On November 21, Governor Healey signed An Act promoting a clean energy grid, advancing equity, and protecting ratepayers into law.
I have engaged deeply with the Healey-Driscoll Administration and my colleagues and Senate leadership throughout the development and passage of this bill.
I summarized this work before the Senate took up this legislation in June 2024, as well as after Senate debate concluded.
I also wrote a letter with my positions on energy siting and permitting policies included by Governor Healey in a supplemental budget she filed earlier this fall.
Now that the bill has been signed into law, I have gotten questions from municipal officials about what comes next and how municipal energy infrastructure siting and permitting will be affected. My team and I are staying engaged, and summarized responses to these questions below.
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We’ve heard from many of you with questions and concerns about energy siting and permitting policy, including:
- Local solar and battery energy storage bylaws that have been struck down by the Attorney General’s Office
- The new energy siting and permitting law and the impact on municipal bylaws and the siting and permitting processes
Our team wants to make sure that you have all the information we do about forthcoming guidance from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) on the implementation and the protections built into the new energy infrastructure siting and permitting law. We have asked EEA to host a webinar providing an overview of the new law, and we’re also hoping to set up discussions between EEA and municipal officials specifically about the impact of the new law on municipal permitting. More information on these in the coming weeks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do applications that are currently pending for energy infrastructure siting and permitting need to be treated differently now that the law has passed?
A: No
Q: If municipal bylaws need to be changed, when do they need to be changed by?
A: March 1, 2026.
However, there will be a transition (or concurrency) period even after March 1, 2026 with additional time for municipalities to update local rules. See answer below.
Q: What changes to municipal bylaws are required by the new law?
A: The new law does not require specific changes to municipal bylaws. However, the new law does require that, after March 1, 2026, municipalities issue one consolidated local permit for energy infrastructure siting and permitting applications within 12 months from the date a completed application is received. Municipalities may want to update bylaws or ordinances to ensure their consolidated local permitting process can be completed within 12 months.
Under the new law, the Department of Energy Resources (DOER, which is within EEA) is required to include “a transition or concurrency period for the effective date of any standards it establishes.”
So once DOER has developed guidelines and standards under this new law, there will be a transition period for municipalities to update local rules and bylaws as needed.
Q: What will the process be for the state to issue new regulations and guidance for municipalities based on the new law?
A: DOER will be developing regulations and guidance to ensure consistency from one municipality to the next. DOER will engage in a public process, including soliciting input, to draft these regulations and guidance over the next year. We will share information about this process as soon as we have it.
Q: How will different municipal boards and commissions, like the Zoning Board and the Conservation Commission, be able to provide input on just one consolidated local permit?
A: Each municipal board and commission may require certain conditions as part of the consolidated local permit.
Q: The Attorney General’s Office recently struck down our solar siting / battery energy storage siting bylaw. Will this new law help us?
A: Yes, this new law creates a Division of Energy Siting within EEA, which shall “establish standard conditions, criteria and requirements for the siting and permitting of small clean energy infrastructure facilities by local governments and provide technical support and assistance to local governments.”
The new law also creates new supports for municipalities as it relates to energy siting and permitting, including technical assistance for developing bylaws, funding to intervene in state permitting processes, and protections against unnecessary or inappropriately sited infrastructure.
Protections in the new energy siting and permitting law
- Requires that all energy siting and permitting decisions avoid, minimize, or mitigate (in that priority order) siting impacts and environmental and land use concerns.
- Develops a methodology and guidance to evaluate whether a site is well-suited for hosting energy infrastructure, and considers climate change resilience, carbon storage and sequestration, biodiversity and social and environmental benefits and burdens in that methodology.
- Creates a new office (the Division of Public Participation) responsible for assisting individuals, local governments, and community organizations with navigating the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) and Department of Public Utilities (DPU), opportunities to provide comment and intervene and facilitating dialogue among stakeholders involved in the permitting.
- Provides funding to municipalities to assist with intervening in DPU and EFSB siting and permitting proceedings. Towns with fewer than 7,500 residents do not need to demonstrate a financial need in order to receive intervenor assistance funding.
- Provides technical assistance to municipalities to assist with the development of local energy siting and permitting regulations and conditions.
- Requires the deployment of grid-enhancing technologies, such as cables that can carry up to twice as much electricity as current designs, which helps avoid the need for new transmission lines.
- Provides municipalities with additional time to conduct local permitting in cases in which a developer’s application changes.
- Creates a working group to consider additional incentives for solar canopies to avoid ground-mounted solar where possible.
Bottom line
We know that these changes are complex. They are concerning to many. And we know that these changes create extra work for already stretched municipal boards and committees.
We will continue to engage at the state level to ensure that you have the information, resources, and access you need and deserve. Please do not hesitate to be in touch to share your concerns or let us know how we can best help. Your outreach and organizing help us convey to the Healey-Driscoll Administration the fullness of our region’s reactions.
