Sean Garren: NY outshining Massachusetts on solar

Posted Tuesday, November 19, 2019 4:33 pm

BOSTON — Earlier this year, New York lawmakers passed the "world's most ambitious" climate and clean-energy legislation. The sweeping effort calls for the elimination of virtually all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040. If the state manages to hit those targets, it would effectively create a net-zero economy. It is an ambitious plan, but it's exactly the kind of bold, urgent action that the climate crisis demands, and Massachusetts has failed to enact.

New York's visionary policies stand in contrast to Massachusetts' relatively dusty older ones, particularly when it comes to solar energy. New York will develop enough local, distributed solar to power one million homes, 6,000 megawatts by 2025, and achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2030. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has seen a 50 percent decline in new solar installations, mostly in the residential sector. And it isn't a lack of consumer interest. The many shovel-ready solar projects now languishing on waiting lists in more than half the Commonwealth further emphasizes the need for immediate policy action.

Unambitious policy is having reverberating effects throughout the Massachusetts economy. The solar workforce in the Commonwealth has shrunk by about 30 percent, shedding 4,372 well-paying, local jobs between 2015 and 2018. In contrast, New York's new climate policy will create more than 11,000 jobs, drive $10 billion in local economic benefits, save millions of dollars on electric bills and build a more resilient energy system throughout the state, including in low-income and frontline communities where families stand to gain the most.

Our lagging clean energy economy has not gone unnoticed in Boston. In 2016, at the direction of the legislature, the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) started to develop the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program to restore Massachusetts' reputation as a climate leader. The SMART program has some clever design features, but one program is not going to set us back on the path to our climate and clean energy goals. To reclaim our position as national leaders and get back on track to meet our renewable energy and climate requirements, we must be willing to implement more ambitious, consistent clean energy policies.

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As a first step, we should immediately expand the SMART program — to 4,800 megawatts, an increase of 200 percent — in order to meet the Commonwealth's clean energy deployment goals and give solar workers and employers the confidence of a few years of consistent policy. The program must also been expanded to truly include everyone who calls Massachusetts home.

Solar should be accessible to everyone in the Commonwealth, especially those living in low-income and environmental justice communities. For far too long, these communities have borne the ills of the energy system, and the Commonwealth should deliberately include them in green energy solution going forward. The legislature must revise the SMART program to include specific program designs for low income and environmental justice communities, and those programs should include an option for contract-free solar to give these customers guaranteed savings on their electric bills.

Finally, it is imperative that we achieve all of this while continuing to conserve our state's most precious lands. Fortunately, we can massively expand our most abundant local energy resource — solar — and protect our treasured New England landscapes and agricultural land. Leading conservation and agricultural voices, such as the Conservation Law Foundation and American Farmland Trust, helped write a balanced proposal that takes the most important lands off the table, encourages solar development on marginal lands, and mitigates the conservation impacts of solar elsewhere.

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Taking decisive action now to expand, strengthen and diversify the SMART program will help decrease harmful climate pollution and deliver the broader societal benefits of community resilience, energy equity, and local economic activity. Expanding SMART will also create between 8,000 and 9,000 new in-state jobs, and more than $5 billion in solar project investment in the Commonwealth.

New York, like their Yankees, may have been closer to pennant victory in 2019, but with quick, bold action in the legislature Massachusetts can still win on clean energy, a strong economy, good jobs and healthy communities. And perhaps clearing the air can help the Red Sox make a speedy recovery as well.

Sean Garren is Northeast Director of Vote Solar.