Green Needham is joining Sustainable Wellesley, Green Newton, 350MA, and environmental organizations across Massachusetts, in putting out a crucial Action Alert! We are asking you to contact Needham’s State Representative, Josh Tarsky, before Wednesday, 5 p.m., and voice your opposition to a new energy bill which would weaken the state’s climate goals, slash funding for clean energy programs, and increase our dependence on expensive fossil fuels. Joshua.Tarsky@mahouse.gov (617) 722-2582 (If you don’t live in Needham, find you rep’s contact information here.)
The bill is moving forward quickly – it is now in the House Ways and Means Committee and could even possibly go to the full house for a vote this week.
House Bill H.4744 is a wide-ranging energy bill that rolls back our state’s 2030 clean energy goals and guts Mass Save by removing decarbonization and electrification from its directive, reducing its budget, and adding ratepayer-funded subsidies for gas furnaces.
Additionally, the bill would remove a moderate-income discount electric rate that would save people money, would reduce the Renewable Portfolio Standard (clean energy requirement) from 3% to 1% growth each year, and add “cost effectiveness” tests to everything and removes the social cost of carbon from calculations.
While the bill has some provisions that clean energy advocates can support, the effect of the many negative provisions will undo years of progress on the most important challenge of addressing climate change, turning back the clock on the state’s climate initiatives. Read more here.
Please take action today on this important issue! Here is a starting point. Also, it is effective to include your personal reasons for opposing the bill.
I am writing to state my strong opposition to the proposed legislative package: House Bill, H.4744. It is terrible to roll back the 2030 climate goals, and to gut Mass Save by reducing its budget and removing decarbonization and electrification from its directive (which is a critical tool created to help citizens implement green energy alternatives). I also oppose the adding of cost effectiveness tests where the “social costs of carbon” have been removed from the calculations – creating an emphasis on short term benefits over climate solutions. These are just a few of many issues in this bill and in short, it truly turns back the clock on all the state’s climate initiatives, of which we have all been so proud.
