HYANNIS – Governor Baker recently announced that the state will file legislation to invest $750 million to support the growth of the state’s clean energy industry.
Titled “An Act to Power Massachusetts’ Clean Energy Economy”, the legislation aims to establish a Clean Energy Investment Fund to finance research, development and job training in the clean energy sector.
The legislation also makes changes to the current offshore wind procurement process to emphasize economic development in the federal lease areas south of Martha’s Vineyard.
“This legislation incudes a historic, once in a generation $750 million investment to spur the next phase of clean energy innovation and will help advance critical priorities in the offshore wind industry by making key policy changes to the procurement process, lifting the price cap on project proposals and transferring authority for selecting bids to DOER,” said Governor Charlie Baker.
“Massachusetts continues to be a national leader for climate action and by utilizing federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, we can capitalize on this opportunity and strengthen our nation leading clean energy industry,” he said.
The funding represents the largest investment in the states clean energy economy to date.
To ensure the transparency of the solicitation and bidding process for offshore wind projects, the legislation transfers the authority to select the winning bidder of the Commonwealth’s offshore wind solicitations from the electric distribution companies to the Department of Energy Resources (DOER).
The legislation also removes the original price cap established by energy legislation in 2016 and sets a standard rate of remuneration for electric distribution utilities at 2.5 percent to reduce costs to ratepayers.
The state of Massachusetts has established a target of net zero emissions by 2050.
By, Matthew Tomlinson, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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