Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
On March 11, the MMA testified before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy on a number of bills related to solar energy, energy efficiency and broadband service.
The MMA testified in support of a bill (H. 3901/S. 2019) that would raise the public sector renewable energy net-metering cap through Dec. 31, 2016.
The net-metering provision in the Green Communities Act helped to boost solar energy by allowing local governments to sell the electricity they generate from solar panels and other small renewable energy sources back to utilities, at a fair market price, to offset their electric bills and generate revenue. The net-metering cap was originally set at 2 percent when the Green Communities Act became law.
Last year, concerns raised by local officials helped to persuade the state to increase the amount of energy that could be sold back to utilities from 2 percent to 3 percent. Today municipalities such as Haverhill, Winthrop and Palmer are bumping up against the 3 percent cap and are not able to move forward on otherwise financially viable projects.
The MMA supports a provision that would create a special commission to study the long-term viability of net metering in Massachusetts and report back to the Legislature before the end of next year.
Some expressed concerns at the hearing that lifting the cap could disrupt the energy market with a flood of solar projects, so the MMA proposed compromise language to increase the cap by 1 percent, allowing existing projects to move forward while the commission develops a long-term solution.
Also at the hearing, the MMA expressed concerns about a bill (S. 2030) that would raise the fixed net metering cap to 4 percent, but would introduce a competitive bidding process, run by investor-owned utilities, for large-scale solar installations. The MMA argued that this proposal would remove the ability of municipalities to partner with one another on solar projects and take advantage of net metering credits.
The MMA testified in support of a bill (S. 2020) that would promote broadband adoption in vulnerable and disadvantaged populations by providing grants to public entities and leveraging federal and private sector investment to enhance broadband infrastructure.