How much will electricity cost in Massachusetts? How will its production affect the climate? And who will win what share of the more than $8 billion that Bay State homeowners and businesses spend each year for power?

Those were some of the gigantic questions on the table as state legislators took up several competing bills Tuesday at the State House in Boston. They cover issues like how much solar energy will the state encourage, and with what level of subsidies, and whether the state should consider importing super-cheap hydroelectric power from Quebec to lower costs and help meet longstanding goals for reducing carbon-dioxide pollution associated with making the Bay State’s electricity.

Factor in fierce opposition to pending gas pipelines to supply power plants and winter heating, excitement about newly authorized far-offshore wind power after the collapse of Cape Wind, and calls for the shutdown of the troubled Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth, and it’s fair to say: Massachusetts has likely never faced so many major and interrelated electric and energy questions at once.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo has urged legislators to pass a comprehensive energy bill addressing all these issues this year, rather than piecemeal solutions for solar and hydro issues.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker stopped short of saying exactly how, but encouraged members of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy to keep working towards legislation to cut costs and promote policies reducing carbon-dioxide emissions.

“We are losing jobs to other parts of the country, and we're not getting jobs that would otherwise be here because our cost of electricity is so high,’’ Baker said, recounting visits to high-tech companies that keep maps of electricity costs in every state as they consider where to expand. Massachusetts, Baker says, consistently ranks in the top five most expensive states for electricity.

Baker’s proposed an increase in the solar “net metering cap,” basically raising the amount of solar energy Massachusetts will agree to subsidize. But he’s urging legislators to cut those ratepayer subsidies to something far less than the current $200 million a year as solar’s cost comes down and its availability widens. Baker also wants legislators to authorize the state to “test the market” for long-term cheap hydroelectric power from Quebec, and said he would be fine with legislators including offshore wind in that change. Current policy restricts energy companies to signing six-month-only deals to supply utilities with power. Baker wants the option to advertise for 15- to 25-year deals to see what prices come back.

“If they give us proposals that don’t make sense economically, obviously, we won’t pursue them,’’ Baker said after testifying before the committee.

But, Baker said, the problem is the current electricity market in Massachusetts and new England “does not reduce carbon, and it does not reduce costs to our citizens … The whole point here is to accomplish two objectives. One is to reduce our carbon footprint in Massachusetts and across the New England region, and the second is to basically make sure we get more competitive with respect to price.’’

Environmentalists, power plant owners, and all kinds of other interests reflected in a packed Gardner Auditorium showed they all have billions of dollars in interests to fight for.

Sean Garren, Northeast director of Vote Solar, said his group was pleased with Baker’s solar legislation’s immediate moves to allow more solar installations. But, Garren said, “the long term parts of the governor's bill are really not going to sustain a growing solar market in the state, which I think people want’’ and don’t properly recognize the environmental and operational benefits of distributed solar installations for everyone who pays a utility bill.

Dan Dolan, representing the New England Power Generators Association, said their group has no objection to promoting hydroelectric or offshore wind or other renewables. But, he said, his concern with Baker’s bill is that it would mean “a third of all the electric consumption in Massachusetts for 15 to 25 years [goes] to Canadian utilities who then won't have to compete with everybody else who's putting their own money at risk.’’ Just Baker’s floating the idea, Dolan said, has threatened to chill private-sector investment in new power plants and supplies badly needed to make up for the closings of the Brayton Point station in Somerset, Vermont Yankee in Vernon, and the possible shutdown of Pilgrim if owner Entergy decides safety upgrades demanded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are too expensive.

Baker said: “Change is necessary to serve our citizens and address our energy challenges, and change is disruptive of the status quo.’’ But he added he’s optimistic he and legislators can reach a deal.

“There's a lot of momentum and a lot of energy here, not to put too fine a pun on it, to try to make something happen here,’’ Baker said. “I’m feeling pretty confident that something will emerge before the thanksgiving recess.’’