April, 07 2016, 11:30am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Emily Pomilio (480) 286-0401, emily.pomilio@sierraclub.org
Emily Norton, (508) 397-6839, emily.norton@sierraclub.org
Sierra Club: Massachusetts Solar Bill Must Be Fixed
Organization Urges Legislature to Revisit Solar in Omnibus Energy Bill
BOSTON
Massachusetts House members yesterday voted 152-1 in favor of legislation (H. 4173) that raises the solar net metering cap by 3 percent, but slashes the net metering reimbursement rate by 40 percent. The bill also expressly authorizes electric utilities to petition the Department of Public Utilities to add a minimum charge, with no ceiling, to all solar customers' bills. Municipal solar projects are exempted from the cut in net metering reimbursement rates, but are still subject to the net metering cap.
The cap increase of 3 percent goes beyond the 2 percent increase that had been proposed in the House and Senate bills that passed last fall and will allow projects to move forward that have been stalled due to the previous cap set in both National Grid and Eversource territories.
The Senate is expected to vote on the bill today, approximately thirteen months after the net metering cap was first reached in National Grid territory. The solar industry employs over fifteen thousand Massachusetts workers.
In response, Emily Norton, Massachusetts Chapter Director for the Sierra Club, issued the following statement:
"House and Senate conferees deserve credit for coming together to raise the cap on solar net metering. This will allow stalled projects to move forward, and that means a paycheck to thousands of Massachusetts families.
However, the work is not done. The new cap is expected to be reached within 6 to 9 months, which means risk to investors, and to the 15,000 Massachusetts residents who rely on solar jobs to put food on the table.
In addition, because rooftop solar is reimbursed at the retail rate, slashing net metering reimbursement rates to community and low-income solar customers by 40 percent means residents who happen to have homes suitable for rooftop solar will be reimbursed much more generously than the 80 percent of Massachusetts residents in apartments and other residences not suitable for rooftop solar, who are often low-income, who want to participate in community solar. This inequity does not represent Massachusetts' values and must be fixed as legislators turn their attention to the wider energy omnibus bill in the coming weeks.
New York and California faced the same decision as Massachusetts; while they undertake a wider study on the value of solar they eliminated net metering caps and they maintained retain net metering rates for all - there was no disproportionate hit to lower income residents.
The bill as it stands sends a clear message that Massachusetts is not a safe place to invest in solar, even though it's a clean energy resource that has brought increased economic investment and jobs to the state. We should be embracing clean, renewable energy, not suppressing it, and that means setting up a clear and fair net metering program that investors and consumers can trust."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
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Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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