Mass. moves to streamline renewable energy push by consolidating efforts into single agency

Mass. moves to streamline renewable energy efforts

BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill designed to streamline the state’s push for renewable energy.

The new law transfers the state’s Renewable Energy Trust to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, creating a single agency responsible for encouraging the development of renewable energy technologies.

The Clean Energy Center was created by the state’s 2008 Green Jobs Act. Its main job is to support research, entrepreneurship, and job training using money from the energy trust.

The center has issued $4 million in job training grants and is helping develop the nation’s largest wind turbine blade testing facility near Boston Harbor.

The renewable energy trust is funded by a small charge on monthly bills of electric utility customers that generates up to $25 million a year.