I’m disappointed that the conference committee did not get a climate bill through prior to July 31. From my recent conversations with Sen. Mark, there’s a possibility of getting a climate bill through during informal session (by calling a formal session) but they would likely have to do that pretty quick with the election coming in November).
It’s particularly irksome as the Governor has really hung her hat on climate initiatives and biotech sector growth as being the two major drivers of the Commonwealth’s industry in the next 5 years. We can’t get that going until there’s some good incentives and targets for industry and markets to focus on moving forward. There still are excellent incentives from federal Infrastructure Bill and Inflation Reduction Act, but it would have been good to tie those to state carrots as well.
I am in favor of the measures supporting:
- Establishing a site suitability methodology to mitigate or avoid social & environmental impacts of clean energy infrastructure siting.
- Establishing a public participation office supporting intervenors and community engagement.
- Appointing a municipal representative on the Energy Facilities Siting Board. This is kind of non-negotiable in my mind.
- Helping to streamline the electric school bus procurement practices for municipalities.
- Providing guidance on Community Benefit Agreements to support munis with templates as they start off on dealing with the process of implementing these agreements. The Cannabis Control Commission shows the dangers of getting off on the wrong foot with regard to this.
- Creating and regularly updating a Clean Energy Dashboard for municipalities and residents to get clear information and to find assistance with residential and municipal opportunities in this “new” industry. Communication and outreach is key to getting these clean energy options out there quickly, effectively and to build trust in state and local governance surrounding CEI.
There were amendments that needed to go into the Senate version of the bill to ensure siting was done within a 12-15 month window with local input/review (I believe it was Sen. Mark’s amendment).
Protecting low/mod income ratepayers from these exhorbitant rate hikes we see in Western MA (and anywhere in MA for that matter).
Improving access to EV charging stations (we are lucky, we have 8 in Lenox and there are 8-10 in Lee right off of I-90).
Conversion to heat pumps (decarbonizing) is especially needed and useful in that they provide excellent heating and cooling options and with the changing climate, cooling is as important for a significant part of the summer now.
I think it’s important to repair natural gas lines, but I do not believe we should be engaging in encouraging replacement of aging natural gas lines/systems and should instead incentivize households with no interest loans and equipment incentives to convert to heat pumps.
Our family has a heat pump, my husband has an electric vehicle and we have solar panels on our roof and battery storage in our home. It’s been a game changer with no loss of power since we’ve installed the solar nearly 2 years ago. We used to lose power at least 4-5 times a year–winter to summer–we don’t have that issue anymore and we get monthly checks for 10 months of the year from National Grid for the energy that flows to the grid from our surplus in sunny months. It cost us, but we feel very good about what we did and that our home will be climate forward from here on out. We believe the payback will take about 7 more years.
I am happy to answer any questions at mbmitts24@gmail.com. I also STILL NEED FUNDS to fund my campaign. PLEASE DONATE at my website: www.mitts4staterep.com
Thanks–Marybeth