Massachusetts Legislature Moves Forward with Reforms that Would Reshape the Energy Sectors to Achieve Climate and Economic Development Goals
On April 7, 2022, Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee issued its response to an earlier House Ways and Means Bill (House No. 4524). The Senate bill, Senate No. 2819, revised a number of features of the earlier House bill with respect to the Commonwealth’s procurement of offshore wind energy, but also addressed a range of issues focused upon climate matters. The Senate bill also included a range of provisions to advance electric vehicles, other forms of renewable energy, real estate development that advances climate goals and fundamentally alter consumers’ options by eliminating the competitive retail electricity supply market and decarbonizing the natural gas industry, as summarized below.
What’s next? We understand that the Senate will be taking amendments to the bill during the next few days and that the Senate will likely adopt a form of Senate No. 2819 later this month. The House will likely adopt a different version of the bill, resulting in the establishment of a conference committee to work out the