Dive Brief:
- Massachusetts senators have introduced a broad clean energy bill that sets targets for energy storage and accelerates the state's transition to renewable power by raising the renewable portfolio standard's required growth rate from 1% to 3% annually.
- The omnibus energy package would also allow the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resource (DOER) to procure more offshore wind power and hydroelectricity to help meet requirements of the Global Warming Solutions Act.
- The state passed the Act in 2008, requiring at least an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, relative to 1990 levels. The new legislation is wide-ranging in impacts, including calling on the state pension fund to divest from fossil fuel holdings.
Dive Insight:
Massachusetts' omnibus energy plan is an ambitious attempt to grow the state's clean energy resources.
The bill would direct the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to develop rules and regulations that exceed those adopted by the United Nations Paris Climate Agreement, and would give the state authority under the Global Warming Solutions Act to monitor and regulate indirect emitters as well as direct emitters.
The proposal also sets a goal of 5,000 MW of offshore wind power for the state, and reduces the time between procurements of offshore wind power from 24 months to 18 months.
The proposals sets an energy storage target of 1,766 MW by 2025, and requires state regulators to set a 2030 target by 2020. Storage procurement targets will be reevaluated at least once every three years, and DOER would work to establish alternative compliance payments is storage targets are not met.
The bill also requires the Energy Facilities Siting Board to consider environmental impacts as well as price, when looking at energy projects, and would raise the required growth rate of the state's renewable portfolio standard from 1% to 3% annually.
But with debate just beginning the package of proposals is merely a starting point. Nevertheless, clean energy advocates praised lawmakers for their work.
David Ismay, senior attorney at Conservation Law Foundation, said in a statement that the "ambitious bill is a bold statement of our need to fight for the health and safety of our communities." The bill, he added, "gives us the opportunity to simultaneously reduce our emissions, bring good jobs to the region, and invigorate our neighborhoods.”
The State House News Service, however, notes that some of the ideas in the Senate bill have not typically been embraced in either the House or by Gov. Charlie Baker (R).
Massachusetts has been struggling to bring more clean energy into the state. Last month, it selected Eversource Energy's proposal to build a 192-mile transmission line to bring in hydroelectricity from Canada. However, the New Hampshire Siting Board subsequently rejected the project, throwing the plan into doubt.
