BOSTON, Mass.—The Massachusetts House of Representatives today passed bill S.29670, legislation that will codify the state’s commitment to a clean energy grid, advance equity and protect ratepayers. The bill has been sent to Governor Maura Healey’s desk where signing is all but assured.
Continue readingBOSTON, Mass.–After yet another last-minute legislative scrum behind closed doors, the Massachusetts Legislature failed to pass a bill via conference committee before the legislative session ended that would streamline the permitting and siting of new clean energy infrastructure. According to the Massachusetts Environmental Justice Legislative Table—a state-wide coalition of environmental justice organizations and their allies—the legislature’s inability to reach a consensus on an issue of paramount concern to those they govern is wholly unacceptable. If done right, this bill could have not only enabled more renewables to access the electric grid, but it also could have done so while better protecting the communities that have been harmed by energy infrastructure in the past. This legislation will need to be reintroduced next session, which begins in January 2025, and move through the entire process again to become law.
Below are statements from members of the Massachusetts Environmental Justice Legislative Table.
“This is an embarrassing failure and an indictment of the status quo on Beacon Hill when it comes to managing a sane and effective legislative process,” said John Walkey, director of climate justice and waterfront initiatives at GreenRoots. “The administration devoted resources to take on thorny issues surrounding energy facilities siting and permitting. The committee chairs spent considerable time going over the details, with constituents, community groups, and representatives from the clean energy industry, utilities, environmental advocacy organizations, and municipal governments weighing in. How an agreement couldn’t be reached after two years of hard work is beyond my comprehension. Ultimately, this means the communities of Massachusetts hit first and worst by climate change will continue to be the ones that suffer most.”
“On a day with yet another heat advisory in a summer of seemingly endless hot days, hearing legislators tell the communities most impacted by the climate crisis to wait two more years for protection from further harm is unconscionable,” said Sofia Owen, the director of environmental justice legal services at Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE). “We had the opportunity to move the needle on environmental justice in the Commonwealth. Instead, we remain a state where your ZIP code predicts whether you can breathe clean air or live near toxic sites and polluting industries.”
“The legislature’s inaction will prolong the Commonwealth’s reliance on fossil-fueled energy infrastructure, the vast majority of which is currently located in communities of color and low-income communities,” said Paula García, a senior energy analyst and the energy justice lead at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). “The promise of a cleaner, healthier future for Bay Staters won’t become a reality unless policymakers urgently act to phase out fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy options and proactively safeguard against new harms in the neighborhoods already aching from decades of overconcentration of industrial and energy infrastructure.”
According to a recent analysis by ACE, GreenRoots, the Conservation Law Foundation, and UCS, more than 80% of existing fossil-fueled electricity generating units—that come with expansive health and safety risks—are located in or within one mile of communities that are home to people of color, low-income people, and people with limited English-language proficiency.
The Massachusetts Environmental Justice Legislative Table is led by GreenRoots, Alternatives for Community and Environment, Coalition for Social Justice, Arise for Social Justice, Groundwork Lawrence, and the North American Indian Center of Boston with allyship from Conservation Law Foundation, Union of Concerned Scientists, Massachusetts Public Health Association, Unitarian Universalist Mass Action, Clean Water Action, Massachusetts Climate Action Network, Environmental League of Massachusetts, Sierra Club Massachusetts, and the Green Energy Consumers Alliance.
The Boston Globe:
March 28, 2024
Power plants, manufacturers, asphalt batch plants, and other industrial operators hoping to expand in Massachusetts will soon have to determine whether the resulting air pollution would disproportionately harm communities of color or low-income areas.
That’s because Massachusetts is attempting to regulate what is called the “cumulative impact” of pollution — among the first states in the nation to do so.
Typically, environmental regulators treat each plant as its own island when permitting new sources of pollution, ignoring how many polluting facilities already exist in an area. New permits, then, can further concentrate air pollution in already polluted neighborhoods. But under the revised air quality rules finalized Thursday by Governor Maura Healey’s administration, how much air pollution a community is already burdened with will be a factor in the permitting process.
Read full article at bostonglobe.com
The Bay State Banner:
January 17, 2024
Three local New England nonprofits are teaming up to distribute federal funds in a streamlined process to meet the needs of grassroots community-based organizations focused on environmental justice and climate issues.
The initiative, which will provide a total of $50 million to groups across the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 1 in New England, is intended to bring new funding sources to smaller groups to generate community-based solutions and reduce barriers around access to federal funds.
Join ACE to learn about Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) — learn what BERDO is, how it works, and the changes that may occur as a result. Share your priorities and concerns so the City can understand how BERDO might impact you and your family. Your input is essential!
You will receive a gift card for participating and food will be provided.
Time: September 27, 2023 from 5pm-7pm
Location: 122 Dewitt Dr, Boston, MA 02120
Contact for more information:
Emmanuell De Barros, ACE’s Director of Development and Community Engagement (emmanuell@ ace-ej.org)
Hakim Sutherland, ACE’s Director of Youth Advocacy (hakim@ ace-ej.org)
Did you see the Boston Globe on Tuesday, 12/27? ACE’s Executive Director made it onto the front page, and was one of five key voices on climate change in the state.
Read the full article at the Globe’s website.
You can also read a PDF format of the article by clicking below.
Was 2022 good for the climate fight Five Massachusetts climate leaders weigh in. – The Boston Globe
In Boston, the biggest 3,500 buildings account for the majority of carbon pollution — burning gas or oil for heating, using electricity for air conditioning and lighting. Last year, the city council and mayor passed a visionary new law to aggressively reduce this pollution, called BERDO 2.0 (Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance).
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the Mayor’s Office make sweeping promises — but too often under past mayors, the city has failed to enforce these laws, and nothing changes. The key to actually following through with BERDO’s promises is to keep residents and stakeholder neighborhoods in the driver’s seat.
Our organization, ACE, pushed hard for community representation on the BERDO Review Board. Two-thirds of the members are nominated by community groups. This is crucial to ensure that the law’s enforcement doesn’t get watered down by developers.
But right now, we’re seeing the city move away from resident and community input. I was alarmed to learn that the city dismissed One Square World, the nonprofit that facilitated community input on BERDO. The regulation process has been frustrating for community groups since then. And we’ve seen developers pushing to get their own lobbying group listed as a “community-based organization” that would displace real resident input.
BERDO holds a lot of promise. This year, building managers have to begin monitoring and reporting on their carbon pollution. And in 2025, they must begin reducing that pollution. If this goes as planned, it is a big win for the communities in Boston who bear the brunt of heat waves, extreme weather and air pollution: largely Black, Brown, immigrant, and low-income folks.
But if it’s watered down, corporate property owners could simply purchase bogus “offsets” or “credits” rather than reducing their buildings’ pollution. If that comes to pass, BERDO will be actively worsening the impacts of climate change on our city’s vulnerable and disenfranchised residents.
The future here remains to be written. Will City Hall buckle under pressure from developers or push forward with true community and resident involvement? Only Mayor Wu can answer that question.