From: Gentile, Carmine L (HOU)
<carmine.gentile@mahouse.gov>
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2019 2:01 PM
To: RPS, DOER (ENE)
Cc: Russo, Joseph (HOU); Paul Dale
Subject: RPS Class I and RPS class II Rulemaking 225 CMR 14.00 and
225 CMR 15.00 Legislator comments
June
28, 2019
Massachusetts Department of Energy
Resources
Attn: John Wassam
100 Cambridge Street, Suite 1020
Boston, MA 02114
--- submitted electronically via doer.rps@mass.gov ---
Re: RPS Class I and RPS Class II
Rulemaking - 225 CMR 14.00 and 225 CMR 15.00 – Legislator Comments
Dear Mr. Wassam:
I represent residents
of the 13th Middlesex District living in Sudbury, Wayland,
Framingham, and Marlborough and write to you today regarding the proposed
changes to Massachusetts’ Renewable Portfolio Standard (“RPS”) Class I and RPS
Class II Regulations. This rulemaking was prompted by passage last summer of
legislation to increase the RPS by 2% per year beginning in 2020. At times, the
proposal has been characterized as minor technical corrections aimed at
cleaning up and clarifying the standard. However, what has been proposed by the
Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) is far more than modest adjustments.
The changes proposed to the RPS would weaken the very important state energy
standard that heretofore has been an essential driver of the development of
clean renewable energy resources.
I offer these comments for further
consideration as the administration moves forward with this rulemaking.
Climate change is occurring at an
accelerated rate. Increasingly, its impacts are being felt in communities and
across all sectors of the Commonwealth. Decarbonization of the electric sector
is the most cost-effective way to achieve deep greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emission
reductions required to comply with mandates set by the Global Warming Solutions
Act (“GWSA”), let alone to combat climate change. Accordingly, Massachusetts’
RPS—one of the longest-standing, most science-based standards in the nation—has
not only been an essential driver of clean energy development in the state and
the region, but it is also a critically important component of the
Commonwealth’s GWSA compliance strategy. Now is not the time to ease its
stringency. And yet, that is what has been put forth by DOER as part of this
rulemaking.
Most disconcerting are DOER’s proposals
for substantially weakening biomass eligibility requirements and increasing
subsidies for garbage incineration. As a state, we simply cannot burn our way
to climate compliance. Burning woody biomass and incinerating trash for
electricity without adequate lifecycle standards results in GHG emissions that
undercut climate gains. These technologies also cause harmful local air
pollution that compromises public health. The health burdens imposed are
especially harmful for the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable residents: children,
the elderly, and communities already overburdened with pollution.
BIOMASS
The proposed biomass changes will gut climate protections and put public health
at risk. DOER is proposing to reduce or completely eliminate the core
requirements of the 2012 RPS rules — the first in the nation and the world to
recognize that burning wood for energy increases greenhouse gas emissions.
These science-based rules were developed through a comprehensive process
undertaken in the wake of public outcry over three large wood-burning power
plants that were proposed in western Massachusetts. DOER’s proposed rollback
lacks scientific integrity, transparency, and adequate public process. For
example, DOER proposes the elimination of efficiency criteria for biomass power
plants that burn significantly expanded categories of “salvage” wood and
“residues”. Both the efficiency requirement cuts and the expanded category definitions
will result in increased emissions. DOER also proposes to eliminate
Massachusetts-specific forest harvesting criteria, which are critical to
ensuring actual bio sequestration for the qualifying biomass. DOER’s
calculations further grossly underestimate lifecycle CO2 emissions from
bioenergy by neglecting to also account for fossil fuels burned during
harvesting, processing, and transport of biomass. DOER’s biomass proposal
incentivizes logging and burning trees for electricity without any justification
based in environmental or climate science. This will increase CO2 emissions and
decrease carbon sequestration. These changes will allow polluting and
inefficient wood-burning biomass power plants in Maine, New Hampshire and
elsewhere that are currently ineligible for the MA RPS to receive tens of
millions of dollars in renewable energy credits (RECs), and will incentivize
new biomass plants to be constructed in MA and beyond.
TRASH INCINERATION (RPS Class II)
In the RPS Class II waste-to-energy section, DOER proposes increasing the
amount of energy our utilities must purchase from qualifying facilities from
3.5% to 3.7% for 2019 through 2025. DOER also proposes increasing the RPS Class
II waste-to-energy rate to align with the RPS Class II Renewable Energy
alternative compliance rate, effective this year. In this category, where no
new facilities are coming on line, increasing these two figures is simply an
action that directs more money to existing generators without any benefit to
the people of Massachusetts. Burning solid waste is highly polluting and
already produces 750,000 tons of incinerator ash containing heavy metals,
furans, and dioxin each year, which must be disposed of in landfills. For those
forced to live in close proximity to these facilities, the effects are even
more dire. Studies show residents near incinerators suffer increased rates of
disease and shorter life expectancy. The RPS should not be adjusted to prop up
and extend the operation of aging incineration facilities, nor should it be
used to facilitate the development of new trash-burning plants, at the expense
of the health and lives of residents of the Commonwealth.
Proposed changes to requirements for
hydroelectricity, solar energy, and imported energy are also problematic.
HYDROELECTRIC GENERATORS
The stringency of RPS requirements currently induces development of and
investment in facilities that are as clean as possible. In the case of
hydroelectricity, the RPS encourages facilities that have the least
environmental impact possible. DOER, however, proposes to remove a requirement
for recertification from the Low Impact Hydropower Institute (“LIHI”).
Currently, an RPS-eligible hydropower facility must meet rigorous standards for
river flows, water quality, fish passage and protection, watershed protection,
threatened and endangered species protection, cultural resource protection, and
recreation. Rivers are dynamic ecological systems, and the recertification
process as currently required ensures that negative environmental impacts
continue to be minimized in a manner consistent with the Green Communities Act
(“GCA”). Watering down and removing the requirement for recertification from
LIHI would undermine a project operator’s motivation to improve their systems
and minimize their environmental impact over time. A qualified project would
effectively receive a lifetime qualification regardless of any environmental
changes or technological advances that would prompt updated conditions to
protect river systems.
CHANGES TO THE SREC-1 PROGRAM
The SREC-I program played an important role in accelerating the early
deployment of solar energy in Massachusetts, making the Commonwealth a national
leader for solar. Under the original regulations for SREC-I, qualifying
projects are eligible to generate SRECs until the end of the program in 2023,
although they are only able to participate in clearinghouse auctions (a form of
price support) for 10 years. The proposed changes, by limiting overall SREC
eligibility to 10 years, would reduce the amount of time that these projects
are eligible to generate SRECs by at least one quarter and up to 4 years.
Although these changes would not affect any new solar projects that are built
today, we are concerned that changing the rules this late in the game for SREC-I
would create uncertainty around future solar programs. This uncertainty could
have the effect of slowing down solar development in Massachusetts, at a time
when we should be accelerating our clean energy progress.
IMPORTED ENERGY
DOER has proposed to remove the requirement that energy generated outside of
New England be imported under a contract and delivered into New England in
order to be eligible to create a Renewable Energy Certificate (“REC”) used to
demonstrate compliance with the MA RPS. The proposed change goes against rules
that have been in effect for over 15 years and are set in Massachusetts RPS
statute. This change threatens the integrity of the REC market and opens the
door for sham energy trades to generate RECs that could destabilize the market,
causing a lack of trust and making it harder for renewable energy projects to
grow within the region. The removal of this requirement should be rejected.
In closing, the proposed changes to the
RPS regulations are not mere technical corrections aimed at “cleaning up” the
RPS. Instead, DOER has proposed overhauling the state’s RPS, gutting the very
components that have distinguished it from other states and made it such an
effective driver of renewable energy development for nearly two decades. In driving
project development, the RPS has helped to establish a stable, reliable market
for clean energy resources. This should continue. Moreover, since this
rulemaking has been undertaken in response to legislation increasing the annual
RPS compliance requirements and given the urgency of climate change and the
imperative that Massachusetts transition away from GHG-emitting generation as
quickly as possible, DOER should be exploring ways to increase the stringency
of the RPS to bolster the deployment of non-emitting resources, rather than
facilitating the deployment of technologies that further burden public health
and undermine climate gains. Toward that end, we respectfully request that
changes proposed that will weaken the RPS, as discussed in this letter, be
withdrawn.
Thank you for your courtesy and attention
to this matter.
Best regards,
Carmine Gentile
Carmine Gentile
Carmine Gentile
State Representative
13th Middlesex
District
(Framingham,
Marlborough, Sudbury, and Wayland)
State House, Rm 167
Boston, MA 02133
O: 617-722-2810