Massachusetts Legislature Adjourns Without Passing Critical Clean Energy Bill

The Massachusetts Legislature adjourned today without passing a bill aimed at addressing significant barriers to clean and solar energy development and deployment in the Commonwealth. The legislation stalled when the conference committee, tasked with negotiating the final language, failed to reach a compromise.

Valessa Souter-Kline, Northeast regional director for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), issued the following statement,

“The solar and storage industry is deeply disappointed that clean energy reforms failed to pass this year despite widespread support. Commonsense measures to improve the interconnection process, facilitate rooftop permitting, and enable battery energy storage systems were abandoned. Even the siting proposal from the Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting could not get across the finish line despite support from both the House and Senate. Every year that the legislature fails to pass reforms to alleviate major barriers to the buildout of solar, the Commonwealth’s clean energy goals get further out of reach, and Massachusetts’ reputation as a clean energy leader recedes further into the past.

“Solar and storage companies are ready to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Massachusetts but simply cannot because current policy makes it prohibitively expensive, or nearly impossible, to develop projects that can deliver energy to the people and businesses that need it. SEIA remains committed to working on solutions that deliver the clean energy that Bay Staters are demanding.”