The Massachusetts Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting on Monday sent Gov. Maura Healey, D, a report recommending the state hasten clean energy deployment through changes to the siting process such as consolidating permits and setting deadlines for permit decisions.
The report focuses primarily on changes that could be made to the Energy Facilities Siting Board approval process by legislative, administrative and regulatory action. The commission recommends legislation which would require the EFSB to issue a single consolidated permit to clean energy infrastructure projects over a certain size, and to decide if a project qualifies for a permit within six to 15 months.
If the EFSB doesn’t reach a decision within that timeframe, the commission recommends that the project should be deemed approved to proceed to construction “under a common set of permit conditions established in regulations promulgated by the EFSB.”
The commission also recommends that legislation delineate which projects fall under the EFSB’s jurisdiction by their capacity size. Solar, wind, and biogas generation facilities under 25 MW — along with energy storage systems of less than 100 MWh — should fall under local jurisdiction, the report says.
The report also recommends that decisions made by the EFSB should be able to be appealed directly to a single justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court within 20 days of a final decision being issued.
In the case of smaller projects that would fall outside of the EFSB’s jurisdiction, the commission still recommends a single consolidated permit be issued by municipalities.
“This single consolidated permit should encompass all local permits that a clean energy infrastructure project would otherwise be required to obtain to commence construction,” the report says. “The consolidated local permit should not include any additional state, regional, or federal permits that the facility may be required to obtain, which may be obtained separately or via a consolidated regional and state permitting process.”
To support the permitting process at the local level, the commission recommends that legislation establish a Division of Energy Siting and Permitting within the state’s Department of Energy Resources and hire staffers with “expertise in environmental issues, community engagement, environmental justice issues, and legal expertise in municipal zoning, siting, and permitting.”
“To meet our emissions limits, we need to build much more clean energy infrastructure, and we need to build it much quicker than we have to date,” Healey said in a statement. “We are grateful to the Commission for recommending reforms to lower barriers to siting and permitting, ensure that communities are meaningfully engaged in the development of energy projects early in the process, and protect our critical natural resources.”
Commission members include Manikka Bowman, the executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts; Alexandra Blackmore, general counsel for National Grid in New England; JD Chesloff, CEO of Massachusetts Business Roundtable; and Jeremy McDiarmid, managing director of Advanced Energy United.
The Nature Conservancy’s Massachusetts office said in a tweet that the group is “excited to support” the recommendations, and thanked the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for the “opportunity to work on this collaborative process.”
“Speeding up the siting and permitting process is critical to the overall competitiveness of the Massachusetts economy,” Chesloff said in a statement from Healey’s office. “We need to ensure that our state has the infrastructure in place to support their energy demand, expand our wind, solar, and storage industries, and harness the promise of the global race for clean energy and climate tech.”
