Mass. energy chief highlights growth, more opportunity for renewables
PHOTO/SAM BONACCI
Maeve Vallely Bartlett, Massachusetts' secretary of energy and environmental affairs, addresses the Massachusetts Energy Summit on Tuesday morning.
The ongoing growth of renewable energy in Massachusetts and the jobs and independence it creates were highlighted by the state’s secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs at the eighth annual Massachusetts Energy Summit Tuesday morning.
Maeve Vallely Bartlett stressed the Bay State’s ongoing success in renewable energy during the morning keynote speech at the event, held at the DCU Center and hosted by the Worcester Business Journal. The state has earned the top ranking in energy efficiency of all 50 states through an emphasis on energy efficiency within the government and incentives to spread that efficiency through homes and businesses, she said.
Massachusetts has also grown its renewable energy production from 6 megawatts of power in 2007 to more than 750 today. The growth of renewable energy is both environmentally sound, while keeping money in the state, where the power is produced, Bartlett said.
However, Massachusetts cannot rest in the push for more renewable energy use, she said. The administration backed a bill this summer that would have up to 30 percent of the state’s energy come from clean energy sources.
“It’s that type of foresight that makes us national leaders in preparing and meeting the challenge of climate change,” Bartlett said.
As the state continues to tap into the resources of wind and solar, it’s important to ensure access to other forms of energy in the interim, Bartlett said in response to a question about natural gas pipelines. There are private pipeline projects underway, she said, but the administration is studying the state’s needs to ensure that demand for natural gas can be met, but is not expanded to a point where there is too much coming into the state.
“While we want natural gas and we understand we need to have it as a bridge, we don’t want to be subject to having such a large amount of natural gas infrastructure that squeezes out the clean energy resources that we want to get,” said Bartlett. “It’s a delicate balance and we understand that.”
The issue of clean energy is not just one of energy independence or the environment, she said, but of jobs. The state has experienced double-digit growth in the clean energy sector in the last four years, and is set to exceed 100,000 jobs in 2015.
“We are taking the first, crucial steps to leaving a cleaner and more secure energy future for the next generation,” said Bartlett.
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