The Massachusetts State House in Boston
FILE PHOTO
After the dismal performance of our elected officials, this legislative session was a missed opportunity to make the state a leader on climate action. Our lawmakers had a chance to make meaningful progress in slowing the expansion of our dirty and expensive methane gas system. Instead, legislative leadership got caught up in political bickering and ultimately decided not to extend the session and get the job done.
The legislative process is broken. In part because of the undue influence of corporations that routinely block popular and effective legislation in favor of utility and developer profits. These legislators, our public servants on the House Appropriations Committee, have had plenty of time to make decisions about how to shirk their responsibilities to their constituents. The legislature’s inaction is a grave, tragic disappointment, and its members must be held accountable.
Environmental priorities that were not addressed include: the rapid expansion of methane gas pipelines despite clear health and climate risks, the construction of new fossil fuel power plants, the disproportionate harm to environmental communities caused by the climate crisis, and an over-reliance on international fossil fuel markets that drives up costs.
The failure to pass environmental legislation is the result of a year and a half of lobbying that included hundreds of meetings and thousands of calls and signatures to lawmakers. Many of the most popular policy proposals received enormous numbers of co-signers in the House, yet House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka did not allow them to come to a vote.
Many policies have failed in committee, where politicians conduct secret votes that their constituents (and the public) cannot see. Many more have failed in backroom processes, where amendments to bills have been withdrawn before they come to a vote.
The Climate Change Act Mediation Committee should immediately end the fiasco it has created. It has disappointed the majority of environmental organizations and their constituents, who have lost all confidence that these legislators are on the side of their constituents. We will not vote for you again if you do not forcefully implement the Climate Change Act.
I call on climate change lawmakers and Governor Maura Healey to urgently pass robust climate legislation that moves us away from expanding pipeline construction and toward justice for our communities. The expansion of large gas pipelines is currently undermining our climate goals.
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Both Massachusetts’ 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap and the MA Clean Heat Commission call for prioritizing clean energy, not more gas. The Department of Public Utilities agrees – its December 2023 order recognizes the need to move beyond gas and may require legislative action. A truly robust climate bill will include these crucial measures.
Let’s build a clean energy future instead of getting stuck in a fossil fuel past. It’s past time our politicians put the long-term health of our community members, now and for future generations, above the demands of profit-driven industry. Now is the time to act. You, the public servants, must return to formal session to pass real climate legislation!
We, the Sierra Club and the environmental organizations concerned, have always considered the rights of nature alongside human rights in the pursuit of happiness for the common good. This fundamental ethical approach has guided us for many decades to “enjoy, explore and protect the planet and its communities.”
Professor Laura Rojo MacLeod of Amherst writes on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Sierra Club of Massachusetts.
