From:                                                       Chris Gittins <cmgitt@aol.com>

Sent:                                                         Friday, July 26, 2019 11:16 AM

To:                                                            RPS, DOER (ENE)

Subject:                                                   Please withdraw proposed RPS changes (Attn: John Wassam)

 

Categories:                                             Saved as HTML

 

Dear Mr. Wassam:

I'm writing to register my opposition to the Baker Administration's proposed changes MA's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).  I urge DOER to withdraw the proposed changes.

I oppose the proposed changes to the RPS because they would:

  1. Significantly weaken MA's energy standard, which has been an essential driver of the development of clean renewable energy resources, 
  2. Put public health at risk by allowing increased biomass and trash incineration to treated as clean energy production,   (Biomass and trash incineration is not clean by any reasonable measure and should not be considered 'clean' to begin with.  Considering additional incineration as an increase in clean energy production is absurd.)
  3. Degrade our environment by removing hydroelectric project operators' incentive to improve their systems and minimize their environmental impact,
  4. Penalize participants in the SREC-I program by retroactively limiting SREC eligibility to 10 years,
  5. Remove the requirement that energy generated outside of New England be imported under a contract and delivered into New England in order to create a Renewable Energy Certificate to demonstrate compliance with MA's RPS.

In summary, I oppose DOER's proposed changes to our RPS regulations because they gut the components which have favorably distinguished our RPS from other states' and made it an effective driver of renewable energy development for nearly twenty years.   If implemented, the proposed changes would be bad for the residents of Massachusetts. 

Sincerely,

Chris Gittins

8 Brooksbie Rd.

Bedford, MA 01730

(H) 781-275-6424