As House and Senate lawmakers try to reach agreement on a major energy bill before Sunday, Gov. Charlie Baker seems to think at least one aspect of the legislation will work out in the House’s favor. Both the House and Senate passed bills, currently in conference, that envision a significant procurement of offshore wind power to meet the state’s energy demand and need for renewable resources to hit its mandate for carbon-emission reductions.
While the Senate has proposed a wide-open competition for offshore wind power contracts, the House bill included eligibility criteria that would exclude the controversial Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound from competing, according to the State House News Service. Governor Baker, during an interview on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio last week, did not appear to see the Cape Wind project as being in Massachusetts’s future. “It also has a fairly big offshore wind component, which would be deep water wind, not Nantucket Sound, but sort of deep water wind that I’m anticipating will be part of this package,” Governor Baker said.
