Thanks to the pressure of activists throughout the summer and fall, the House and Senate came to an agreement recently about climate legislation. Although the formal period of the legislative session ended on July 31, both chambers have now returned into session to vote on the bill.
The House voted yesterday 128 to 17 in support of the bill. All 17 NO votes came from the Republican caucus.
The Senate had taken action earlier, voting on October 24 with a similarly large margin of 28 to 2. The 2 NO votes were Republicans Peter Durant (R-Spencer) and Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton).
The bill, although its main focus was siting and permitting reform, covers a number of areas (h/t Jess Nahigian from the Sierra Club whose excellent summary was a foundation for the below):
Siting & Permitting Reform
- Consolidation of local, state, and federal permits to streamline the permitting process
- Fixed timelines for the Energy Facilities Siting Board to make decisions
- Earlier community engagement in the siting and permitting process so that it is not treated like an afterthought
- Incorporation of a robust cumulative impact analysis to ensure that siting decisions take into account the historic burden of pollution faced by communities
Gas Transition
Although the bill did not go far as the Senate bill in accelerating the transition away from gas, it takes a number of important steps:
- Authorizes the sale and transmission of utility-scale geothermal
- Requires the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to consider the public interest in reducing GHG emissions and the availability of non-gas alternatives when assessing a petition to order a company to supply gas service
- Directs the DPU to consider climate goals, ratepayer risk, and alternatives when evaluating expansions into new territory
- Repeals the requirement that the DPU authorize gas companies to design programs to increase the availability of natural gas service for new customers
- Changes the mandate of the state’s gas leak repair program to be about remediation rather than replacement and adds language about factoring in emissions goals and the cost of stranded assets
Labor
- Requires applicants for state clean energy funding and energy storage procurement to submit records about their labor practices (including participation in apprenticeship programs) and factors these into the approval process
- Encourages the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to promote apprenticeship programs
- Creates a commission to study the impacts of the energy transition on the fossil fuel workforce
Renewables
- Extends the feasible duration for offshore wind contracts and energy storage project procurements from 20 years to 30 years
- Requires heavier weight of climate mandates in decisions by historic districts about approval of solar
- Creates a commission to study increasing solar canopies
Transportation
- Adds the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the commissioner of Divisions and Standards to the Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council and directs the Council to lead the deployment of EV charging infrastructure, and to study charging needs for the next decade
- Eliminates the barriers to EV charging infrastructure from condo associations, historic district commissions, and conservation districts
- Requires signage on highways and streets adjacent to charging locations with information helping drivers to locate them
- Requires the creation of additional regulations to facilitate EV infrastructure (and address environmental impacts of EV chargers) and provides additional funding to encourage EV adoption
- Allows government bodies to purchase electric school buses and charging infrastructure
Buildings
- Requires the administration to evaluate the potential of increasing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in each building owned or leased by the Commonwealth and to include such metrics in regular evaluations
- Expands the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center research purview to include embodied carbon and creates an embodied carbon intergovernmental coordination council
- Adds energy efficiency, GHG emissions reduction, and reductions in embodied carbon to the Board of Building Regulations’s mandate
- Adds low and moderate-income interests and the Mass Clean Energy Center to the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council, removes manufacturing industry interests, and requires the labor seat to go to the MA AFL-CIO president
Environmental Justice
- Codifies an office of Environmental Justice and Equity within the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs
- Requires the Department of Public Utilities to establish discounted rates for moderate-income consumers with distribution companies
