Over a comprehensive deliberation period, the Massachusetts Legislature struggled to bridge sustainable energy companies’ goals to expand their infrastructure with its own plan to transition from fossil fuels to Massachusetts’ new climate law — until Tuesday.
A Clean Energy Act signed by Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday will create more jobs in the energy field, allow businesses to expand production quickly and lower energy prices for residents in the long term by making it easier for sustainable energy companies to obtain permits to expand their facilities. It will also expand electric vehicle accessibility and clean heating options for Massachusetts residents.
“This bill cuts away the red tape that has held us back for too long,” Healey said in a press conference on Tuesday. “It clears the way for us to ramp up clean energy production from generation to transmission, to affordable access in homes and businesses.”
The joint commission for the bill sought opinions from members of sustainable energy companies, lobbyists, environmental organizations, advocates and municipalities to ensure a comprehensive plan to bring about “bold change,” Healey said.
The commission met 13 times for hourslong meetings with a legal advisory team meeting weekly, said Rebecca Tepper, Massachusetts secretary of the executive energy and environmental affairs.
“This bill will take what was a very complicated, long, difficult siting process and streamline, make it better for stakeholders, better for the developers, and better for the Commonwealth,” said Zachary Gerson, a lawyer who supported the joint commission advising Gov. Healey.
Prior to the passage of the bill, infrastructure businesses were often required to apply for multiple, separate permits at the state and local levels of government, Gerson said. The revised siting and permitting process will consolidate these applications and speed up the approval timeline, he said.
The process’s bureaucratic obstacles stem from years of cities and towns implementing regulations to protect their residents from unwanted developments, said Michael J. Barrett, senate chair of the Environmental Joint Legislative Committee.
“What we’ve done is rebalanced,” Barrett said. “We’ve preserved leverage for neighborhood groups, and for towns and cities, but we now balance that with a way to actually work your way through the bureaucratic maze.”
Eversource, a company that worked with the commission, expressed gratitude for how the bill’s sitting and permitting reform will quicken their economic growth and support Massachusetts’ migration to clean energy.
“A more efficient, streamlined permitting process is essential to enabling the infrastructure upgrades that are necessary to support the Commonwealth’s clean energy transition while meeting our customer’s expectations for reliable and affordable power,” William Hinkle, media relations manager at Eversource wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press.
While the law deals heavily with infrastructure, the commission also focused on the state’s overarching goal to shift Massachusetts away from fossil fuels and towards clean heat, said Hessann Farooqi, executive director of the Boston Climate Action Network.
However, the cost of renewable energy and distribution methods will be expensive as the gas and electric grids grow, Barrett said.
“Most folks involved with this bill wanted just to charge people for the electric system half of the equation and ignore giving people relief on the gas side of the equation,” Barrett said. “The Senate insisted on a vote, and I’m very pleased [that] at the last minute we managed to salvage the second half of the agenda.”
Farooqi said it was important that renewable energy companies agreed to the gas transition now because it would be difficult to get their attention in the future when their policy is not at stake.
Energy prices for residents are a primary concern as Massachusetts transitions from fossil fuels.
Gas prices are predicted to increase exponentially in upcoming years regardless of competing renewable infrastructure, Farooqi said.
“This is a ticking time bomb for many reasons,” Farooqi said. “Those are costs that are being shifted onto all of us as ratepayers.”
Energy prices will most likely still increase for residents as Massachusetts transitions to new energy infrastructure, but these temporary price hikes are insignificant in comparison to continuing with fossil fuels, he said.
Community members are already struggling to pay their energy bills, Farooqi said. However, it could get worse if we continue to delay the decommissioning of gas infrastructure.
“In shaping this bill, the legislature then worked very thoughtfully with dedication and passed a bill that delivers the bold change that we need,” Healey said. “States across the country are wrestling with these issues right now, trying to find the best way forward, and in that race, Massachusetts is first.”
