Keep Mass moving toward clean energy

World leaders are meeting in France this week to discuss climate change and what we as a world can and must do to address the devastating effects of global warming. Many of those same conversations have been taking place here in our commonwealth for quite some time and have led to policies and legislation that directly address global warming.

One of the most effective steps the state has taken has been to pass legislation that fosters the use of solar power as a clean and renewable source of energy. The legislation has proved to be highly successful and Massachusetts has become an industry leader in this area. High on the senate’s list of priorities this year was to raise the net metering cap on solar energy in order to make it accessible to even more residents, municipalities and businesses. Unfortunately, on November 18th, the house and senate ended their formal sessions for 2015 without finding compromise on how to make this happen. We are now left without a cap lift until we return to formal sessions in the New Year.

The day before we ended formal sessions, the house passed H3854, An Act relative to solar energy, in response to a bill the senate sent to the house in July. Unlike the senate bill, H3854 slashed reimbursement rates, making community and commercial solar investment virtually unviable. Although the house bill did raise the net metering cap for both residential and commercial projects by 2%, it drastically cut support for commercial, low-income and community solar projects. It also established a minimum billing fee which would increase the costs for both new and existing solar customers.

In an attempt to keep the cap raise alive, the senate proposed an amendment to the house bill that raised the cap but kept in place some important solar incentives that were stripped from the house version. Though this amendment was not my ideal, I supported it because it raised the net metering cap and allowed solar projects that are currently on hold in territories where the cap has been reached, to move forward without completely gutting incentives for residents, communities, and businesses to move to solar energy.

But the house rejected the senate’s amendments, thus refusing any form of compromise.

The house, along with the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) and advocates for utility companies, maintain that H3854 protects ratepayers because they carry an undue burden for solar development in the Commonwealth, claims that experts have found to be untrue and unfounded. In fact, the Net Metering and Solar Task Force that was convened by the Legislature in 2014 found that for non-participating ratepayers, the net cost of our solar programs is $23/year for residential customers, $198/year for small commercial and industrial customers and $1620/year for large commercial customers –these are mere fractions of what solar opponents claimed.

Of course, we know that the benefits of solar power are not just limited to lower electric bills for solar users. By using solar, we become less dependent on fossil fuels, reduce our CO2 emissions, and lessen the significant social costs related to greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why I was so disappointed by the last-minute house bill and the lack of compromise and why I promise to continue to fight for our solar industry that provides 22,000 (and growing) jobs here. Massachusetts has become a leader in clean energy because we know the importance of preserving the environment for the generations that follow us – we must continue to work toward this goal. Ultimately, that means weighing the costs of clean energy with the benefits of a sustainable and clean environment. In my opinion, the benefits undoubtedly outweigh the costs.