt to future extreme weather events than they had in the past. " The market has certainly increased, not just because of Sandy, but a plethora of weather events," said Tom Pernice, marketing manager in the home generator division at the American Honda Motor Company. 33

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