Why Massachusetts
Need for more transmission
Massachusetts has ambitious energy transition goals: 100% clean energy by 2035, 100% clean heating and transportation by 2045, and net-zero emissions by 2050. The state’s 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap identifies new high-voltage transmission – including projects developed in regional coordination with its neighboring New England states, New York, and Canada – as a key need to achieve these goals.
Siting opportunity
To minimize the need for development on undisturbed land and speed up the permitting process, Massachusetts state agencies and policymakers can consider opening up transmission siting along interstate highways and other partially controlled access roadways.
The 2022 Massachusetts Climate Law (“An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind”) established the Clean Energy Transmission Working Group, which issued a 2023 report recommending: “To the extent new onshore transmission lines are needed outside of existing electric transmission corridors, the Commonwealth should encourage the co-location of transmission infrastructure within state-owned or state-controlled properties and corridors, such as highway and railroad rights-of-way.”
Challenges
Siting prohibition
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDot) Utility Accommodation Policy on State Highway Right of Way manual governs the installation of transmission lines on highway rights-of-way. While the policy allows for the installation of transmission lines on state highways with uncontrolled access, it currently restricts co–location on state highways with partial controlled access and prohibits it on interstate highways.
Our work
The Clean Energy Transmission Working Group’s report recommended that the state Legislature consider granting additional statutory authority with regard to co-location, noting that “this aligns with federal guidance on leveraging alternative uses of highway rights-of-way.” NextGen Highways is working to help legislators and policymakers implement the needed changes to grant this authority, with the eventual goal of working with utilities, transmission developers, state agencies, and other stakeholders to ensure that interstate and other highway corridors receive due consideration for transmission siting.
Coalition members
