Next step to save pollinator-friendly solar in Massachusetts: contact your legislators!
We are encouraged by very strong support from the Attorney General and other parties for the DPU to reconsider its decision to defund the program! Notably, the AG stated that disallowing cost recovery for the Pollinator Adder "inappropriately intrudes on DOER’s statutory authority to design and implement the SMART program..." They also cite improper procedure on the part of the DPU, noting that "...the Department failed to rely on substantial evidence or to make the necessary subsidiary findings of fact to support its decision on this narrow issue… and [b]ecause the Department is required to base its decision upon substantial evidence in the record, it must reconsider its disallowance of cost recovery for the Pollinator Adder.”
Even so, the DPU has not issued a final decision and anything could happen. We do not want to leave this up to chance.
IF YOU LIVE IN MASSACHUSETTS: Please join us in asking your state legislators to advocate for the Pollinator Adder and for more transparency in this decision-making process with EEA Secretary Theoharides. The Secretary oversees DOER, the agency that created the Pollinator Adder, and the DPU, which disallowed this program; she is thus an important decision-influencer.
On December 30, 2021, the MA Department of Public Utilities (DPU) decided to disallow cost recovery for the Solar Pollinator Incentive Program ("Pollinator Adder"). In short, this means that solar developers will no longer be incentivized to create certified pollinator-friendly habitat on already-permitted solar fields.
On February 2nd, the DPU heard a motion to reconsider this decision. All official parties to this proceeding, including the MA Attorney General, expressed support for continuance of the Pollinator Adder. We are now waiting for the DPU to make a final decision.
The Pollinator Adder enables developers to cover costs of the certification, which is administered by UMass Clean Energy Extension. Certified habitat must meet rigorous standards, including the installation of native plant species that support at-risk pollinator species. The DPU’s decision would threaten continued maintenance of these sites as well as limit the creation of new ones.
In addition to supporting pollinators, such native plantings also store more carbon and offer greater protection against soil erosion and water runoff than the typical turf grass or minimally managed fields in many solar installations. By protecting pollinators, increasing below-ground biomass and reducing soil erosion and water runoff, the program increases the resilience of our ecosystems. The Pollinator Adder thus supports achieving the state’s crucial carbon and climate goals within the electricity sector.
Over 2000 letter writers joined the Mass Pollinator Network in asking the DPU to reconsider its decision and to allow the Solar Pollinator Incentive program to continue. We asked, at the very least, that DPU take no action that would endanger this crucial program without specific public notice and the opportunity for public comment and evidentiary hearings on the costs and benefits of the program.
