Thank you everyone for your time and effort and repeated calls/emails to your Reps. Thank you to the Legislative Team for your leadership and hours of planning, talking, emailing, calling and tweeting this week and over the past year and a half.
Six of the amendments we supported passed. For a brief summary of our wins and losses, see below.
The legislature extended the session, a very unusual move, in order to continue to address COVID needs, the budget and to have time for the Senate and House to meet in conference committees to combine and negotiate what gets into the final bills before they are sent to the Governor. We may still be able to influence the final climate bill during the reconciliation by the conference committee. We don’t know the timing of that work yet.
Please thank your State Representative for their work, cosponsorship and votes for bold climate policy. To see which of our amendments they cosponsored, click here.
What’s in the bill?
The bill has many strengths, based partly on the Senate climate bill and Rep Joan Meschino’s 2050 Roadmap bill. It includes backcasting from a 2050 net zero goal and intermediate targets for 2030 and 2040.
Six of the amendments we supported passed (click here for the list of amendments we supported).
With the passage of amendment 31, the Renewable Portfolio Standard is raised to 3%, to reach 40% renewable electricity by 2030.
The headline news is the major win on Environmental Justice with the unanimous passage of amendment 52. This amendment was based on the EJ bill which we have supported for multiple legislative sessions. The House leadership orchestrated a dramatic finish to two days of deliberation with Speaker DeLeo presiding and Rep Adrian Madaro’s maiden speech on the floor of the chamber as well as speeches by other Reps.
We can really take pride in the adoption of amendments 15 and 19, based on the FUTURE Act. Mothers Out Front, HEET and the Gas Leaks Allies helped pass the needed language for the geomicrodistrict pilots and to set our sights on a fossil fuel free heating sector.
It was important that amendment 16 pass to save net metering for large solar.
We’re disappointed that the carbon pricing amendments didn’t pass, but an aspect of the environmental justice provisions from H.2810 was included with the passage of amendment 5. There must be regular monitoring and reporting of the equitable benefits of the strategies used to achieve net zero emissions.