Last week, the MA State Senate passed a new climate bill that accelerates our clean energy transition (read about it here), but there’s much more that we need to do, from investing in our public transportation systems to investing in equitable tree canopy and much, much more.
Fair Share Amendment Canvass Kickoffs!
Join the Fair Share Amendment Campaign to kick off the effort’s first regional canvasses of 2022!
We’ll be joining allies from across the Commonwealth in Raise Up Mass to hit the doors and talk to voters about how the Fair Share Amendment could transform our communities—from well-resourced and affordable public education to safe roads and bridges and reliable public transportation. A successful response to climate change depends on robust, ongoing investments in public transit, and the Fair Share Amendment will provide the sustainable revenue to make that a reality.
The Fair Share Amendment is a proposal to add a small tax on annual individual incomes exceeding $1 million. While the amendment is expected to impact fewer than 1% of taxpayers, it is projected to raise nearly $2 billion each year for investments in public education and infrastructure improvements. The Fair Share Amendment is on the ballot statewide on November 8, 2022.
A Livable Commonwealth: Trees as a Public Good
Thursday April 21, 2022, 7:00 pm EDT
https://bit.ly/Trees-As-A-Public-Good
Mature trees sequester substantial amounts of carbon, something that saplings cannot accomplish for decades. The loss of even a single tree impacts air quality, heat levels, and storm water drainage. So every loss of a mature tree contributes to the climate crisis and impacts public health. Neighborhoods and towns with less wealth and more people of color have fewer trees and are at greater risk for health and climate emergencies, making the loss of mature trees also an environmental justice issue. This online forum on Thursday, April 21 at 7 pm EDT will make the case that trees are a public good and discuss steps that local organizations and communities can take to protect our tree canopies.
And Mark Your Calendars…..
Lobby & Learn: The End-of-Session Clock is Ticking!
The current Legislative Session in Massachusetts will be coming to a close at the end of July, and that date will be here before you know it.
Rather than a typical virtual lobby day, this event — hosted on Wednesday, May 4th, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm — will be focused on learning more about some of our top legislative priorities and how to take action to support them.
The first hour will consist of deep dives on legislation. The second hour will consist of breakout groups for taking action in this critical part of the session: whether phone banking or text-banking to constituents of key legislators, relational organizing, or letter-writing. May the force of advocacy be with you in May and always!
On Thursday, April 14, the MA Senate passed a new climate bill,S.2819: An Act Driving Climate Policy Forward, which focused on accelerating the clean energy transition and the shift to electric vehicles. Notably, the bill also creates a pilot program for municipalities to ban oil/gas hookups in new construction, solving the legal problem that municipalities like Brookline have faced in trying to do so.
Transportation advocates were very critical of the bill’s focus on electric vehicles as opposed to a “mode shift” focus, i.e., how we can shift people from cars (electric or not) to more sustainable forms of transportation (walking, biking, public transit). Indeed, although the bill had new targets for public transit electrification, there were no new investments made in it for our state’s public transit infrastructure (let alone biking or pedestrian infrastructure).
The bill passed 37 to 3, with the NO votes coming from the chamber’s 3 Republicans (Ryan Fattman of Sutton, Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth, Bruce Tarr of Gloucester).
The following overview of the bill combines information from the Senate summary provided to press and the write-up from the Massachusetts Sierra Club.
Clean Energy
Enables nuclear fusion, networked geothermal, and deep geothermal energy to be eligible for support from the Mass Clean Energy Center
Creates a $100 million Clean Energy Investment Fund
Updates the offshore wind procurement process by maintaining a price cap while allowing certain direct economic development costs to be excluded from the calculation, removing utilities from the role as selector of the winning procurement, and reducing the remuneration rate for utilities
Removes impediments to medium-sized solar developments and tees up a successor to the state’s SMART solar program (Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target) solar program that favors development in the built environment
Expands the ability for “dual use” solar and agriculture projects to receive incentives, and incentivizes pollinator-friendly measures in solar developments
Authorizes all public pensions, with the exception of the state employees retirement system, the state teachers retirement system, and the State Boston retirement system, to divest from any investment in fossil fuel companies
Electric Vehicles
Establishes a $100 million fund for the MOR-EV rebate program (Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles) and provides a $3,500 point-of-sale rebate for the purchase of an electric car or light-duty trucks (with an additional $1000 for trading in a gas-powered vehicle), with $4,500 for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles; also allows used vehicles to qualify for the first time and establishes a $1,500 rebate at point of sale for low-income buyers
Creates a new outreach program for underserved and low-income communities, as well as communities with high proportions of high-emission vehicles
Codifies Governor Baker’s pledge for all vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035;
Requires the entire MBTA bus fleet to be electric by 2040, with no gas-powered purchases after 2028 (Note that environmental groups had advocated for a 2030 deadline for full electrification)
Requires emissions reduction targets for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft
Creates a new interagency coordinating council to develop and implement a plan for deploying EV charging infrastructure in an equitable and accessible way, backed by a $50 million fund
Requires new developments to allocate 10 percent of parking spaces to electric vehicle charging
Requires utilities to offer reduced electricity rates for off-peak EV charging
Buildings
Creates a 10-municipality demonstration project allowing municipalities to restrict the use of fossil fuels in new construction projects
Limits ratepayer-funded efficiency programs from incentivizing fossil fuel equipment starting in 2025
Expands equity in the Mass Save program by requiring DPU to include equity data in its evaluation of efficiency investment plans and to invest to strategically to reduce racial disparities in outcomes
Other Measures
Prevents biomass facilities from receiving state clean energy incentives
Directs creation of a study into future energy storage needs
Bans competitive electricity suppliers, who often prey on the most vulnerable, from operating in Massachusetts
The Amendment Process: What Was Adopted, Rejected, or Withdrawn without a Vote
Most floor debate happens without discussion or a vote. Occasionally, a lead sponsor will make some remarks before an amendment is adopted by voice vote or before withdrawing the amendment to avoid seeing it rejected. Thursday was no different.
Moreover, many amendments that were adopted were redrafted before adoption. Curious to know how an amendment changed during redrafting? Well, so am I. The Senate does not show the original text, a striking lack of transparency.
Here’s a run-down of the fate of some key amendments advocated for by the Sierra Club or Mass Power Forward:
Adopted by Voice Vote
#5 Offshore Wind, redrated (Cyr): Increases the minimum required offshore wind target to 10,000 MW total by 2035 and ensures that local indigenous tribes are included in both the process and the opportunities that result
#7 Large Building Energy Reporting, redrafted (Rausch): Requires the owners of large buildings (such as offices, apartments, hospitals, and university campuses) to report their energy use to the state each year and allows municipalities to set stronger reporting standards
#13 Commuter Rail Electrification, redrafted (Crighton): Requires all commuter rail procurements to be electric by 2031 and requires the MBTA to establish short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans for each commuter rail line and how they fit into the state’s emissions reductions goals
#36 Monitoring & Reducing Air Pollution, redrafted (Jehlen): Creates a committee to identify air pollution hotspots and establish baseline pollution levels, and requires a 2024 report from the committee on how to reduce air pollution in identified locations by 50 percent by December 31, 2030
#65 Mass Save Equity, redrafted (Chang-Díaz): Adds increased valuation of equity, renter access, and data collection in Mass Save programs
#128 Green and Healthy School Buildings, redrafted (Comerford): Assesses and creates a plan to renovate k-12 schools to improve energy efficiency, air quality, temperature and light control and more, starting with the highest needs schools
Rejected by Voice Vote
#8 Large Building Energy Performance Standards (Rausch): Requires large buildings to meet minimum standards for energy efficiency, reducing their reliance on fossil fuels over time
#31 Prioritizing Project Labor Agreements in Offshore Wind Energy Generation Proposals (Feeney): Requires DOER to give preference to offshore wind proposals that demonstrate benefits from the greatest economic development and employment contributions and adds consideration of the use of project labor agreements for the life cycle of offshore wind projects
#55 Promoting Sustainable Development and Infrastructure (Collins): Integrates climate adaptation planning across various components of the economy, such as capital infrastructure projects, environmental impact reviews, utility infrastructure, and building codes and standards
#63 Expanding Electric New Construction (Eldridge): Increases the number of municipalities that can participate in the demonstration project allowing municipalities to restrict the use of fossil fuels in new construction projects by 30 to a total of 40
#82 Parking Spaces Wired for Charging Stations (Edwards): Requires at least 90% of all parking spaces in new residential and commercial construction be wired to be electric vehicle capable
#88 Fleet Electrification (Edwards): Sets interim targets and requires all public fleets including state, municipal, and school bus fleets to be electric by 2035. Also requires the DOER to design an incentive program to encourage the transition of private fleets to electric vehicles
#122 Methane emissions accounting (Comerford): Updates MA’s greenhouse gas reporting law to meet latest scientific understandings on methane emissions, ensuring more accurate and consistent accounting of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the use of methane
#148 Expanding the MassSave program (Chandler): Expands the range of energy efficiency applications and subsidies covered by the MassSave program to include insulation, upgrading electrical systems, heat pumps, and solar energy systems
Withdrawn
#24 Fare-Free Bus Pilot (Jehlen): Requires the MBTA and the RTA to implement a one-year fare-free bus pilot by March 31, 2023
#33 Hydrogen & Biomethane Gas Contracts (Jehlen): Prevents the department of public utilities from approving a contract for the so-called “decarbonized gases” of hydrogen, renewable natural gas, or any gas derived from hydrogen if it costs more than an average cost of fossil gas
#64 Food Justice with Jobs (Eldridge): Creates Community Land Trusts in food-insecure communities in order to grow more food and create food security jobs, and creates Garden Agriculture Program and Grants
#89 Restrict the use of fossil fuels in new construction projects (Friedman): Expands the number of municipalities that can participate in the demonstration project allowing municipalities to restrict the use of fossil fuels in new construction projects by greenlighting all gateway cities with over 50,000 residents and 20-30 additional towns.
#109 Equitable Siting in East Boston (Edwards): Prevents the building of an electrical substation in East Boston
#118 Electrification of New and Substantially Remodeled or Rehabilitated Buildings (Comerford): Requires all newly constructed, substantially remodeled, or rehabilitated buildings to use electricity or thermal solar instead of fossil fuels, with some exceptions; allows municipalities to impose reasonable penalties for violations
Notable Roll Call Votes
As noted earlier, the final bill was a party-line vote of 37-3. The Senate also rejected 36-3 the Republican caucus’s substitute version of the bill, a truncated version of the bill that allows the “future of gas” work of the Department of Public Utilities to conclude with the current governor and that removes the language ensuring that wood-burning electric power plants not be counted as clean energy.
The Senate voted unanimously for amendments to allow local pension funds to divest from fossil fuels (#57, Pacheco) and to require MassDOT to assist Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs) in transitioning to the use of electric buses (#123, Chandler).
The most interesting contested vote was that on Sen. Pacheco (D-Taunton)’s Amendment #4: Building Environmental Justice and Energy Efficiency With Jobs, which integrated critical pieces of the Building Justice with Jobs bill with funding sources. The amendment requested $1 billion from federal Covid-19 recovery funds be transferred to the Clean Energy Investment Fund for at least 1 million home retrofits, prioritizing people living in Environmental Justice (EJ) communities. The amendment was a key priority for the Mass Renews Alliance, MA Power Forward, 350 Mass, and the Mass Sierra Club.
There was a tense floor debate between Sen. Pacheco and Sen. Barrett (D-Lexington), the chairman of the Telecommunications, Utilities, and & Energy Committee. Barrett criticized the amendment for requesting too much of the remaining $2.5 billion in ARPA funds (although, given the urgency of climate action, effective equity and job-focused climate investment can never be too little) and for delegating the creation of a plan to a task force of state officials, policy experts, and community and nonprofit leaders rather than the Legislature itself (strikingly, this seemed to be a rare moment of legislators complaining about something being delegated to a commission…).
The amendment failed on an 11 to 28 vote, with strange coalitions on either side.
Spring holidays are a time to reflect on the themes of liberation and of new life. Themes that are especially relevant when it comes to our transition away from fossil fuels toward a renewable energy future, and away from a punitive, costly, and ineffective carceral system toward a system rooted in humanity and second chances.
MA Senate Climate Bill: Free Our Energy System from Fossil Fuels
Last week, the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made clear that it’s “now or never” to act on climate change. Every country (and every state, and every city) needs to enlarge its ambitions, as we build a world free from fossil fuel dependency. A world with cleaner air, better transit, and healthier lives. A world that with its cleaner air, healthier lives, and better transit will be better for all.
Tomorrow, the MA Senate will be voting on a new climate bill: S.2180, An Act Driving Climate Policy Forward. The bill takes many positive steps forward, but it does not do enough when it comes to accelerating our transition from renewable energy, improving the energy efficiency of our buildings sector, and investing in public transit.
Prisons are fundamentally unsafe environments, designed for punishment not rehabilitation. Warehousing people in settings rife with human rights abuses, price gouging, and isolation does not make anyone safer; indeed, our system makes us all worse off.
We know what works and what doesn’t from years of study and from the organizing and advocacy of impacted communities. We need to avoid entrenching a flawed system, we need to ensure that individuals who are incarcerated can maintain a connection with loved ones outside, and we need to ensure that young people have second chances, rather than being cut off from opportunities for life.
This Friday is a key deadline for the MA Legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee in making that better vision a reality.
The members of the Judiciary Committee need to hear from you about these bills in particular:
No Cost Calls: H.1900: An Act relative to inmate telephone calls, which would prevent prisons and jails from charging individuals who are incarcerated for phone calls to loved ones.
Prison Moratorium: H.1905: An Act establishing a jail and prison construction moratorium, which would prevent the state from building new prisons and jails and from thereby locking in a carceral system through increased capacity.
Raising the Age: S.920 / H.1826: An Act to promote public safety and better outcomes for young adults, which would raise the age of criminal majority to 21, allowing offending youth to have better access to treatment and educational services and thereby reducing recidivism.
Juvenile Expungement: S.980 / H.1531: An Act relative to expungement of juvenile and young adult records, which would expand access to expungement to ensure young people who are on the right track can have better access to education and employment opportunities.
Are your legislators on the Committee? If so, send them an email / give them a call asking for a favorable report for these bills.
Tomorrow, the MA House is voting on a bill to generate revenue for an offshore wind investment fund and establish a slate of tax credits and incentives to promote offshore wind.
Massachusetts is well-positioned to be a leader in the renewable energy economy, but as we grow that sector, it is important that we make sure that all communities, especially the underserved, can benefit from the new opportunities provided.
Last month, the MA House voted 120 to 36 to pass the Work & Family Mobility Act (often referred to as the “Driver’s License Bill”), which would enable all qualified state residents to apply for a standard Massachusetts driver’s license or identification card regardless of immigrant status.
The case for the bill is clear. Many MA residents depend on a car to get to work, to school, to the hospital, etc., and immigration status shouldn’t be a barrier to getting a license. If all drivers have passed the same test and know the same rules of the road, and are properly insured, we all benefit from the safer roads that result.
Despite this, the bill had been stalled in the Legislature session after session. But the years of hard work done by advocates, especially those from immigrant-led organizations, paid off.
Chairman Hinds, Chairman Cusack, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.
We urge a favorable report for H.2890 and S.1853: An Act providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure and affordable housing investments in the Commonwealth, jointly known as the HERO bill.
The motto for Progressive Mass is “We all do better when we all do better.” If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are all connected and that we must trust and rely on each other to create the robust, healthy state we all want to live in.
As income inequality skyrockets and housing prices rapidly escalate, exacerbating the housing stability faced by countless families, Massachusetts must take action to ensure that we can still be a place where people can afford to live and thrive at any stage of life. Likewise, as the consequences of climate change become increasingly apparent, we must similarly take bold action to enable us to meet and exceed existing climate goals. But both of these crises cannot be addressed without raising the funds to address these issues.
Raising the deeds excise tax to be more in line with the rest of New England is an easy way to raise some of this much-needed revenue. We cannot afford to pass up this opportunity to add $150,000,000 to our Global Warming Solution Trust Fund to allocate towards climate mitigation and climate adaptation measures and another $150,000,000 towards Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and the Housing Preservation and Stabilization Fund (HPSF).
The HERO Coalition has been an impressive effort uniting housing advocates and climate advocates around shared goals. Indeed, the goals of affordable housing and climate justice are deeply linked, as greening our housing stock is essential to climate mitigation and combating climate change is essential to community stability amidst extreme weather. This bill provides a great opportunity to take action, with long-term positive benefits that ripple across the Commonwealth.
“Action at the city level is what will make national momentum possible on our most urgent issues, and this is the level of government where we are closest to people, where we can innovate and move quickly. Most importantly, this is the level of government where we uniquely are in the position to earn the trust of our communities.”
“Solitary confinement is a punishment that correctional officers wield freely, and its harms are catastrophic. The practice — confinement in a cell for up to 24 hours a day — can lead to psychosis, self-mutilation, and suicide. A study of people incarcerated in North Carolina found that those subjected to solitary were almost 80 percent more likely to die by suicide within a year after their release than those not placed in solitary.”
“Many municipalities benefited from these reforms, but still, they’re set to expire Wednesday….There was talk of extending them while the House and Senate hashed out a more permanent solution. But with the legislature not in formal session, it appears highly unlikely they will act to do so in time.”
“While the race largely turned into a turf battle pitting D’Ambrosio’s solid base of support in Revere against Edwards’s strength in Boston and Cambridge, it was also a referendum on whether the district would embrace the progressive wave has that sent Wu, Pressley, and other political change agents into office in recent years or stick to a more moderate Democratic lane.”
“What I’ve been consistent about is talking about how as a senator, you can take a regional approach, which is necessary to deal with housing, to deal with transportation, to deal with environmental justice, to deal with education … dealing with the opioid crisis, there is no one city or town that can do it alone.”
“But those diversity and equity goals collided with lawmakers’ penchant for using budget negotiations to fund pet projects in their districts. The result: The bulk of arts funding in the huge spending bill is tied up in local earmarks, only a small percentage of which are geared toward organizations led by or primarily serving people of color.”
“Let’s be real about this: communities all over this state still experience the painful impacts of the War on Drugs today. The families that have been torn apart by over-policing and over-enforcement should be the first to benefit now that marijuana is legal. Massachusetts knows what it takes to make sure equity materializes, and now is the time to carry out its promise by investing in those who deserve to participate in this industry.”
“The report recommends funding — including public spending — to support patients seeking abortion for travel expenses such as gas, lodging, transportation and child care. It asks lawmakers to reimburse abortion providers for services to those who can’t afford to pay — including those who travel to California from other states whose income is low enough that they would qualify for state-funded abortions under Medicaid if they lived there.”
Chairman Barrett, Chairman Roy, and Members of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the political director for Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide multi-issue advocacy group focused on fighting for a more equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world must reach net zero emissions by 2050 in order to contain runaway climate change. The Next-Generation Roadmap bill passed earlier this year committed Massachusetts to the goal of net zero by 2050. But here’s the catch: if we are to reach that goal, we must do far more than we are currently doing, and as one of the most affluent states in the most affluent country in the world, we should be setting higher goals than those for the world as a whole.
That is why we urge you to give a favorable report to S.2170/H.3372: An act investing in a prosperous, clean commonwealth by 2030.
The bill is essential both for the higher goals that it sets (net zero by 2030 and 100% renewable electricity by 2030) and for the concrete steps that it proposes to achieve the decarbonization of our energy and transportation systems.
The bill mandates the procurement of new offshore wind and solar capacity, while increasing the accessibility of solar to low-income and environmental justice communities. It requires electric vehicle charging infrastructure for new residential and commercial construction and sets strong goals for the electrification of the MBTA, RTAs, and fleets used for a public purpose. It establishes a mandatory net zero building code for new constructionwhile harmonizing building efficiency standards across the commonwealth, and retrofits all publicly assisted housing by 2030.
The bill centers equity, both in the ways outlined above and in how it protects workers from fossil fuel industries, allowing them to choose to retrain or to collect a pension early while guaranteeing that jobs created as a result of the energy transition are union jobs with wage and benefit parity.
The fact that we just had a humid, 60-degree Saturday in the middle of December while tornadoes wrecked other states shows that the erratic weather patterns that climate change foretells are already here, and they will get worse, with impacts to
agriculture, infrastructure, and human health. Our efforts must match the scale of the problem.
Saturday was another warm 60-degree day. In the middle of December.
It’s the type of weather that inspires an initial bout of excitement and then some existential dread: it is just one of many manifestations of climate change. And the erratic weather patterns, with a greater chance of storms and extreme weather events of all kinds, will wreak havoc on our infrastructure, our agriculture, and human health and well-being.
And we have to do something about it.
Coincidentally, tomorrow, the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy committee in the MA Legislature is holding a hearing on significant climate legislation.
Of particular note: S.2170/H.3372: An act investing in a prosperous, clean commonwealth by 2030 (the “IPCC by 2030” bill, from Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven) and S.2136/H.3288 An Act transitioning Massachusetts to clean electricity, heating and transportation (the 100% Clean Act, from former Sen. Joe Boncore and Reps. Marjorie Decker and Sean Garballey).
These bills accelerate our path toward achieving 100% renewable energy, electrifying our transit systems, and greening our buildings, and they center equity in our response to climate change by making sure no workers are left behind.
The Next-Generation Roadmap bill, signed into law earlier this year, was an important step forward, but we need stronger goals as well as commitment to robust policies to make significant emissions reductions possible at all.
ALSO TOMORROW: Hearing on Banning Tear Gas
In 2020, the MA Legislature passed a comprehensive police reform legislation. The bill did many important things, but it had significant limitations.
Among the limitations: the bill’s failure to ban the use of tear gas by law enforcement. (The House took a vote on doing so; you can find how your state rep voted here.)
The use of chemical weapons is banned in war, and it should be banned on our streets.
Chairman Barrett, Chairman Roy, and Members of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy,
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the political director for Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide multi-issue advocacy group focused on fighting for a more equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.
Earlier this session, the Legislature helped the Commonwealth take a big leap forward in climate action by passing the Next-Generation Roadmap bill, which codified a roadmap plan for achieving net zero emission by 2050 and set stronger emissions reduction goals (such as requiring statewide emissions reductions of 50% from 1990 levels by 2030). If we are to achieve these goals, then we need to put in place the policies, programs, and practices to make it happen.
Accordingly, we urge you to give a favorable report to the Solar Neighborhoods Act: An Act establishing solar neighborhoods (H.3278) and An Act increasing solar rooftop energy (S.2165).
Buildings consume more than 50% of the primary energy used annually in Massachusetts. Achieving our climate goals will require making our buildings more efficient in their use of energy and greener in the energy they use. Some of that work will require adaptations and upgrades to existing housing stock, but we should be working to ensure that all future construction is built with our climate goals (as well as the goal of cleaner air) in mind.
The Solar Neighborhoods Act does just that by requiring that all new buildings be built “solar-ready,” i.e., able to accommodate rooftop solar panels and that solar rooftop solar panels are installed on new buildings (including single-family homes, apartment buildings, and commercial buildings) at the time of construction.
Our municipalities are already leading the way. Watertown recently passed an ordinance requiring new commercial and multi-family residential buildings to have rooftop solar. We’ve also seen action in other states, as California in 2018 became the first state to require all new homes to be built with solar panels.
We are all in an all-hands-on-deck moment for climate change. Let’s get to work.
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