An Act Providing Fees to Licensing Authorities for Deer Tag Processing
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Currently a town or regional government administering deer tagging, the registration of hunted deer, collect a $5 fee that is to be transmitted to the state. This legislation would account for administrative costs by allowing those governments to charge and retain an additional $5 per deer tag.
An Act Establishing The Clean Communities and Recycling Grant Program in the Commonwealth
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The passage of the bottle deposit law resulted in an increase in recycling throughout the state, but that progress has leveled off and the recycling rate has become stagnant. This legislation seeks to establish the Clean Communities Fund, a fund similar to the now defunct Clean Environment Fund, which would be administered by the State Treasurer for programs and projects facilitating reduction and management of solid waste and recycling. The legislation charges the Department of Revenue with the responsibility of establishing a fee system, based upon gross annual sales in the Commonwealth, and collect $50 million in fees from manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers of certain litter-generating products that are engaged in business in the Commonwealth.
An Act Relative to Default Service Charges
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This legislation attempts to address some of the major problems associated with the out of merit order operation of generation resources in the Cape Cod region and other areas experiencing similar conditions. It ensures that competitive suppliers are on a level playing field with local distribution companies, that reliability costs, which address a concern that could be addressed through increased transmission, are allocated equitably in the same manner as transmission costs. This prevents customers in one area from having to bear a disproportionate share of uplift costs when the costs of transmission upgrades to address the same reliability concerns would be allocated across all customers of the distribution company or even across the entire New England region. The legislation also requires the investigation of other possible means of reducing the need to run generation resources out of merit order. This section is in keeping with the Green Communities Act of 2008 (St. 2008, Chapter 169) in that a host of renewable and other resources such as energy efficiency and demand response measures could potentially be used to reduce the need to run generation resources out of merit order.
An Act Relative to Expanding Energy Efficiency in the Commonwealth
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This bill seeks to add television sets and other electric appliances to the states energy efficiency standards. TV’s account for 6.5% of residential electricity use and this number is expected to grow with the increase use in high definition TV’s. By changing factory settings, a televisions set can consume significantly less energy. The estimated savings of adopting these standards would be a reduction in Massachusetts electricity use by nearly 800 gigawatt hours per year or an overall 4 percent reduction in residential use and would cut CO2 emissions by about 400,000 metric tons.
An Act Relative to the State Reclamation Board
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This legislation Removes the Department of Conservation and Recreation from the State Reclamation Board and puts a designee from the Department of Fish and Game and two designees from the Department of Public Health on the board.
An Act Concerning Tax Exemptions for Clean and Alternative Fuel Vehicles
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This legislation would provide a 50% tax exemption for Hybrids and alternative fuel-specific vehicles.
An Act Relative to Reliability on Cape Cod
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This legislation instructs the DPU to hire an independent consultant to study what alternatives are available for upgrading transmission to the SEMA zone and if there are any other, more cost effective options.
An Act Relative to Community Planning
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The Community Planning Act (CPA-2) is a comprehensive re-write of outdated Massachusetts statutes governing local land use planning under Chapters 40A and 41. It follows the successful Community Preservation Act, which helps provide cities and towns with funds for affordable housing, historic preservation, and open space acquisition. The CPA-2 is the next step in assisting our cities and towns to adopt or update their local master plans and providing them the tools necessary to implement effective land use regulations consistent with those plans.
An Act Relative to Expansion of the Smart Metering Pilot Program
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Given the overall benefits of having electrical “smart meters” installed in homes, legislation will bring more control of energy costs to more of our constituents faster. Advanced smart meter pilots have taken place across the country and these devices have been implemented internationally as a way to help people better understand their energy usage and also give distributors better information when systems go down. The legislation seeks to expand the number of customers served by the initial smart metering pilot program outlined in the Green Communities Act from .25 percent to .5 per cent and extends the date that distribution companies have to file their plans with the Department of Public Utilities from April 1, 2009 to October 1, 2009.
An Act Relative to the Establishment of Municipal Lighting Authorities
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This bill clarifies existing statutes to enable cities and towns to form a municipal lighting plant (Muni) after the process with DTE has been completed. Customers in municipalities that have a Muni tend to enjoy lower rates, faster and better service, and local benefits such as better attention to infrastructure needs and the ability to purchase local power. This bill would update current law to remove the ability for an investor-owned utility (IOU) to veto the sale of its assets to any municipality interested in forming a municipal lighting plant (Muni), once DPU has determined the fair value of an IOU’s assets.
An Act to Establish a Paint Thinner Take Back Program
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This bill would require people who sell paint thinner (hardware stores, home improvement stores, etc. to have paint thinner take-back facilities, reducing the pollution from improper disposal of paint thinner. |
