Sullivan says state can pressure utilities

Date: 12/21/2011

Dec. 21, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

HOLYOKE — Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard Sullivan said he would put additional pressure on the electrical utilities serving much of the state to improve communications with municipalities and customers in light of the events after the Oct. 29 snowstorm.

Sullivan spoke to Reminder Publications before address the Chicopee Chamber of Commerce at its annual legislative luncheon on Dec. 13.

Sullivan said one concern is that utilities should provide “a reasonable window when the power would come back on.”

He said the electric companies need to have emergency plans in place shaped by the severity of the storm. Part of these plans would include a formal arrangement for mutual aid in which crews from neighboring states would come to Massachusetts.

He noted, “Down South they are more aggressive and progressive with their approach to mutual aid.”

He said the Commonwealth could put “significant pressure” on the utilities companies through the Department of Public Utilities (DPU), which falls under his secretariat. The DPU could provide additional oversight on storm responses and impose penalties and other sanctions he said.

Sullivan said that communities with municipal power departments, such as Chicopee, Holyoke and Westfield, had more responsive clean-up efforts than those communities served by private companies.

Speaking to the businesspeople gathered for the event, Sullivan said Massachusetts is on the way to meeting Gov. Deval Patrick’s challenge of having 250 megawatts of electricity generated by solar cells by 2017 and 200 megawatts by wind by 2020. Currently there are more than 100 megawatts of solar and 200 megawatts of wind- generated electricity, he said.

Developing additional alternative means of generating electricity is important, he explained, because Massachusetts is “at the end of the pipeline.” He said that $22 billion is spent on energy in the state and 80 percent of that amount leaves the Commonwealth.

He called the state’s energy consumption “a lost economic opportunity.”

Sullivan said there is a “one to three, one to four” return on clean energy investments. Because of the emphasis on renewable energy development, he said that Massachusetts had recently past California as the state making the most investment in the field.

The Brookings Institute has defined Massachusetts has having the sixth “greenest” economy in the nation, he added.

Since 2007, the state as seen a 26 percent increase in family farming, Sullivan said, which has contributed to the “green” definition, as well as continued preservation of land.

Massachusetts is one of the few states that, in light of economic pressures, has not stopped it efforts to preserve property, Sullivan said. There is about half of the state in preservation, while half is in development, he added.

Recognizing business concerns, Sullivan said the permitting process in the state must work at “the speed of business.” The Patrick Administration is reviewing regulation and eliminating redundancies he said.

While admitting the state is ranked as the seventh most expensive in which to do business, he noted it has dropped from the number three position from several years ago.