“Pause the Permitting”
SEND AN EMAIL TO YOUR STATE SENATORS ON NEW ENERGY PERMITTING BILL TODAY

The State Senate is debating a 92-page energy bill that will regulate the future siting and permitting of electric generating and battery storage proposals across the state for decades to come.

Please take a moment and send an email to these key Senate lawmakers today to express your concerns about this legislation. 

Here are the Senators we recommend you contact:

Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov
Karen.Spilka@masenate.gov
mike.barrett@masenate.gov
paul.mark@masenate.gov
Mark.Montigny@masenate.gov
Marc.Pacheco@masenate.gov
julian.cyr@masenate.gov

Here is a sample letter you can edit, cut & paste, and send:

Dear Senator ___________________________

There are many aspirational goals in the new Senate energy legislation you are voting on this week, and a myriad of new divisions and regulations to come. But I am asking you to “Pause the Permitting” because it will take several years just to put this new regulatory framework in place. In the meantime, we will have:

• no statewide site suitability map or regs to show where good sites are, and what sites developers should avoid such as our forests
• no intervenor funding, which leaves cities and towns without the funding and expertise to be a participant in DPU dockets 
• no repeal of the Dover amendment (Chapter 40A, section 3) which allows large and small solar and battery storage to bypass local zoning.
• no local control authority over large scale solar andbattery storage installations in environmentally sensitive areas in our town (as is being proposed in Wendell)
• no role for municipalities to aggregate local end users into micro-grids. Municipalities and end users have an important role to play in helping to manage our future demand through conservation, rather than to just chase demand higher and higher.  
• no judicial appeal rights if state regulators do not accept our “recommendations” about siting and permitting.

Until new statutes are in place, regulations are implemented, and new staffers are doing their job, decarbonization will continue to mean deforestation, and energy installations in the wrong place and of the wrong size.

The state should pause further permitting of these projects until the new statutes and regulations are implemented, because the current regulatory system has no rationale, and crushes the capacity of small towns to respond to environmental and safety concerns. We have neither the staff expertise nor the funding to take on these energy corporations. If they don’t like our local reviews, they can appeal to the state and ask for an override.

We understand the urgency of reducing carbon emissions, but with only the current regulatory framework in place today, we are wasting time and money–and damaging the environment– battling sites that are clearly unsuitable.    

There are a number of commendable initiatives in this bill—like rate reduction for low-income ratepayers—but we will make serious environmental mistakes by allowing energy companies to exploit their ability to build big and build fast. If this new regulatory environment is so good, then it’s worth waiting to get the guardrails and protections up before the energy companies do further damage. 

We need your help to prevent the small towns in your district from being entirely overrun by this process. You can amend this bill to add: 

“provided further, all electric generating and battery storage projects currently before the DPU or the EFSB shall be held in a pending status until the implementation of provisions of this statute, and its regulations, are finalized, as determined by the General Court.”

Thank you,

Your Name, Town, Phone

Don’t miss our phenomenal season finale on Saturday! 

The Pangeans are going to get you on your feet to their exquisite beats and horns of world music! 

The evening is a benefit for No Assault & Battery, a citizens group doing very important work to protect our town and region (see below).

Doors open at Wendell Town Hall at 7 pm 

Shows starts with an open mic at 7:30 pm  

Sliding scale $6 to $20, cash only at the door.

Bring extra money for the Dessert-O-Rama bake sale table!

Continue to celebrate the Fullmoon Coffeehouse’s comeback this year. This is the last show for the winter/spring series, so get out to it! 

Show your support for a full roster of shows in the fall and next year!

The Pangeans are a group of seven exceptional musicians, including our local amazing multiinstrumentalist Brian Bender from Shutesbury.

The Pangeans perform Latin Jazz, Samba, Calypso, Soca, Reggae, Funk and Afro-Beat.  

Great for listening and especially dancing! 

The evening is a benefit for No Assault & Battery, a citizens group formed last year to protect Wendell and the surrounding region by fighting the construction of a lithium battery energy storage project, proposed by the corporation New Leaf Energy.

They have raised concerns for the health and safety of this industrial project, proposed to clear cut 11 acres of forest on a 50-acre parcel off Depot Road and install concrete pads and lithium batteries, adjacent to wetlands and on the site of a town aquifer.

Come out to support this great cause with Amazing music and community connection, as usual at the Wendell Fullmoon Coffeehouse!

Facebook Event Page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/759402362812293

Pangeans Website:

www.pangeans.com

The Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting appointed by Governor Maura Healey has released a draft of its recommendations that removes local control and regional oversight for the siting of renewable energy facilities and certain utility infrastructure. The public comment period is over, but you can still:

Sign here to tell the Commission, and including your Senator and your Representative, that you strongly oppose this gutting of home rule/local control and regional oversight over energy projects or any subsequent proposed legislation that weakens home rule. This can be signed anytime during the legislative session that ends July 31. 

 Please forward to your friends, and town Boards ( Planning Board, Zoning Board, Conservation Commission, Board of Health)  who will be severely hobbled and basically shut out of the permitting process for large scale solar, battery energy storage systems, wind turbine facilities ( including onshore), biomass and more. 

For an individual letter:

To: CEISP@mass.gov

cc: mike.barrett@masenate.gov; jeffrey.roy@mahouse.gov,   (they are the Chairs, Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy)

Cc:  Your State Senator and State Representative found here malegislature.gov

The Commission is considering the following alarming changes to current law. Please oppose the following:

 All local and state permits would be consolidated into one state permit issued by a single state agency.

• Municipalities would be stripped of permitting authority, and would only be allowed to submit advisory opinions to the state agency. They could conduct fact-finding with applicants and the public, but would otherwise have no local role.
• Any reviews at a local level would be a consolidated review, combining Zoning Board of Appeals, Conservation Commissions and other local boards who may have opposing views and rulings but would need to issue one opinion.
• The definition of clean energy projects removed from local control could be expanded to include not just commercial solar and wind turbine facilities and landfill-gas sites, but also energy-storage facilities (such as massive battery complexes and pumped-storage ponds), certain utility transmission and distribution infrastructure and biomass.
• This single state agency would likely also be responsible for fossil fuel generation facilities, pipelines, and liquified natural gas storage units.
• Other state agencies would also be stripped of permitting authority such as the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act or MEPA review which is currently required for many energy-related projects, particularly larger ones and would need to align with other agencies which have had historically opposing rulings.
• Only “intervening parties” would be allowed to file briefs on disputed issues through evidentiary hearings held by the single state agency. This severely restricts who is allowed to participate in legal proceedings.
• If the single state agency did not issue a permit within a restricted timetable, a consolidated permit would be issued automatically to the developer under a pre-defined set of permitting conditions, a so-called constructive permit.
• Regional regulatory oversight, in the counties that have that right would be eliminated which is critically important to maintain checks and balances.

The Commission’s recommendations are expected to be followed immediately by legislative action.

The state legislature is currently working on a major energy bill that would entail the same loss of local control over many types of energy and utility projects.

Regards,
Community Land and Water Coalition 

https://communitylandandwater.org/

Michael Kellett, Executive Director, RESTORE: the North Woods

https://www.restore.org/

Janet Sinclair, Save Massachusetts Forests

https://www.savemassforests.com/