Blog

ABC Celebrates the Passage of the 2024 Climate Bill

Written by: Isabella Gambill, Assistant Director of Climate, Energy, & Resilience

November 22, 2024

When the 2023-2024 legislative session officially ended on July 31^st, 2024, there was deep frustration among members, partner organizations, and environmental advocates that the Massachusetts Legislature was unable to deliver an economic development bill or climate bill to Governor Healey’s desk by August. Thanks to the determination of state Senate and House leadership, both chambers passed rules to enable their legislators to return to Beacon Hill and move bills forward outside of the official legislative session. The 2024 climate bill (S.2967) was passed through the Legislature on November 14^th and signed into law by Governor Healey on November 20^th.

Key Takeaways from the 2024 Clean Energy Siting & Permitting Bill S.2967

As the third omnibus climate bill to pass through the Legislature in two sessions, the new Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity, and Protecting Ratepayers (2024 Climate Bill) implements many of the recommendations from the Commission and Clean Energy Permitting and Siting, which was formed as a result of the 2022 Climate Bill and was tasked with addressing significant delays in clean energy projects.

Key aspects of the 2024 Climate Bill include:

• Permitting Deadlines: This bill significantly streamlines and accelerates clean energy project permitting, with the creation of a consolidated permit option to combine all state, regional, and local permits into one master permit. It also sets a deadline for decision-making by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) for small permits (25MW or less electricity generation or 100MWh or less of energy storage) to be completed within 12 months, and for large permits to be completed within 15 months. For all projects, applications would automatically receive approval upon passage of the deadline without a decision.
• Natural Gas Restrictions: While this bill doesn’t go as far as banning new natural gas infrastructure, it places significant limitations on the expansion of new natural gas infrastructure. The bill includes language that limits transmission and distribution facilities connected to fossil fuel infrastructure, prohibited after January 1, 2026. Homeowners who petition the DPU for a “right to service” natural gas hookup might find it more challenging as well, as DPU must now consider whether such requests comply with the Commonwealth’s statutory mandates for greenhouse gas emissions limits, and whether there are alternative options for heating, hot water, and cooking appliances available. The bill also includes language to amend the 2014 Gas Leaks Act such that it no longer encourages pipe replacements (which can have lifespans of several decades, leading to stranded assets), and instead prioritizes short-term repairs until natural gas infrastructure can ultimately be replaced with non-fossil fuel alternatives.
• Networked Geothermal Energy: This bill also includes language that enables utilities to pursue networked geothermal energy projects, like the Framingham pilot currently underway with Eversource.
• Embodied Carbon: This bill establishes an Embodied Carbon Intergovernmental Council, tasked with filing a report of its recommendations for limiting embodied carbon emissions in Massachusetts no later than July 31, 2025, with the intent to develop regulations for maximum global warming potential limits to be established for building and transportation materials by January 1, 2026.
• Energy Storage: This bill requires the state to more than double the current 550MWh energy storage capacity in Massachusetts by 2025, and to increase it to 5,000MWh by 2030.
• Utilities’ Resiliency: This bill includes added obligations for utilities to incorporate climate change resiliency and greenhouse gas emissions reductions into their mission. As a result of this bill, utilities will be required to file Electric Sector Modernization Plans every 5 years that incorporate their vulnerability to climate change and plans for enhancing resiliency. Examples of required impacts for utilities to consider include extreme temperatures, sea level rise, precipitation, humidity, and extreme weather.
• Addressing Drought: This bill establishes a new Drought Management Task Force.
• Grid Modernization: This bill directs the DPU and DOER to conduct an independent investigation to examine the use of advanced conductors and other grid enhancing technology, and to file their recommendations in a report no later than September 2025. The bill also includes a definition of “advanced transmission technology” to encourage smart grid technology deployment and expansion in Massachusetts.
• Electric Vehicles and Chargers: This bill directs the state to fund the MOR-EV program through 2027, thereby ensuring that electric vehicle incentives will continue to be made available. It also requires the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) to review the feasibility of a 2022 existing law from the 2022 Climate Bill that places a ban on fossil fuel vehicle sales at car dealerships after 2035, taking into consideration needs for charging infrastructure, electric grid capacity and reliability, and electric vehicle production and availability. Related to electric vehicle (EV) charging, this bill requires the state to enable more pole-mounted and right of way electric vehicle chargers, which will be especially important for residents that do not have access to charging at home. It also takes away the authority of homeowners’ associations to restrict electric vehicle charging at residences like condominiums, as well as the authority for historic and neighborhood conservation commissions from blocking charging. Finally, the bill has considerable language to address “range anxiety” and directs EEA to monitor EV charger distribution across the state, to ensure equitable access. EEA is also required to track prices, frequency of use, and to what extent charger reliability varies by municipality or neighborhood income. As a result of this bill, the state will also have to forecast EV charging demand across major roadways and identify priority sites for expanded charging capacity. Utilities are also now required to adjust infrastructure investment plans to incorporate anticipated EV charging demand.
• Rate Reform for Moderate-Income Residents: This bill orders the DPU to implement a moderate-income electric rate to minimize energy burden, in addition to the existing electricity rate for low-income residents.
• MassPort: This bill updates MassPort’s mission to require the incorporation of greenhouse gas emissions reductions and the inclusion of environmental justice goals in its decision-making for transportation infrastructure.
• Ensuring Best-Available Science in Flood-Risk Mapping: This bill requires the state to update flood risk maps to better incorporate inland flooding and will enable inland flood-risk maps to be based on future climate projections, rather than on historical data (as is done with FEMA mapping).
• Solar: This bill mandates the Department of Energy Resources to design pathways for increased solar canopies, including those covering parking lots, and to publish a report to the Legislature no later than June 31, 2025. It also restricts the ability of historic districts to limit rooftop solar, and historic commissions are now required to incorporate climate change and statutory emissions limits into their decision-making.
• Expanding the Definition of Clean Energy in Massachusetts: This bill amends the state’s definition of clean energy to also incorporate nuclear fission, as well as carbon dioxide removal technologies. As a result, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center is also required to conduct a study of carbon removal technology and nature-based carbon sequestration. Additionally, nuclear fusion is now included as a clean energy category within RPS Class I and Class II.
• Codifying Environmental Justice: This bill officially codifies the Office of Environmental Justice and Equity (which was already established under the Healey-Driscoll administration, and will now continue across future administrations), and creates an “Intervenor Trust Fund” to help environmental justice stakeholders pay for lawyers and independent experts. Finally, the bill has language requiring enhanced community engagement so that developers are now required to do community outreach, in particular with environmental justice neighborhoods, prior to the permit collection process.
• Cumulative Impact Analysis for Clean Energy Projects: This bill requires a new cumulative impact analysis for all large clean energy projects. This will be based on requirements that the state will design to go beyond existing environmental assessments, to also include considerations for local air and water quality, whether the target community has experienced disproportionate industrial development in the past, and how proposed projects may add to the cumulative burdens on the target community.

A Better City is grateful to our members, partner organizations, and to the State Legislature for their continued efforts to advance climate change legislation in Massachusetts. Thank you to all who contributed to A Better City comment letters and advocacy on behalf of the 2024 Climate Bill. For any questions, please contact Isabella Gambill.