Rep. Stanley Lobbies for Passage of Clean Energy Legislation
(Boston, MA) – July 11, 2018 –In a letter to Speaker DeLeo and Chairman Sánchez, Rep. Stanley urges the House Committee on Ways and Means to allow debate on a bill that includes increasing the RPS to 3% annually (H.4575), removes the cap on net-metering (H.4577), and promotes more energy storage (H.4576), among other initiatives.
“The House needs to take action on a strong clean energy bill before the end of this legislative session to ensure the reduction of the Commonwealth’s dependency on fossil fuels, help the state meet its GHG reduction mandates, expand our clean energy industry, and promote a robust market for renewable resources,” said Rep. Stanley.
In June, Rep. Stanley urged House leaders to amend H.4575 with a stronger Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) mandate. Since then, the Senate passed comprehensive clean energy legislation (S.2564) which included a provision increasing the amount of renewable energy utilities are required to purchase from 1% to 3%. This increase would greatly accelerate the state’s transition to renewable energy sources, helping us get to 50% renewables by 2030.
In addition to increasing RPS, the Senate clean energy bill would also protect ratepayers from having to pay for the construction of gas pipelines and sets new emission targets for 2030 and 2040. Moreover, S.2564 would establish a formal 10-year moratorium on fracking and require the state’s pension fund to divest all fossil fuel company holdings. The bill would also establish a new target for energy storage (1,766 megawatts) by 2025. In regards to solar energy, S.2564 would remove the caps on the amount of solar power that customers can sell back to the grid and establish a target for solar energy production of 20% of the Commonwealth’s total electricity generation by 2020 and 30% by 2030. The bill would also delay the implementation of a minimum bill for solar producing customers to 2020, exempting public housing residents from this minimum billing and qualifying them for reimbursement for solar power at retail rates. Lastly, S.2564 would reduce the amount of time between procurements of offshore wind power from 18 months to 24 months so that the state can take advantage of federal subsidies set to expire about a year and a half from now.
“We need to pass legislation that will increase RPS to 3%, protect ratepayers from gas pipeline expansion, remove the cap on net-metering, promote energy storage, codify environmental justice into law, increase access to solar power for environmental justice communities, and create a detailed plan on how the Commonwealth should respond to climate change,” added Rep. Stanley.
Rep. Stanley supports provisions in Senate bill, many of which have individual companion bills pending in the House. He has written letters to Chairman Golden asking the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy to take action on RPS legislation, DPU reforms (H.3400), Environmental Justice (H.2913), and the Solar-For-All Act (H.3396). He also joined many of his colleagues in petitioning House Ways and Means to take action on S.2196, An Act providing for the establishment of a comprehensive adaptation management plan in response to climate change (CAMP).