July 18, 2018 — The push for Massachusetts to completely rely on renewable energy by the year 2050 is growing as state officials consider whether to pass legislation that would accelerate the growth of clean energy.
The state House and Senate has until July 31, the end of legislative session, to decide on enacting a law that would dramatically expand renewable energy in Massachusetts. It would also eliminate arbitrary caps on solar power and increase the renewable portfolio standard by three percent per year.
In anticipation of the July 31 deadline, the Environment Massachusetts Research & Policy Center has released a report that includes a state-by-state assessment of the growth of clean energy technologies over the past decade. The report, entitled Renewables on the Rise 2018: A Decade of Progress Toward a Clean Energy Future, compares the Commonwealth’s progress to that of other states in key areas such as wind energy, solar energy, electricity energy efficiency programs, electric cars, and energy storage.
State Director of Environment Massachusetts Ben Hellerstein and President and CEO of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce Rick Kidder presented the report to the media at Fall River’s Kennedy Park on Tuesday. Hellerstein says that the legislation being discussed at the state house require the state to work to reach goals of fifty-percent reliability on renewable energy by 2030, and 100-percent by 2050.