A Green Light for Green Power in MA: NSTAR Green Program Approved by State Regulators Will Provide Customers with Clean Power Option

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Colin Durrant, CLF Director of Communications
617.850.1722

Boston, MA (May 1, 2008) – A new program that will provide Massachusetts’ 1.4 million NSTAR customers with the option to buy clean, renewable energy has been approved by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU). The program, dubbed NSTAR Green, will allow residential customers to purchase half or all of their electric supply from wind farms in the Northeast. It will, environmentalists say, empower people to reduce the region’s dependence on the fossil fuel-fired power plants that contribute to global warming.

“Millions of Massachusetts residents will now have the option to support the development of clean, renewable energy in New England,” said Sue Reid a staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation, one of several prominent environmental groups that worked with NSTAR to create the new program.

As part of the new program, NSTAR has signed two 10-year contracts, one with PPM Energy to receive 30 megawatts of clean electricity from the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in upstate New York, and another with TransCanada Corporation for 30 megawatts from the Kibby Wind Power Project currently under development in Maine. Environmentalists and regulators say that long term contracts for renewable energy are critical to supporting the development of new renewable energy facilities like wind and solar projects.

“The long-term contracts that are at the heart of this initiative are key catalysts to bringing renewable energy online and are a prime example of how we can use market mechanisms to combat climate change,” said Reid, who directs CLF’s Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Change Initiative.

NSTAR Green is supported by Attorney General Martha Coakley, and was the result of a collaborative effort between the company and Conservation Law Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Environment Massachusetts.

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The Conservation Law Foundation (www.clf.org) works to solve the most significant environmental challenges facing New England. CLF’s advocates use law, economics and science to create innovative strategies to conserve natural resources, protect public health and promote vital communities in our region. Founded, in 1966, CLF is a nonprofit, member-supported organization with offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.