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BOSTON (State House News Service) - Over two days this week, the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy will grapple with a complex and intricate issue that could determine whether Massachusetts lives up to its commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050: the process by which clean energy projects and infrastructure are permitted.
There is general agreement among utility companies, environmental activists and others that the energy project permitting and siting process as it exists today is a poor model. It often takes a long time to get a project through the process, it can be overly complicated for members of the public to follow proceedings, and it does not always incorporate feedback from impacted communities. But the details of any updated process will be extremely important if Massachusetts is to streamline energy infrastructure regulation without sacrificing important environmental and community protections.
"We are at a pivotal crossroads to determine if we will take the swift, decisive action needed to ensure a healthy planet. To meet the moment, we need to accelerate the clean energy transition, and deploy renewable energy at a pace we have not seen before. That is why the bills in front of you today are critically important," Kate Daniel, northeast regional director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access, said in testimony Tuesday to House members of the committee.
At the center of the debate is a bill (H 3215) filed by Rep. Jeff Roy, the House co-chair of the committee. It would create a new office within the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs with the authority to consolidate various permitting processes related to utility decarbonization infrastructure projects into one process. Bill supporters, including utility companies National Grid and Eversource, said the current permitting process creates unnecessary overlaps that cause delays and makes meaningful public engagement difficult and expensive.
Kevin O'Shea, director of government affairs for National Grid, told the committee that the permitting process for "even relatively routine infrastructure upgrades to support renewable energy generation" can take as long as four years.
"If that timeline remains, we'll never hit our shared goal of net zero [greenhouse gas emissions] by 2050," he said.
Digaunto Chatterjee, vice president of system planning at Eversource, said the utility has produced electric demand forecasts and expects a 40 percent increase in electric demand by 2035 across New England. To bring the amount of clean energy needed online, he said, would require eight to 10 new substations in Boston alone. The current Energy Facilities Siting Board process, he said, would prevent those projects from coming online in time to meet the state's climate goals.
"In order for us to meaningfully move the needle, we have to move projects in parallel. Take a chunk of substation projects that are identified as critical for decarbonization and all the transmission, all the distribution needs serving those environmental justice communities as well as the communities in general, have to move in parallel process," Chatterjee said.
Also on the committee's docket was a bill addressing Energy Facilities Siting Board reform (H 3187) and environmental justice communities filed by Rep. Adrian Madaro of East Boston and Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett. A central part of that bill would require developers to actively engage with the host community before submitting a project for EFSB approval. It would also explicitly add environmental justice, public health, and climate to the EFSB's responsibilities.
"Decisions on where to locate energy facilities play a critical role in managing pollution and safeguarding communities. The Energy Facilities Siting Board (Siting Board) needs to be required to consider EJ, public health, and climate change as part of its deliberations. This bill will protect vulnerable communities, provide clear guidance to the siting board and ensure that everyone's voice is heard," the Mass. Public Health Association said in support of the bill.
The tension between the desire among utilities for a faster and smoother permitting process and the calls from others for greater public engagement is expected to be a focal point of Wednesday's TUE Committee hearing, which will be conducted by the Senate side as a rules spat keeps the House and Senate sides of the so-called joint committee operating separately.
"You've got a House bill by the House chair that would effectively create a siting and permitting czar with the unprecedented power to waive all state and local laws and ordinances involving environmental protection. On the other hand, you have advocates pressing with equal vigor for more process in order to protect against unwise siting," Sen. Michael Barrett, the Senate co-chair of the committee, said. "I don't know how to reconcile the two impulses, but this issue of siting and permitting is likely to be a major preoccupation of the Legislature ... this time around."
The Senate side of the committee plans to convene a hearing Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. on substantially the same docket of bills that the House side heard Tuesday.
Written By Colin A. Young/SHNS
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