Call it a sign of the times: Layoffs have hit Massachusetts’s agency aimed at turbocharging the state’s green economy.
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has laid off 11 people, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed to CommonWealth Beacon, as it navigates a “challenging funding landscape as the federal administration has disrupted clean energy programs and the industry overall.”
The timing is notable: It comes just a month after Gov. Maura Healey signed a $63.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2027.
MassCEC, a quasi-public agency that boosts clean technologies in energy, buildings, and transportation, receives funding from a variety of sources. But Healey’s budget did it no favors.
The agency was allotted just $8 million in the FY27 budget, down from $10 million last year and $30 million in FY24. That will leave the organization’s new CEO Ben Downing to reckon with a smaller staff as it seeks to pivot from its emphasis on offshore wind supply chain development, given President Trump’s stifling of new such projects.
And the reduced budget speaks to the fiscal pressures facing Massachusetts officials: Even as the needs are greater than ever, including in the clean energy sector that has suffered from whipsaw federal policies and revoked incentives for electric vehicles, solar power, offshore wind, and energy efficiency measures, funding from Washington has also dried up, forcing states to shoulder more costs for core safety net programs like health care and food aid.
Those federal headwinds “have forced both the Legislature and the administration to adjust operating budget proposals in recent years,” the MassCEC spokesperson said.
MassCEC will still be able to collect money from its three remaining federal awards and a small charge on utility bills that generates about $20 million annually.
More Context
- Ratepayer revolt: Has the affordability debate soured Mass. on climate commitments? (March 2026)
- Port cities try to weather shifting winds (May 2026)
- Healey’s reelection bid confronts volatile energy politics (May 2026)
Published by MassINC