OPINION
Clearing the Path to a Greener Future
The relentless surge in energy prices and growing concerns about global warming are motivating many of us to change the way we use energy. Compared with the same period a year earlier, Americans drove 22 billion fewer miles from last November through April. Demand for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars exceeds supply, as do seats on the MBTA at rush hour. Home-improvement stores struggle to meet demand for insulation and compact fluorescent lighting.
Consumers are not the only ones changing their behavior. Recently, Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi led the effort to enact a comprehensive energy reform bill. The Green Communities Act is a critical step for Massachusetts. It has the potential to increase our energy efficiency, expand our use of renewable fuels, and stimulate the development of new energy technologies.
This is especially important in Massa-chusetts, where we mainly use carbon-intensive fossil fuels, imported from far away and bought at premium prices. For this state, and many others like it, increasing efficiency and developing clean, indigenous, and sustainable fuels are the essential elements of a sound, long-term energy policy. The Green Communities Act is built on those essentials and gives Massachusetts the opportunity to lead the nation to a greener, and more affordable, energy era.
The law uses both carrots and sticks to dramatically transform our energy infrastructure. It calls for the state to meet at least 25% of electricity demand through improved efficiency and another 20% through the use of renewable energy by the year 2020. It also seeks to reduce the use of fossil fuels in buildings by at least 10% and reduce total energy consumption by at least 10% in that same time frame. Among its many provisions, utilities are required to invest in efficiency before purchasing new supplies of electricity and are encouraged to own and operate solar generators. Power suppliers are encouraged to use combined heat and power systems, coal gasification, and even flywheel energy storage devices.
While the new law is a major achievement, daunting challenges remain. Patrick and state regulatory agencies will have to decide just how much additional energy efficiency and renewable energy the state can afford. Investments in these programs are likely to reduce supply costs in future years, but increase total spending in the near term, at the very moment consumers are paying some of the highest prices in decades. The agencies will have to solve that age-old dilemma: how much to spend now to save later.
Whatever balance is struck by the agencies, Patrick can be expected to feel the heat from both disappointed reformers and overburdened consumers as he works to implement progressive, but responsible, reforms. Likewise, the Legislature must confront a serious practical constraint on fulfillment of the laws promise: the limited availability of skilled workers needed to rapidly expand our clean-energy output.
Recognizing this, DiMasi, with support from Patrick and Murray, has filed a Green Jobs Act that proposes to reallocate more than $50 million of existing funds over five years to provide specialized clean-energy workforce-training programs.
The consequences of the energy-reform measure will not be known for some time. And the debates over emerging new regulatory requirements and the funding of workforce-development programs will undoubtedly be intense. But with continued leadership from Patrick and the Legislature, these near-term challenges can be solved and unleash tremendous long-term opportunities. There is little doubt that our current direction is the right one. We should not let squabbles over exactly how we get there deflect us from our vital goal: a greener and more affordable energy future.-
David L. OConnor is senior vice president for energy and clean technology at ML Strategies and previously served as state commissioner of energy resources. Thomas R. Burton III is an attorney and chairman of the Energy and Clean Tech Practice Group at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
