Finally making the right moves on energy

The new energy law gets it right, for the most part

When Gov. Deval Patrick signed the Green Communities Act into law on July 2, we stood on and applauded. The new law, a comprehensive energy bill that includes a number of innovative green initiatives, ranks among the strongest state-level clean energy plans in America today.

What it gets right: requiring a shift to renewable sources of energy, providing a jump start for solar and wind power in Massachusetts and going far beyond the state’s previous anemic goals for clean energy production. Also, a significant investment in the cleanest, cheapest and fastest way to solve our energy problems: energy efficient technologies and buildings, which are designed to reduce energy demand and save ratepayers hundreds of million of dollars.

“The best clean energy bill in America”

The law, more than 18 months in the making, passed in part thanks to the work of Environment Massachusetts staff and members. Throughout the process, we pushed state leaders to strengthen and improve the final product.

The strong new law is all the more impressive for its evolution over the last year and a half. When plans for the bill were first announced, we considered the bill a step backward—one we couldn’t support. But along with our allies, we worked with Beacon Hill leaders to improve the proposal, resulting in the bill in its final form.

House Speaker Sal DiMasi said the Green Communities Act represented the Legislature’s “signature accomplishment of the year” when it passed the House of Representatives, and Gov. Deval Patrick called it the “best clean energy bill in America.”

Coal isn’t green

But there are a few provisions in the bill we don’t support. Chief among them is a measure that could provide taxpayer money to subsidize the construction of new coal plants using untested “coal gasification” technology.

Coal companies try to pass off the process as cutting-edge and green, but as of today, it remains expensive and unproven, and bottom line, it keeps us dependent on coal. We’ll work to fight attempts to use taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize the construction of new coal plants in Massachusetts and push state leaders to put in place a full moratorium on new coal plants.