Al Blake, “Letter: Beacon Hill’s Legislative Process Is Broken,” Berkshire Eagle, August 6, 2014.
To the editor: Thank you for your Aug. 3 editorial “This is (still) no way to legislate.”
This session was a missed opportunity to make the commonwealth a climate leader. The Legislature’s inaction is a grave disappointment to anyone who cares about saving our planet.
This session was a chance to make serious progress slowing the expansion of our dirty and expensive methane gas system, but instead legislative leadership got tied up in political spats and chose not to extend the session and finish the job.
This comes after a year and a half of advocacy that included hundreds of meetings and thousands of calls and signatures to legislators. Many of the most popular policy proposals received vast majorities of legislative co-sponsors, yet House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka did not allow them to come for a vote.
Many policies “died in committee,” where politicians take secret votes that their constituents are not able to see. Many more died in the backroom process where amendments to bills were withdrawn before they had a chance to receive a vote.
The legislative process is broken, and undue influence from corporations routinely blocks popular and effective legislation in favor of utility and developer profits.
We can do better, and we must.
Al Blake, Becket
