By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
“In like a lion, out like a lamb.”
That’s how Massachusetts solar advocate Sean Garren characterized on Twitter the whimper of a clean-energy bill that made its way through the Massachusetts legislature on its final day. The Senate voted 36-0 to pass the legislation, while the House had one dissenting vote, 150-1.
Advocates offered intensely mixed reviews of the bill, although it was almost universally praised for eliminating the “fixed charge” Eversource had sought to impose on all new solar users. But net metering caps inexplicably remain in place and the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) increases are so tiny you need a microscope to see them.
Mary C. Serreze at MassLive.com quoted one renewable advocate as saying the bill was a “base hit” when it could have been a home run, endearing themselves to people everywhere who forgot baseball was still a game Americans played in the summer.
The biggest win for the solar industry was the elimination of the Eversource “fixed charge,” which the usurious utility’s attempt to fix in legislation the nonsensical, zombie lie of the “cost shift” that utilities across the country keep yammering on about. I will not take my usual break to explain what complete nonsense the “cost shift” argument is because honestly, I’m tired of typing about it, so search “zombie lie” in the search box up there in the upper right-hand corner of the page to see my explanation elsewhere. Go ahead…I’ll wait.
OK, are you back? Do you see why eliminating the charge was such a huge priority for clean energy advocates in the Bay State? Yes? Good. Let’s move on.
The biggest loss for the solar industry was the fact that net metering caps will remain in place, essentially freezing rooftop solar in place until the caps are raised. Advocates had hoped to either eliminate the cap or at least raise it 5%. That did not make it into the final bill. This disappointing state of affairs was best summed up in a release on the bill by a coalition of solar groups that had lobbied hard to get the caps removed:
But small commercial and business solar projects across the Commonwealth will remain stalled as the legislation leaves a needless barrier to customer adoption of solar, caps on Massachusetts’ most successful solar program, net metering, in place. With just hours left in the session, it appears the urgent action needed to get solar back to work for the Commonwealth will wait for another year.
In the half-victory category, the RPS will rise, by only incrementally over a period of more than 20 years, rising 1% each year until 2020, then 2% per year until 2030 and 1% every year thereafter. Those are tiny rises in a region where New Jersey and New York are leaping forward into the renewable energy future with great gusto, and even Vermont is moving apace. But an increase is an increase, and even under the anemic rise it still will reach 100% – eventually.
All in all, a disappointing end to a legislative session that saw a robust Senate bill whittled down to near nothing in the House of Representatives, which had its own four-headed bill amalgamation as the two houses entered into negotiations to reach agreement on this final bill. Garren had it exactly right: A legislative session in which clean-energy advocates had high hopes for significant progress on their agenda ended up with crumbs – important crumbs, some of them, but a far cry from what they’d hoped for.
As they have said for decades in Cleveland about the Browns, advocates are left shaking their fists and saying, “Wait until next year!”