State official differs with Rio, Coakley

Environmental aide says green policies yielding big returns

This article was written in response to a piece by Associated Industries of Massachusetts vice president for government affairs Robert Rio, and a Back Story by Bruce Mohl about attorney general Martha Coakley's comments on clean energy costs. Read the AG's original comments here.

In his Nov. 28 column, “Consensus emerging on green energy,” Robert Rio takes issue with the cost and effectiveness of the clean energy policies that have resulted from the Green Communities Act.  Interestingly, Mr. Rio had a different message about the Patrick-Murray Administration’s energy policy a month ago when the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy – citing the Green Communities Act as a central reason – ranked Massachusetts number one in the nation for energy efficiency, marking the first time another state has surpassed California in the annual ranking. 

At that time, Mr. Rio, a member of the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council that helped create and monitors implementation of the Commonwealth’s new energy efficiency plans, had this to say: “The success of the Massachusetts program proves that customers will respond when programs show results that save energy and reduce costs at the same time.”

We agree. In fact, the nation-leading energy efficiency programs Mr. Rio was referring to are projected to save 2,600 gigawatt hours of electricity over three years - enough to power 350,000 homes for a year and roughly equal to the output of a 400-megawatt power plant, but without the harmful emissions.

In terms of consumers’ wallets, Mr. Rio’s column notes that Attorney General Martha Coakley stated in legislative testimony earlier this month that $4 billion in clean energy expenditures over the next four years will result from the Green Communities Act. While that figure jives with our own data, it is equally important to highlight the other half of the equation:  those investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy will produce a 2-to-1 return, yielding benefits of $8 billion over the lifetime of the efficiency measures installed.

These benefits will come in the form of immediate reduction of energy bills for consumers who participate in energy efficiency programs, long-term moderation in energy bills through the elimination of energy price shocks, and greater energy independence. In terms of the last point, consider this: at the end of the energy pipeline, Massachusetts spends approximately $22 billion annually on energy, of which 80 percent – or about $18 billion – leaves the state to buy oil, natural gas, and coal from places like Colombia, Venezuela, Canada, and the Middle East. That adds up to significant lost economic opportunity for Massachusetts residents and businesses. 

The Patrick-Murray Administration has a better idea – one that is already yielding benefits by keeping energy dollars and jobs here in Massachusetts, results we believe are valued by members of Mr. Rio’s Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Multiple studies produced data this fall that bolster our approach. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Clean Energy Industry Report revealed a 6.7 percent increase in clean energy jobs from July 2010 to July 2011 (compared with less than 1 percent job growth among all industries in the Commonwealth for the same period), with nearly 5,000 companies doing clean energy work and employing more than 64,000 clean energy workers.  Next, the national Solar Foundation ranked Massachusetts among the top ten states in the country for solar employment. And, finally, the independent Analysis Group pointed to the value of another component of the administration’s clean energy agenda – the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative - noting that it will create approximately 3,700 years of employment (job years) in Massachusetts over the next decade while pumping approximately $500 million into the state’s economy. 

Mr. Rio speaks of a “rare political consensus” forming around a call to alter the path illuminated by the Green Communities Act.  We maintain, instead, that the validation of the act’s effectiveness by multiple independent sources in the past several weeks adds up to a different consensus – one that sees the value of long-term investment to produce a locally-based energy policy that benefits our state economy, environment, and public health.  We look forward to working with the business and environmental communities, the Legislature, and the public at large as we continue to build this consensus for a clean energy future.  

(Lisa Capone is the assistant secretary for communications and public affairs at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.)