Land Use Real Estate Renewable Energy Zoning

Does the 9th Circuit’s rejection of Berkeley, CA’s municipal gas ban spell doom for Massachusetts’ own gas-banning “Demonstration Program”?

April 20, 2023 by Paula Devereaux | Leave a Comment

We bring to your attention this post by our colleague Randy Rich of Pierce Atwood’s Energy Infrastructure Group on the 9th Circuit’s decision earlier this week in California Restaurant Association v. City of Berkeley, No. 21-16278. The court decided that the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, 42 U.S.C. § 6297(c), preempts the City of Berkeley’s […]

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Environmental Renewable Energy Zoning

New Mass. AG continues hard line against local bylaws that hinder battery energy storage systems

April 18, 2023 by Tess Edwards | Leave a Comment

On March 1, 2023, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s Municipal Law Department issued a decision (pdf) disapproving two sections of the Town of Wendell’s amended zoning bylaw, one of which prohibited stand-alone battery energy storage facilities in all districts. As previewed in our blog post last month, based on a footnote in the former […]

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Environmental Renewable Energy

Mass. AG Clamps Down on Local Solar and Battery Storage Moratoria

March 2, 2023 by Tess Edwards | Leave a Comment

Late last year, pursuant to her review authority under M.G.L. c. 40, § 32, then-Attorney General (now Governor) Maura Healey (the AG) issued a decision disapproving the Town of Carver’s moratoria on large-scale solar projects and battery storage systems. The grounds for the decision were straightforward and well-supported: citing the Supreme Judicial Court’s June, 2022 […]

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