Massachusetts consumers will pay higher utility bills as a result of a state law passed in 2008 that requires energy companies doing business in the Bay State to buy electrical power generated using green production resources, according to the Boston Globe.
“The four investor-owned utilities in Massachusetts – National Grid, NStar, Western Massachusetts Electric Co., and Unitil Corp. – are soliciting bids from producers of energy from renewable resources. Bidders have until Feb. 19 to submit proposals for 10- to 15-year contracts to sell power to the utilities, which do not make their own power, but rather buy and distribute it.,” according to the Globe.
“The utilities must enter into contracts with renewable energy suppliers under state environmental legislation passed in 2008. The power companies and the state Department of Energy Resources will choose a short list of bids by early May, and submit contracts for approval in late July,” the Globe said.
The Obama administration is seeking to force a nationwide move in the same direction, but using massive federal subsidies to renewable energy producers to keep them in business regardless of market conditions, regulatory proposals limiting the use of traditional fossil fuels, and government-created economic incentives to corporations to convert to green energy sources.
Even so, approximately 82 percent of domestic energy is currently produced using fossil fuels, including oil, natural gas and coal, and that figure is projected by federal energy officials to decline only to 78 percent by 2035.
That means energy prices will be headed upward, a fact reflected already in Massachusetts where NStar chief executive Thomas J. May told the Globe that “we are going to be buying higher priced power than what is currently on the market.’
According to the Globe, however, “advocates contend that, although green energy will mean higher costs, the shift toward more reliance on renewable resources will bring the state such environmental benefits as cleaner air and more stable energy prices.”
Renewable energy advocates also claim the prices currently paid by consumers for power generated from traditional sources don’t reflect the actual cost of producing it, the Globe reported.
“We’re not taking into account the real cost of the [traditional] energy we’re relying on,’’ said Sue Reid of the environmental advocacy group Conservation Law Foundation, meaning health, national security, and environmental issues associated with fossil fuels. “If you really took those costs into account, renewables would actually be extremely competitive.’’
