To the 193rd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, House of Representatives:

Signed by an esteemed roster of climate advocate organizations, this letter was sent to all MA House members on Monday, July 8th, 2024.
To the 193rd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, House of Representatives,

RE: Climate Organizations’ Priorities for the House Climate Bill

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has made a commitment to environmental justice and to meeting our climate goals in order to ensure a livable planet and a just transition for all. The Legislature is poised to take a major step towards modernizing the electric grid and promoting the electrification of transportation and buildings. We call on the House of Representatives to take this opportunity to meet critical environmental justice (EJ) goals and to equitably and rapidly transform the gas industry into one that meets the Commonwealth’s climate goals while keeping gas rates down.

The undersigned organizations present elements that must be in this year’s climate bill when it lands on Governor Healey’s desk.

Siting and Permit Approvals tied to a robust cumulative impact analysis. A cumulative impacts analysis (or a reference to it in legislation) will not be meaningful for EJ populations if the analysis is limited to foreseeable impacts related only to the project. In a dramatically streamlined permitting process, like the one envisioned in S.2829, redrafted as S.2838, a cumulative impacts analysis that takes the entire context of a community’s pollution and industrial burden into account is a critical protection for environmental justice communities. A cumulative impacts analysis is not a cure-all or a blanket requirement for a project proponent to redress all of the burdens existing in a host community. It would allow project proponents, decision-makers, and the public to better understand the existing conditions in a host community, weigh the benefits and burdens associated with projects that promote decarbonization of the electricity sector, and ensure that the people living in the communities where that infrastructure is sited are able to benefit from it.

Clean air for environmental justice populations and all. Environmental Justice (EJ) populations — people of color, Indigenous people, low-income people, and limited English proficient speakers— are especially affected by air quality problems. Including air quality policy will improve indoor and outdoor air quality, especially for EJ populations and residents burdened by pollution from congested roadways and ports, gas stoves, and mold in rental housing. Policies should include updating the state sanitary code to require annual mold inspections and create clear timelines for remediating mold in rental housing; Setting and achieving ambitious air pollution reduction targets by 2030 and 2035; Requiring installation of air filters in existing eligible buildings, such as schools, residential buildings with more than 2 tenant-occupied units; Requiring advanced filtration systems (e.g.,MERV 16) for new eligible buildings, such as day care facilities, residential developments, hospitals, schools, long-term care facilities, school aged child care programs, temporary shelters, nursing homes; Expand outdoor air monitoring ultrafine particulate matter and black carbon in pollution hotspots identified by an advisory committee.

End large scale gas pipeline expansion. The Commonwealth’s statutory mandate to reach net zero emissions by 2050 requires an orderly transition to clean heat for buildings. Every new mile of high pressure pipeline installed is an expensive asset that will have to be paid off over decades by ratepayers or, if stranded, by taxpayers. Stopping the installation of these large scale pipeline expansions (more than 1 mile and more than 100 pounds per square inch), will improve public health and safety and reduce the future financial exposure of ratepayers and taxpayers.

Put gas companies on a path to provide clean, non-emitting renewable energy rather than fossil gas that leaks methane into the atmosphere and into our homes and businesses. Heating and cooling buildings contributes a third of the Commonwealth’s greenhouse gas emissions, mostly a result of burning gas. There are several important changes the Legislature can make to accelerate this transition to clean, non emitting energy.:

Change the definition of gas company to allow gas companies to sell non-emitting renewable thermal energy, such as networked geothermal systems. These systems are six times more efficient than conventional gas burners for heating buildings.
Limit the expansion of new gas mains unless there are no feasible alternatives to gas that can provide substantially similar service, taking into account the public interest in meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction mandates and in avoiding stranded assets, the cost of which will be borne by ratepayers.
Permit gas companies to meet their “obligation to serve” by providing customers with adequate non-emitting renewable substitutes.
Reform the current program (called GSEP) to encourage gas companies to repair or retire leak-prone pipelines, rather than replacing pipes that are projected to cost ratepayers some $34 billion between 2022 and 2039. We should instead encourage gas companies to install non-emitting renewable sources of energy such as ground source heat pumps connected through networked geothermal systems.
Require gas companies to plan and implement an orderly, safe transition to non-emitting energy for heating buildings.

Other Important Policies From Frontline Communities
Require the MBTA to electrify the entire commuter rail system: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority should be required to develop and implement short-term, medium-term and long-term plans for each line of the commuter rail system, ensuring that the line is fully integrated into the Commonwealth’s transportation system and designed to make the system more productive, equitable and decarbonized.
Remove woody biomass from the alternative energy portfolio standard: Limiting the eligibility of woody biomass as an alternative energy supply removes ratepayer funded subsidies for toxic woody biomass by excluding large and intermediate-sized wood heating units from qualifying for credits through the Alternative Portfolio Standard (APS) and is consistent with Governor Healey’s campaign platform.
Removing woody biomass from the greenhouse gas emissions standard for municipal lighting plants would close the “biomass loophole” for Municipal Light Plants (MLPs). Last session, the legislature removed biomass power plants from qualifying for the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), with the passage of An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind. Because the RPS does not apply to municipal light plants , incentives remain for developers to build and operate wood-burning power plants in the Commonwealth, using ratepayer “clean energy” subsidies, or even to purchase biomass energy from other New England states.
Establish Labor Standards and Reporting for Clean Energy Procurement: A special commission charged with assessing the impacts on the fossil fuel workforce caused by public or private efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or transition from fossil fuels to clean energy will provide us with the necessary information to develop labor standards and to make thoughtful decisions to achieve a just transition to clean energy.

These additions expand the impact of the pending climate bill, from a necessary expansion of the electric grid itself (crucial to bringing in the thousands of megawatts of renewable electricity we need) to ensure that Environmental Justice populations are not overburdened and to protect gas customers and taxpayers from the ballooning costs of maintaining an expensive and dangerous gas system that will soon be obsolete. We hope the House will show strong support for environmental justice and rapid decarbonization, and adopt these recommendations.

The following organizations comprising most of the members of the MA Environmental Justice Table, Mass Power Forward coalition and Gas Transition Allies:

350 Central Mass
350 Mass of Greater Lowell
350 Mass
350 Mass Boston
350 Mass Berkshire Node
350 Mass Newton Node
350 Mass North Shore
All In Energy
Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE)
Andover WECAN
Arborway Coalition
Arise for Social Justice
Becket Energy Committee
Berkshire Environmental Action Team
Boston Clean Energy Coalition
Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN)
Boston Green Action
Boston Harbor Storm Surge Working Group
Boston Teachers Union Climate Justice Committee, Steering Committee*
Breathe Easy Berkshires
Brimmer and May Environmental Club
Brookhaven Residents’ Climate Change Committee
Canton Democratic Town Committee
Canton Sustainable Equitable Future
Cape Ann Climate Coalition Organizing Committee
Centro Presente
Chase Systems
Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Mass. North Shore Chapter
Citizens Climate Lobby South Shore & Cape chapter
Clean Water Action Massachusetts
Climate Action Group, the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence
Climate Action Now Western Mass
Climate Code Blue
Climate Reality Project Boston Metro chapter
Climate Reality Project Massachusetts Southcoast
Coalition For Social Justice
Conservation Law Foundation
Elders Climate Action Mass chapter
Energy Allies
Fairmount Indigo CDC Collaborative (FICC)
First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Arlington Climate Action Working Group
First Parish in Bedford
First Parish in Cambridge
First Parish of Concord Environmental Team
First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton Climate Action Task Force
Food & Water Watch
Fore River Residents Against Compressor Station (FRRACS)
Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution- Climate Crisis Task Force
Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility
Green Energy Consumers Alliance
Green Newton
Green Sanctuary Committee of FPUU Medfield
GreenRoots
H.E.R.O. Nurturing Center Inc
HEET
HEETlabs
Jewish Climate Action Network
Lexington Climate Action Network (LexCAN)
LISC Massachusetts
Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness Group
Massachusetts Climate Action Network
Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light, Inc.
Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition
Melrose UU Church Climate Action Team
Mothers Out Front Acton
Mothers Out Front Amherst
Mothers Out Front Arlington
Mothers Out Front Bedford Chapter
Mothers Out Front Brookline
Mothers Out Front Cambridge
Mothers Out Front Concord
Mothers Out Front Downtown Boston
Mothers Out Front East Boston
Mothers Out Front Jamaica Plain
Mothers Out Front Massachusetts
Mothers Out Front Medford
Mothers Out Front Newton
Mothers Out Front Northampton
Mothers Out Front Somerville
Mothers Out Front Waltham
Mothers Out Front West Roxbury/Roslindale/Hyde Park chapter
Mothers Out Front Winthrop
Mt. Hope Canterbury Neighborhood Association
Mystic Valley Progressives
No Fracked Gas in Mass
North Parish UU Climate Justice Group
Our Climate
Our Revolution MA (ORMA) Climate Crisis Working Group
Partnership for Policy Integrity
Pipe Line Awareness Network for the Northeast
Progressive Massachusetts
Renewable Renegades
Resist the Pipeline
Resonant Energy
Sierra Club Massachusetts
Slingshot
South Coast Neighbors United
Speak for the Trees, Boston
Springfield Climate Justice Coalition
Springfield No One Leaves
Sunwealth
Sustainable Wellesley
The Enviro Show
Third Act Massachusetts
Trustees Collaborative for Parks & Open Space
Union of Concerned Scientists
Unitarian Universalist Association of Greater Springfield
Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
Vote Solar
Watertown Faces Climate Change (a node of 350Mass)
Worcester Congregations for Climate and Environmental Justice
ZeroCarbonMA