Summary of the Northeast Clean Energy Council’s 2021 Legislative Roundup
The Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC) recently hosted a roundup for the 2021 legislative session. Representatives from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York shared the latest clean energy legislation progress that will help advance the clean economy and the clean energy industry across all seven states. Each state presenter discussed what passed and failed during the legislative session and what is happening next in their state on the clean energy front. Finally, all the representatives came together for a discussion on energy storage.
Connecticut
Mike Martone from Focus Government Affairs started the discussion by describing several public acts that passed during the Connecticut session. He began with Public Act №21–53, which established an energy storage deployment goal of 1,000 MWs by 2030 with interim goals of 300 MWs by 2024 and 650 MWs by 2027. He then turned to acts covering: solar projects, fuel cell electricity generation projects, increasing the Class III procurement requirement, property tax exemption for specific renewable energy sources and hydropower facilities, and an energy efficiency retrofit grant program for affordable housing. These bills are each a step toward more clean energy in Connecticut. Significant bills that did not pass were the Virtual Net Metering (VNM) Cap increase, the Transportation and Climate Initiative Program, and the PURA-DEEP decoupling. Martone emphasized that this was not the end for these bills, and they will be voted on again in the next session. Moving forward, there will be a tariff program replacing the Low Emission Renewable Energy Credit Program (LREC) and the Zero Emission Renewable Energy Credit Program (ZREC), while the VNM Program will be incorporated into the new program in 2022.
Key Takeaway: Energy storage is coming to the forefront of Connecticut’s energy policy.
Rhode Island
According to Sean Burke from the NECEC, there was a lot of pent-up demand for energy bills in Rhode Island during this session. The 2021 Act on Climate was the first major bill of the session passed in April. It encompassed a wide variety of clean energy initiatives, including emissions reduction targets, environmental justice considerations, and a framework for future decisions. Other key bills that passed covered energy efficiency and statewide electric vehicle infrastructure plan requirements. The governor ultimately vetoed a bill concerning distributed generation interconnection that would make numerous changes to Rhode Island’s challenging interconnection problems.
Key Takeaway: Looking forward, Rhode Island hopes to take steps in the fall 2021 legislative session towards expanding energy programs, energy storage, and building sector decarbonization.
Massachusetts
Dan Bosley from the NECEC shared the work that the NECEC is doing beyond the legislative session to advocate for clean energy through co-chairing the ACES Coalition. Additionally, the NECEC recently held a virtual Clean Energy Day where they met with 19 Massachusetts House and Senate members to advocate for energy policies. During the 2021 legislative session, they tracked 516 bills in the Joint Committees on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy; Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture; and Transportation. In February 2021, Massachusetts passed the Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy, an all-encompassing bill that sets greenhouse gas and emissions limits, boosts the demand for renewable energy, directs the Department of Public Utilities to consider climate change, and promotes and protects natural and working lands.
Key Takeaway: The future of clean energy in Massachusetts is bright, with more of the budget allocated towards clean energy and a strong emphasis on climate legislation during the 2021 session.
New Hampshire
Sam Evans-Brown of Clean Energy NH explained that most of the legislative session was spent defending clean energy bills to keep them intact due to the current political climate in New Hampshire. They tracked 46 energy bills this session plus the energy budget. Of those energy bills moving through the session, a few major acts passed successfully, including House Bill 315, which relates to the creation of community power programs and the expansion of net metering for municipal projects, and an amendment to House Bill 2, which outlines the scope of work for the newly established Department of Energy in New Hampshire.
Key Takeaway: Looking towards the 2022 legislative session, Evans-Brown anticipates that they will continue playing defense while attempting to push forward an offshore wind procurement bill and watching to see what happens with House Bill 549, a bill related to the energy efficiency resource standard and the system benefits charge.
Maine
Marty Grohman from E2Tech, the Environmental and Energy Technology Council of Maine, described E2Tech’s kickoff forums in advance of the legislative session. The forums involved the Committee on Energy, Utilities, and Technology and the Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources, and they discussed the direction of the session. A debate about implementing Pine Tree Power, ME’s proposed Consumer-Owned Utility (COU) company, dominated the session, but ultimately, the bill concerning the COU company failed to pass. This enabled many other pieces of legislation to pass under the radar, including a bill to allow energy microgrids that are in the public interest.
Key Takeaway: Looking ahead, Maine will see how the American Rescue Plan Act funds for the Governor’s Energy Office are spent, and if clean energy-related bills, dealing with the Public Utilities Commission, can pass.
Vermont
Vermont is a small state with a massive clean energy agenda. Dan Bosley from the NECEC presented the roundup for Vermont on behalf of Renewable Energy Vermont. He mentioned four major bill sectors: The first was House Bill 431, an Omnibus or Miscellaneous Energy Bill that primarily focuses on expanding energy storage. Bosley then noted an emphasis on renewable heating and discussed the significant bills that passed in this sector during the 2021 legislative session, including House Bill 426, which awards grants for renewable heating systems in public school facilities, and House Bill 289, which concerns licenses for well drillers in the geothermal field. Furthermore, the Clean Energy Development Fund must submit a plan of use for five million dollars towards renewable heating for approval by the General Assembly during the 2022 legislative session. The third sector he discussed was the transportation sector and all the work that Vermont is doing to incentivize electric vehicles. This session established a state goal for electric vehicle charging stations to be installed within five miles of every exit off federal highways and 50 miles along state highways. Finally, Bosley mentioned the state budget and the millions of dollars the state is allocating for clean energy programs. Vermont has the largest share, 99.9% as of 2019, of in-state electricity net generation from renewable resources of any state.
Key Takeaway: Moving forward, Vermont will continue to set the precedent for clean energy use in the United States by increasing funding and passing ambitious legislation.
New York
Noah Shaw from Foley Hoag began his discussion of New York by introducing the notable bills that are in progress or passed during the past session. He chose to mention the Cross-Utility Crediting for Community Solar Bill, the Property Tax Guidance, the Embodied Carbon Analysis, and the Climate and Community Investment Act. These acts further New York’s commitment to clean energy by providing a renewed emphasis on helping disadvantaged communities and decreasing carbon emissions. There were also notable bills that did not pass in the 2021 session, like an energy efficiency bill that was supposed to bolster appliance standards and building codes and the Clean/Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which would have reduced fuel intensity by 20% by 2030. Looking toward the 2022 session, the bills that did not pass will likely receive continued support from environmental justice and environmental groups that focus on clean energy issues.
Key Takeaway: New York expects to see a renewed effort regarding energy efficiency legislation as the state looks toward the future.
Energy Storage Discussion
Ella Parekh, NECEC’s policy intern, highlighted some common energy storage themes shared among the seven states, such as ambitious targets, the importance of renewable backups, and the opportunities for behind and in front of the meter systems. Some of the main challenges to overcome include: common misconceptions about costs and funds, safety, and commercial availability of storage technologies. The future of energy storage in the northeast will depend on the development of concrete goals, unity between programs, educating customers, younger generations’ interests, and businesses’ support.
Conclusion
Across all seven states, clean energy initiatives continue to make forward strides. In most states, the passed bills showed an increased emphasis on electric vehicles, energy storage, and Virtual Net Metering. As we look towards the next legislative session, it will be interesting to see where the northeast states are headed as the clean energy economy continues to evolve.
