Green, with envy

Eco-friendly legislation challenges California's leadership, sets agenda for other states to follow

(GLOBE STAFF DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION)

Anyone at the State House for the close of the recent legislative session likely noticed the lanky guy exclaiming: "First in the nation! First in the nation!"

The excitable man wasn't a triumphant lobbyist or an exuberant politician; rather he was Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles.

"I plead guilty. You've got to be enthusiastic about your job," Bowles said of his antics. He was celebrating the passage of five "green" bills, some in the final days and hours of the session. Bowles said the legislation puts Massachusetts at the forefront of energy and environmental policy in the United States, and perhaps even ahead of California, which is known for being environmentally progressive.

"I definitely think that this [legislative] package is so far reaching in breadth that there is no other state that has done as much," Bowles said. "In clean energy, the race is on and Massachusetts has just opened up a commanding lead."

The measures - the Green Communities Act, Oceans Act, Clean Energy Biofuels Act, Global Warming Solu tions Act, and Green Jobs Act - incorporate several "first-in-the-nation" policies, according to supporters. They include:

A gasoline tax exemption for cellulosic biofuel, a nonfood-based substitute for gas usually made out of plant scraps and agricultural waste.

A mandate to blend biodiesel, starting at 2 percent by volume in 2010, into home heating oil.

A "comprehensive" oceans-management plan aimed at spurring investment in and development of wind, wave, and tidal power generation, while also protecting state waters.

"This is by far the greenest session in the history of the Legislature, highlighted by nation-leading advancements for the environment and our clean energy sector, " House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, whose office crafted much of the legislation, said Wednesday in an e-mail. "We are the envy of the nation."

Many in the state's clean tech industry agree. A top official at the New England Clean Energy Council called the legislation a "tidal wave of forward-thinking" that demonstrates the state's commitment to going green.

"It queues us up as a leader - if not the leader - in legislative policy," added Nick d'Arbeloff, executive director of the New England Clean Energy Council, a group dedicated to building a strong clean energy industry. "It's going to give us bragging rights to energy policy leadership."

Still, some in the business community are not ecstatic about the legislation.

Associated Industries of Massachusetts and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties of Massachusetts, both trade groups, wrote separate letters urging Governor Deval L. Patrick to veto the Global Warming Solutions Act, which mandates an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. Both groups say they believe the bill, which they consider too aggressive, would increase electricity rates and burden local businesses already struggling to make ends meet.

"How much do we keep piling these things on?" said Robert Rio, senior vice president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts. "We've got the Green Communities Act, we've got the Biofuels Act, then we have the green jobs bill. Can we see how the Green Communities Act plays out first?"

But the passage of multiple green bills at one time is precisely why Massachusetts' strategy is groundbreaking, supporters say.

"We've been neck and neck with California, in terms of clean tech," said Brooke Coleman, executive director of the New Fuels Alliance, which works with the Northeast Biofuels Collaborative and the California Renewable Fuels Partnership to promote alternative fuels. "I think what's interesting about what just happened in Massachusetts is that Massachusetts adopted what California had just done - AB 32 [California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006]." But besides that, Coleman said, California has enacted other green laws, such as those promoting biofuels and green-industry jobs.

Coleman said he isn't surprised by Massachusetts' environmental leadership role, and he sees parallels between the Commonwealth and California. Setting aside each state's liberal bent, gay marriage laws, and thriving movie industries, he said, Massachusetts and California also share concerns about coastal waters and are home to both world-class higher education institutions and centers of technological innovation that are driving breakthroughs in alternative energy.

And while environmental leaders in California applaud the Commonwealth's emergence as an environmental go-getter, most hesitated to declare one state more green than the other.

"Your folks took a lot of what we learned, sort of the hard way, and benefited from it," said Mike Chrisman, California's secretary for resources, referring to his state's efforts, which include an ocean act that helps protect and manage California's coastal waters.

An e-mail to the Globe from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's office also summarized - in 12 pages - the environmental laws, pledges, mandates, and orders the state has put in place since at least 2004. Among them, the global warming act and what California hopes will be the nation's first green-building standards code.

"We don't think that leadership is an exclusive club. We would like to see more states doing what Massachusetts is doing," said Mary Nichols, who chairs the California Air Resources Board. "Having said that, I'll be happy to arm wrestle Ian Bowles over whose state has a better environmental program."

Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.