Benefits and Why Members Engage
The Committee will operate as an educational forum with members educating other members on best practices in energy procurement, energy efficiency, and renewable power.
This group will participate in legislative, regulatory, and administrative areas and may form ad hoc task forces to actively address specific energy issues. Activities will include:
- Identifying and analyzing legislative, regulatory, and administrative, issues impacting energy supply energy cost, and the competitive market.
- Receiving timely updates throughout the legislative session.
- As needed providing public testimony, blogs, and letters to the editor.
- Engaging with legislators and policymakers.
- Seeking and developing educational opportunities for other AIM members.
Key Energy Issues
AIM’s Energy Committee will operate under five guiding principles:
Reliability – as Massachusetts charts a path towards achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, our existing energy infrastructure must still be properly managed for safety and reliability. We cannot neglect the resources that our homes, businesses, and economy rely on the most.
Affordability – the creation of new policy programs to support renewable energy usually comes with an increased cost. Policies must be designed in ways that maximize potential cost savings through economies of scale or regional initiatives and minimize increased ratepayer costs.
Clean energy growth – Massachusetts will need to support the growth of renewable energy. This should be prioritized above any policies that seek to deter end users from using a particular source of energy.
Alternative fuels – policies should balance the cost of each resource with its decarbonization potential. Certain end-user scenarios, such as heavy industry, will not be able to electrify and still operate. However, alternative fuels could help them decarbonize significantly.
Costs of the energy transition – the energy transition is going to require an unprecedented amount of new infrastructure buildout to generate new energy and move it to where it’s needed. A full-scale transition cannot be supported through ratepayer bills. Massachusetts will need to identify a new source of funding to pay for as much of the required new infrastructure as possible without relying on ratepayer bills.
AIM’s Energy Policy Impact: Jobs & Competitiveness
Below is a sampling of what AIM has focused on in the energy area that directly affects job creation and business competitiveness. Such issues include:
- Supported competitive long-term contract bidding for renewable power and clean energy that resulted in projects being built with virtually no impact on rate costs.
- Opposed renewable projects such as Cape Wind are politically influenced and bypass the competitive process.
- Supported a rate class allocation for electric and gas users that makes every class pay their fair share without unnecessary cross-subsidies.
- Supported energy efficiency programs that have returned hundreds of millions of dollars to our members in the form of rebates for energy efficiency programs.