Here’s what’s in the new Mass. climate and clean energy bill | WBUR News

Nov 05, 2024

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Another year, another sweeping climate bill in Massachusetts.

This year’s bill builds on big climate laws passed in 2021 and 2022, and, if signed into law, would make it easier — and faster — to build the solar and wind farms, transmission lines and other pieces of energy infrastructure Massachusetts needs to meet its mid-century climate goals.

Lawmakers had hoped to get a bill to Gov. Maura Healey this summer. But negotiations broke down in the 11th hour, leaving the issue to languish as lawmakers left Beacon Hill for their home districts.

Fast-forward a few months and lawmakers have come up with a package of energy provisions they believe will pass both the House and Senate. But its fate has again been held up, this time by partisan squabbling. Despite this, lawmakers say they still expect the climate bill to gain approval by the end of the year.

At 139 pages, the bill makes for some pretty dense reading. Luckily, we read it for you.

Here is what you need to know:

Massachusetts needs to build a lot of new renewable energy infrastructure — and quickly — to stay on track with its climate plans. That means everything from solar farms and battery storage facilities, to transmission lines and electrical substations. The problem is, the current permitting process is complicated and tedious. Developers often need to get permission from a dozen state and local agencies, which can take years. Plus, local residents often feel they have no say in where infrastructure is built — or “sited,” in energy industry lingo.

To fix this, the new bill aims to overhaul the state’s siting and permitting process. If it becomes law, all of the changes must take effect by March 2026.

Because the energy system of the future will require so much new infrastructure, communities throughout the state will likely share some of this burden. Still, some places are more suitable for development than others. Most people agree, for instance, that it is more desirable to put a large solar project on an old landfill instead of cutting down a forest.

The bill requires state energy officials to rank these preferences and develop a “site suitability” framework to help municipalities and the Energy Facilities Siting Board (the state body in charge of reviewing large projects) evaluate proposals.

Under the current system, people living near proposed projects often learn about them only after a developer has finalized plans and is applying for permits. This leaves anyone with concerns limited opportunities to challenge the location or design. If this bill becomes law, developers will be required to do community outreach and hold public meetings before they begin collecting permits.

The bill also establishes a new state agency, the Office of Environmental Justice and Equity, to help individuals, community groups and municipalities participate in the siting and permitting process. And it creates an “Intervenor Trust Fund” to help those stakeholders pay for lawyers and independent experts.

The bill requires a “cumulative impact analysis” for all large renewable and clean energy projects. This analysis — based on criteria state officials must design — would go beyond traditional environmental assessments. In addition to looking at how a project might impact local air and water quality, the analysis would examine whether a community has experienced a lot of industrial development in the past, and how this new project might add to that burden. In certain situations, developers may have to compensate communities with payments, workforce development programs or other improvement projects. This is known as a community benefit agreement.

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To streamline the project review process, the bill consolidates state, regional and local permits into one master permit; it sets deadlines for how long the review can take; and it puts limits on the appeals process.

For large clean energy projects (defined as more than 25 megawatts of power generation or 100 megawatt-hours of storage), the state Energy Facilities Siting Board would be in charge of the review. The board would be required to issue or reject a permit within 15 months.

For small projects (defined as 25 megawatts or fewer of electricity generation, or 100 megawatt-hours or fewer of storage), municipalities would retain control over the permitting process. The master permit for small projects must be issued or rejected within 12 months. In certain cases, like if a town doesn’t have the resources to conduct the review within a year, a small project could be sent to the state siting board instead.

For both small and large projects, applications would get automatic approval if the 12 or 15 month deadline isn’t met. However, if too many projects receive this automatic approval within a year, the legislature would revisit the process to determine whether changes are needed.

The new bill would change the state’s definition of “clean energy.” In addition to sources like wind and solar, it would include nuclear fission, as well as technologies that remove carbon dioxide from the air or reduce the amount of carbon used to produce and transport products like building materials.

The bill also allows the state to coordinate with other New England states to sign long-term contracts with the two remaining nuclear power plants in the region: Seabrook Station in New Hampshire and Millstone in Connecticut. Healey is reportedly in talks with Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont about an energy deal that would involve Millstone.

Because state officials envision an electric system heavily reliant on energy sources like wind and solar, it will be crucial to find ways to store that energy for times when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. This can mean lots of big batteries, like the one National Grid operates on Nantucket, or could mean strategies like pumped hydroelectric and thermal storage.

As of last February, Massachusetts had installed a total of 550 megawatt-hours of storage. The bill says the state must more than double that capacity by 2025 and increase it nearly tenfold by 2030, to 5,000 megawatt-hours.

There’s a hot debate about the best way to bring big important resources like offshore wind projects and batteries online. Should the state continue to hold competitive auctions and direct utilities to sign contracts with the winners, or should this be left to the market? The bill directs the Department of Energy Resources to study the question and report back to the legislature by July 1, 2025.

Homeowners in historic districts are often unable to put solar panels on their roofs because of how they would change the character and aesthetic of the area. Under the new bill, it should be easier to get permission to go solar because historic commissions will be required to “give substantial weight to the threat posed by climate change and to the commonwealth’s obligation to meet statewide greenhouse gas emission limits when ruling on applications.

The bill also directs the Department of Energy Resources to come up with ways to encourage more solar canopies — the structures that sometimes cover parking lots, for instance. This report is due to the legislature by June 31, 2025.

Gasoline and diesel-powered cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles account for 37% of greenhouse gases in Massachusetts, making the transportation sector the single largest source of climate-warming emissions in the state. A report card issued last year found that electric vehicle adoption isn't growing fast enough to meet the state's climate goals.

A major obstacle to broader EV adoption is so-called “range anxiety,” or the fear among drivers that they won’t be able to complete a trip because their battery will run out before they can find a charger. One remedy for range anxiety is a robust public charging system.

The new climate bill directs the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to monitor EV chargers and make sure they're reliable, widely available and distributed equitably across the state. The agency would also have to track prices, frequency of use and “whether reliability varies by the income of municipalities or neighborhoods or by regions of the commonwealth.”

The bill also tells the state to forecast EV charging demand on major roadways and identify sites for more charging capacity, and it requires electric utilities to make infrastructure investment plans to meet the anticipated demand.

It’s fairly simple to set up a home charging system if you live in a single-family home with a driveway or garage. But things can get complicated if you rely on street parking or live in a multifamily development. The new bill aims to make this easier.

It requires the state to allow more “pole-mounted” and “right of way” EV chargers, so people who park on the street have a way to charge their vehicles. (A pole-mounted charger is one that attaches directly to a utility pole or power line. A right of way charger is one that connects to a home or building but crosses a sidewalk or other right of way.)

The bill also restricts the ability of homeowners associations to block installations in places like condominiums. And it says historic and neighborhood conservation commissions “shall not prohibit or unreasonably restrict an owner from installing electric vehicle supply equipment.”

The new climate bill contains two other notable EV-related provisions. First, it directs the state to fund the state’s EV incentive program, MOR-EV, through 2027. And second, it directs the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs to review the feasibility of a 2022 law that bans car dealerships from selling new gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles after 2035. The review would need to take into account the current state of charging infrastructure, the electric grid and vehicle availability.

Since the law passed, several car manufacturers have scaled back plans to go all-electric or roll out new electric models of popular cars. And while EV sales overall are still increasing, the annual rate of growth has slowed in recent years. Hybrid vehicles, meanwhile, are increasingly popular.

One of the stickier topics lawmakers tackled this session is natural gas — specifically how to facilitate a transition away from this planet-warming fuel. After many months of negotiations, lawmakers from both chambers said they’ve come up with a package of provisions they believe are up to the task.

The new bill doesn’t ban gas companies from building more pipelines and growing their service areas, but it puts a lot of tough new restrictions in place. At the same time, it allows utilities to build more networked geothermal projects like the one Eversource is piloting in Framingham to provide an alternative — and cleaner — form of heating and cooling.

If this bill becomes law, homeowners who petition the the Department of Public Utilities for a natural gas hookup under the state’s “right to service” law would also have a harder time getting approval, because department officials would have to consider whether the request complies with the state’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and whether there are feasible alternatives for heating, hot water and cooking appliances.

And finally, the new bill changes the state program that incentivizes gas utilities to replace leaky underground pipes. Instead of encouraging costly pipe replacements, lawmakers prioritized short-term repairs or retiring stretches of pipeline.

While the overhaul of the siting and permitting process, and the changes to natural gas policy have received the most attention, there are several other important provisions in the new climate bill.