Senate releases climate policy package

Amid increasing reports of environmental devastation worldwide, the Massachusetts State Senate has taken major new steps to advance the state’s approach to combating global warming. The Senate’s next generation climate policy package — An Act to Accelerate the Transition of Cars, Trucks and Buses to Carbon-Free Power (S.2476), An Act Setting Next Generation Climate Policy (S.2477), and An Act Relative to Energy Savings Efficiency (S.2478) — was released by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means today, and is scheduled to be debated by the full Senate next week.

Amid increasing reports of environmental devastation worldwide, the Massachusetts State Senate has taken major new steps to advance the state’s approach to combating global warming. The Senate’s next generation climate policy package — An Act to Accelerate the Transition of Cars, Trucks and Buses to Carbon-Free Power (S.2476), An Act Setting Next Generation Climate Policy (S.2477), and An Act Relative to Energy Savings Efficiency (S.2478) — was released by the Senate Committee on Ways and Means today, and is scheduled to be debated by the full Senate next week.

Key provisions of the climate policy package include:

• Setting a statewide greenhouse gas limit for the year 2050 of “net zero” emissions. To achieve this, An Act Setting Next-Generation Climate Policy requires the state to hit near-term limits in 2025, 2030, and every five years thereafter; set sub-limits for transportation, buildings, solid waste, natural gas distribution, and other major sectors; and make implementation plans that are “clear, comprehensive, and specific.”
• Establishing the Massachusetts Climate Policy Commission. The commission would be a new, independent public watchdog to oversee the government’s handling of the unfolding crisis of climate change. Commissioners will be charged with offering a nonpartisan, science-based view of the problem, as it plays out in Massachusetts. Attention will be paid to natural, economic, and demographic impacts and risks.
• Reflecting the price of carbon. Under the bill, the Administration would be free to choose among various market-based forms of pricing carbon — including a revenue-neutral fee or a regional “cap and trade” system similar to the Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) — but would have to do so by Jan. 1, 2022, for transportation; Jan. 1, 2025, for commercial, industrial and institutional buildings; and Jan. 1, 2030, for residential buildings. Any mechanism would be implemented so as to minimize the impact on low-income households, disadvantaged communities, and vulnerable manufacturing sectors.
• Providing legislative direction to the Department of Public Utilities (DPU), the state’s primary energy oversight agency, for the first time. Compensating for a decades-long omission, the bill assigns the DPU a mission statement. It requires the agency to balance five priorities: reliability of supply, affordability, public safety, physical and cyber security, and, significantly, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
• Jumpstarting efforts to supply low-cost solar electricity to low-income communities. To reverse the failure of state programs to incentivize solar energy projects in low-income neighborhoods, as well as spur job creation, the bill requires the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) to set aside future solar allocations for such neighborhoods.
• Letting cities and towns adopt a “net zero” stretch energy code. The bill allows the state to support communities that choose, on their own, to move away from fossil fuels as the source of heating for new buildings. The state’s contribution is to promulgate a “net zero” energy code, so that localities have the option available if they choose to use it. The bill shifts responsibility for the code’s development from the Board of Building Regulations and Standards to the DOER.
• Nudging natural gas utilities to adapt. The bill authorizes utilities to test technology and pipelines that generate and transport “renewable thermal energy,” an emissions-free way to heat buildings that draws on the relative warmth of temperatures below ground.
• Strengthening executive branch oversight of MassSave. The bill directs the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) to set emissions reduction goals, in advance, for each three-year plan the utilities formulate for MassSave. It requires the DPU, at the conclusion of each three-year plan, to certify how much the plan actually contributed to meeting the Commonwealth’s greenhouse gas emission limits.
• Tightening the alignment between MassSave and emissions limits. The bill requires electric utilities to include an explicit value for emissions reductions whenever they calculate the cost-effectiveness of a MassSave offering.
• Setting a deadline for converting Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) buses to all-electric power. An Act to Accelerate the Transition of Cars, Trucks, and Buses to Carbon Free Power directs the MBTA to limit bus purchases and leases to zero-emissions vehicles beginning in 2030, and to aim for an all-zero-emissions fleet by 2040, to reduce transportation-related emissions in city neighborhoods.
• Offsetting the Trump Administration’s efforts to slow progress on efficient appliances. An Act Relative to Energy Savings Efficiency updates Massachusetts appliance standards to improve energy and water efficiency standards for common household and commercial appliances, helping to conserve energy and save consumers and businesses money. 

Other provisions include:

• Assembling the state’s first-ever database of energy use in large buildings.
• Adding two building efficiency experts and an expert in advanced building technology to the membership of the Board of Building Regulations and Standards, which will retain responsibility for the base energy building code. 
• Authorizing the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to fund energy innovation pilots, and to take actions addressing health effects associated with the distribution and consumption of fossil fuels such as natural gas.
• Directing the DPU to consider the impact on emissions when it reviews electric and natural gas rates, prices, charges, and contracts.
• Directing state government to limit purchases and leases of vehicles to zero emissions vehicles only, beginning in 2024, if affordable replacements are available.
• Conducting a study of the opportunities to electrify vehicles owned or leased by municipalities, regional school districts, and regional transit authorities, taking into account costs and possible sources of financial help from state and federal government.
• Providing permanent statutory authorization for the “MOR-EV” program, the Commonwealth’s system of financial incentives for purchasers of zero emission vehicles.

The Senate is expected to vote on the legislation Thursday, January 30.