Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Senate on Feb. 4 passed an amended wind facilities siting bill and sent it to the House.
The bill (S. 2245), which passed by a voice vote, would give communities more authority over project siting than was provided for in a bill originally filed by Gov. Deval Patrick.
The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy rewrote a wind siting bill in order to address municipal concerns about protecting local authority in siting decisions.
The Senate adopted a number of amendments supported by the MMA and sponsored by Sens. Benjamin Downing and Stephen Brewer.
“If a facility is not supported by a municipal government,” Downing told the State House News Service, “it’s not going to be a go-ahead.”
The new version of the bill would provide avenues for municipalities to weigh in on proposed developments. It would also place a municipal representative on the Energy Facilities Siting Board.
The bill is consistent with the one filed by the governor in that it would remove opportunities for abutters to block wind projects.
Sue Reid, a senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, said the bill “strikes a really thoughtful balance in setting responsible siting standards, and requiring local control so poorly designed projects are stopped dead in their tracks and good ones are propelled forward.”
The MMA has been working with state officials, environmentalists, planners, wind developers and scientists over the past year to develop language for a wind facilities siting bill that would protect local control over siting decisions while also facilitating wind power.
Last May, when the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee heard testimony on two bills (H. 3065 and S. 1504) to expedite the siting of wind energy facilities, the MMA argued for the protection of the local role in the siting process. The MMA expressed its “very strong objection” to provisions in the bills that would change the process for appealing local wind power siting decisions by granting the state the power to overturn local decisions.
Under current law, appeals of local board decisions go to the judiciary, usually Superior Court.