A new bill could bulk up wind energy production in Massachusetts

Speaker of the House Ron Mariano said his top priority for the Legislature this year is wind energy. It's been a long time coming and it's shaping up to be a major piece of legislation, with the pieces finally starting to come together. Mike Deehan, GBH state house reporter, joined host Henry Santoro on Morning Edition today for an update on the bill. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Santoro: Now, you know, Speaker Mariano has been talking about moving forward with a wind energy bill since he took over the House last year. It's an issue that really is close to him. What is the goal of this new bill, and will it soon come out of committee for a floor vote?

Deehan: It's one of those things where the powers that be are working on putting this package together. But when it does come out of committee, it'll definitely have the blessing of Mariano and his leadership team. So, it's pretty much guaranteed to pass the House in the eventual form. And it's really seen as a way to bulk up wind energy production. And, more importantly, the wind energy industry here in Massachusetts, or off the coast of Massachusetts.

So, Mariano and House Democrats, they want to make it easier for these wind electricity companies to come here, hire our workers and make a profit doing it — as you would prop up any kind of industry. So that will mean tax incentives to attract companies here and a lot more investment from the state itself to help foster the industry as it grows. There [are] also programs for vocational students to have a more direct pipeline into that field. So, it really is seen as a jobs sector, that the speaker wants to maximize Massachusetts' impact.

Santoro: This kind of project costs a bundle of money. And other than taxes, can the state go somewhere to get that kind of money?

Deehan: Funny you should ask, because it'll be partially paid for at least by the people who pay for electricity, as is. So, you and me, the ratepayer, it would initially use $90 million in ARPA money to start off and seed this new fund. It's going to be kind of the investment fund that will be investing in the wind energy companies.

But after that, there's going to be an increased fee on the rate that you pay on your bill that the state takes to support renewable energy projects. Now, that already exists. But Mariano's bill would triple that from 30 cents a month on average to 90 cents a month. So that's a whole bunch of new money coming into the state that they will then funnel into investing in these types of projects. There would be an even bigger, additional charge on your natural gas bill — that would be about 80 cents a month increased over what it is now. So all in all, though, between those two things that would add up to about $45 million a year for the state to invest and grow these new companies.

Santoro: And for people like you and I and people who are listening to us right now, there's no opt out option, right?

Deehan: Not really, this would be a state mandate on your bill — if you receive electricity, the utilities would be paying this and they would be charging you that rate. It's, you know, an additional fee or a tax if you'd want to call it that. So that is something that would be unavoidable if it were to become law.

Santoro: My dad used to say that every additional fee is in fact a tax. Governor Baker has been pushing for lawmakers to make changes to how we do business with offshore wind companies. It is a growing industry. Is he going to like this?

Deehan: Well, when you say new taxes around Charlie Baker, he certainly doesn't like it all that much. He has shown some flexibility over the last seven years of accepting some new fees and new taxes on certain things. One thing that Baker is, though, is a big proponent of wind energy. A lot of what's in this bill, Baker himself has filed in the past. He definitely wants to move this industry forward. Now, he never really tips his hand about how he feels about legislation before it's on his desk. But like I said, there's a lot of features that are in his own bill.

One thing — it does kind of loosen the governor's grip on control over the agencies that run this investment. It would really empower the state's clean energy center to be more self-governing once it gets up and running with all this new money, so it will be less directly controlled by the governor's office. There's a lot of other things. As you can imagine, it's a very complicated bill — other aspects that Baker won't really like as far as rates and caps, and we can get in the weeds on that later. But the goal is something that Baker shares.