With legislation filed earlier this week, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is calling for an infusion of cash for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, calling for $750 million in new funding with wide discretion to the economic development agency for how to use it.
The proposed Clean Energy Investment Fund is part of the bill, which would also eliminate the price cap for offshore wind projects.
The legislation would be a major boost to MassCEC’s finances; the agency’s total revenue in fiscal year 2021 was around $27.5 million.
“This legislation includes a historic, once-in-a-generation $750 million investment to spur the next phase of clean energy innovation,” Baker said in a statement.
Baker's legislation doesn't specify how the money should be divided up, leaving it to the discretion of the clean energy center to use the funds for a wide variety of purposes. MassCEC initiatives include financing and investment for companies working on offshore wind, energy storage, green building technology and transportation, as well as workforce development programs and more.
The money could find its way to clean energy innovators in a variety of forms. Baker’s proposal calls for funding “grants, loans, equity investments, contracts and other forms of economic support" for investors, entrepreneurs and institutions.
There’s value to a diversified strategy, said Jeremy McDiarmid, vice president of policy and public affairs at the Northeast Clean Energy Council,
“You don’t want to put your eggs all in one basket. You want to make diversified bets,” he said in an interview.
The legislation also still has to make its way through the legislature, where lawmakers like Sen. Michael Barrett, chairman of the joint energy committee, will be waiting to make their mark on it.
“The $750 million is a bonafide opportunity to redefine some of the expense of seeding this new industry as properly belonging in the realm of general state and federal budget appropriations,” taking the burden off of electricity ratepayers, said Barrett
But he said within the context of the challenge, it’s not enough. “There remains a serious question of the capacity of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to drive energy innovation in Massachusetts,” Barrett said. “Even with this new money, the agency is not going to be operating at the scale where states like New Jersey and New York are.”
The funds are better than nothing, Barrett added, but he questioned whether the Baker administration is “checking a box instead of launching a program.”
Barrett’s House counterpart Rep. Jeff Roy is pushing for the legislature to consider an omnibus bill which would eliminate the existing price cap for energy procurement, create a new $700 million offshore wind investment fund, and designate MassCEC as a coordinating authority for offshore wind development.
Read Baker's bill below:
