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Date: 11/2/2023
WESTFIELD — A panel met Sept. 27 at Westfield State University’s Wilson Hall to spread information about state and federal incentives to buy clean energy products like solar panels and electric cars. The panel was organized by the Pioneer Valley Library Collaborative and Voices for Climate as part of Climate Awareness Week.
Panelists included Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee CEO Beth Spong and Green Energy Consumer Alliance CEO Larry Chretien. The two were later joined by Massachusetts Deputy Climate Chief Jonathan Schrag. One of the advertised panelists, state Sen. Paul Mark, could not attend due to work in Boston.
The panel started with opening remarks from Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni. In a pre-recorded video, Gulluni said attendees were living in a time of “historic investments” that help create a greener environment and economy. Their mission, he said, was to give knowledge and resources about this transition to homeowners, businesses, and communities.
“The progress we seek will benefit all of us and future generations,” he said.
Gulluni said everyone has a part in fighting climate change. He said the fight is not about policies but about people, about ensuring everyone can play a role, and about everyone in the state reaping the benefits of clean energy. He encouraged participants to be “moved by the spirit of unity.”
“The road ahead may be challenging, but together we will prevail,” he said.
Spong followed Gulluni’s remarks with a presentation on her company, Dean’s Beans, a worker-owned cooperative that produces coffee. Spong said the places the coffee plant is grown experience climate change quicker and more intensely than North America.
“With everything that was happening in this region, the flooding and so much else, I thought ‘climate change has finally come home,’” she said. “We have been spared a number of the challenges until now.”
Spong said the company’s mission was to use specialty coffee to bring about social, economic, and environmental change. “30 years later it turns out to be a profitable way of doing business,” she said.
Spong went over the various ways the company meets the UN definition of sustainability. For example, the company used an incentive to make its beanery in Orange solar powered. The company also uses the chaff, which comes off beans when roasted, for composting.
Spong also described how climate change and unsustainable business practices affect the coffee crop. Coffee, she said, grows in cooler climates. She said that because of climate change, farmers have had to move higher in the mountains in order to grow the crop.
Large companies, Spong said, commit deforestation and plant large monocultural farms that lack biodiversity, which is critical for an ecosystem’s health.
“That whole scenario really degrades the earth and its ability to continue producing,” she said.
After the presentation, Chretien spoke about the importance of incentives for people to decarbonize. He said this organization tries to speed up the transition to a “zero-carbon future.”
“We’re getting there,” he said. “We’re not getting there fast enough.”
He said people must use zero-carbon energy sources, including electrifying means of transportation such as cars, trucks and commuter rail, and to stop using fossil fuels in the home.
“All the fossil fuels we’ve used, we’ve used by choice,” he said. “You can blame the oil companies, the gas companies, the coal companies.”
He said consumers should be making plans for zero-carbon, though they may wish to hold off on spending money until incentives are available to them.
On the federal level, incentives include a 30% tax credit for solar energy until 2032; a tax credit of up to $2,000 per year to electrify a heat source — meaning to switch from fossil fuels to heat pumps both for home heating and for hot water; and a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.
“Do not buy another gas-powered car ever again,” he said. “When you’re ready and need to get another car, look hard, because there’s a large number of electric vehicles coming on the market.”
On the state level, Massachusetts has the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, program. The MassSave program can also be used to get a free energy assessment on properties and then get rebates, incentives and loans.
Chretien said there’s no one place where it’s best for everybody to start.
“We’re all going to have a different pathway to net-zero, and that’s OK,” he said. “We encourage everyone to try and figure out what’s right for them.”
He did point to several websites as a starting point. A digital list of resources is available at forbeslibrary.org/pvlc. At rewiringamerica.org, people can enter their ZIP code, their income and whether they own or rent, to find out what incentives they’re eligible for from the Inflation Reduction Act. Chretien also pointed to his own organization’s website, greenenergyconsumers.org, where they host webinars.
Schrag said that Massachusetts’ state government doesn’t have the money needed to decarbonize. The federal Inflation Reduction Act and a recent bipartisan infrastructure bill, he said, represents between 8% to 30% of investment needed.
“That means that the rest of us are going to have to pay between 92% to 70% of what is needed,” he said.
Schrag said the challenge is to match investments in non-fossil fuel technology with federal and state purchase incentives and maintain the funding long enough that the products become cheaper.
Asked how Massachusetts and federal incentives were designed to help low- and moderate-income households, Schrag said they needed to “own the problem.” MassSave, he said, has not done a great job of reaching “environmental justice” populations. Schrag said Gov. Maura Healey has appointed an environmental justice council so that his office can be held accountable.
Schrag said the state is applying for the $7 billion Solar for All program, paid for by the federal EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The program would place solar panels on both publicly regulated and privately developed affordable housing buildings. Massachusetts will apply for a couple hundred million dollars in grants.
Secondly, the state is a deployment partner for the $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund competition, which will give money to nonprofits to help the transition to clean energy. “Whoever wins will find avenues in Massachusetts for programs to be successful,” he said.
The Pioneer Valley Library Collaborative is a network of several Western Massachusetts public libraries, including the Westfield Athenaeum and the town libraries of Agawam, Granville, Southwick, Tolland and West Springfield.