Renewable vitality insurance policies in New England are driving up vitality prices within the area, in keeping with a report by the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance launched Wednesday.
“Even if you support 100% renewable energy, this path that we’re going down, where we’re adding more regulations on top of other regulations, is driving up costs,” stated Paul Craney, spokesperson for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, at a digital press convention saying the report Wednesday morning.
The report discovered that from 2008 to 2020 the area noticed an 11.4% drop in annual vitality demand however over the interval the common price per kilowatt hour for residents has risen 20% — a development, Craney stated, “smacks in the face of common sense.”
The report attributes this rise to renewable vitality rules, noting the six New England state imposes 26 vitality mandate packages on the businesses that offer the area. Massachusetts requires compliance with 9 vitality packages, the report states.
“The annual cost of Massachusetts renewable energy policies has quadrupled in 10 years from $250 million in 2011 to $1 billion in 2020,” the report states, noting the cumulative price of the insurance policies was $6 billion throughout the interval.
Maria Hardiman, spokesperson for the Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs, famous the environmental insurance policies are mandatory.
“The transition to clean energy is critical to ensure our residents and businesses no longer have to rely on costly and volatile fossil fuels,” stated Hardiman in response to the examine. “Stable, affordable clean energy is critical to the economic vitality of Massachusetts.”
Craney argued “ratepayers must be the number one priority if we want to be competitive in Massachusetts and New England.”
Mass Fiscal known as a number of enterprise folks to talk in help of the examine, who outlined the upper prices for his or her sectors.
“The prices that we’re looking at are 60% higher than we paid three years ago,” stated Jeffrey Sheehy, proprietor of perlite and vermiculite processing firm Whittermore Company in Lawrence. “It’s not sustainable for my business, to be honest with you.”
Speakers argued the price of the insurance policies must be reexamined.
“It’s one thing to say if we’re going to achieve 20% wind power by 2030, or 100% renewables by 2050, or whatever number or slogan that you’re going to use to to base your energy policy,” stated Lisa Linowes, an vitality coverage researcher who authored the report. “There is a reality to those policies, to those slogan-oriented policies that needs to be understood.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”