Green Communities Creates Green Economy
Back in November of 2007, when the Green Communities Act (GCA) was unveiled by Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, House Speaker Sal DiMasi, and other legislative leaders, Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) hailed it as a “comprehensive energy bill” that would place “an improved focus on cost-saving energy efficiency programs and renewable energy for both citizens and business owners throughout the commonwealth.”
While AIM more recently has expressed concerns, stating in a letter to the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) that the GCA “has resulted in a plethora of uncoordinated, conflicting and experimental programs,” our efforts to date support the opposite conclusion.
Just over a year after enactment of the GCA, the commonwealth now has a consistent and forward-looking energy policy for the first time in at least 20 years, finally moving energy efficiency and renewable energy into the heart of our energy strategy.
In energy efficiency, the state has updated its building code to international standards, and created an optional “stretch” energy code for communities that want to reach higher.
For residential and business customers, the commonwealth is pursuing a market-based approach that puts energy efficiency into competition with power generation based on cost — whenever efficiency improvements are cheaper than running more power plants, utilities are required to invest in them.
The result will be money-saving opportunities that reach more customers and provide deeper energy savings, putting Massachusetts on course to meet one quarter of its electricity needs through efficiency, rather than generation, by 2020.
At the same time, the commonwealth is promoting renewable energy in a variety of ways, as specified by the GCA — increasing renewable energy mandates on utilities through the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS); requiring long-term contracts to help wind power developers finance their projects; providing better “net metering” benefits for owners of on-site renewable energy that have excess electricity to sell back into the grid; allowing electric distribution utilities to own solar power that serves their customers and dedicating a portion of the RPS requirement to supporting solar energy installations.
These are all distinct requirements but they all work toward the same goal: replacing fossil fuels and their volatile prices, which are imported into our state from across the ocean, with clean, renewable energy from homegrown sources that reduces the emission of greenhouse gases associated with global climate change.
We are moving forward on many fronts but toward one goal: an efficient, clean energy economy.
An efficient, clean energy economy means jobs. Solar power companies doubled their Massachusetts em-ployment from roughly 1,000 to 2,000 between 2007 and 2008, and expect to grow another 50 percent this year, while energy efficiency firms increased their employment more than 40 percent last year, and are projecting 50 percent growth this year, in the midst of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.
We are growing an industry of the future here in Massachusetts with energy dollars residents and businesses would otherwise be sending out of state or overseas. It will make us a stronger and more prosperous commonwealth.
Ian Bowles is Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs for Massachusetts.
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