Share this letter...
We need you to contact your State Representative and Senator:
- If you have not done so already, thank your representative (and any others you may have contacted) for passing the House climate bill (H4933), especially the Environmental Justice language.
- Write a short personal note (email or tweet) to both your representative and your senator.
- Share our letter and ask them to contact the Conference Committee members to express support for our specific priorities.
- If emailing, please adapt the sample script below. Attach the Legislative Team’s letter to the Committee members and ask them to advocate for Mothers Out Front’s priorities.
- If Tweeting, here’s some tips.
Here is more information for you to use if needed.
Sample script for emails
Dear ________,
Thank-you for your support in getting strong climate legislation passed this session! Now I need you to ask the Climate Bill Conference Committee to include our suggested points to make the legislation more effective and equitable. Please share the attached letter with the Conference Committee members.
Please let me know when you contact them. And again, thank you!
Our letter
August, 2020
Honorable Members of the Climate Bill Conference Committee:
Mothers Out Front congratulates the House and Senate on the passage of thoughtful and comprehensive climate legislation. We are gratified that both H4933 and S2500 include the mandate of Net Zero emissions by 2050 and that both authorize geothermal microdistrict projects as originally described in the FUTURE Act. We look forward to seeing these provisions in the final bill.
We also ask you to consider the following Mothers Out Front priorities.
- Include H4933’s definitions of Environmental Justice Principles and Environmental Justice Population, as found in Sections 15NN-15RR, H.4933 (lines 687-831) They acknowledge that environmental injustice occurs in low-income communities and in communities of color, and they establish clear mechanisms to identify said populations.
- The urgency of the climate crisis calls us to tighten the timeline for emissions limits, benchmarking and reporting. We ask the Committee to adopt the emissions limits in Section 3 of S2500.
- Include Net Zero stretch code language to enable municipalities to adopt the Net Zero stretch code as set out in S2500, Section 30, clause and in 14, Sections 31, 42 and 54. We also support expansion of the Bureau of Building Regulations and Standards membership as proposed in Sections 15A-15F, S2500.
- Increase solar project capacity to 25 kW, as provided in Section 2 of Amendment #16 to H4912. This addresses the need for more solar generation to meet the Commonwealth’s emissions goals and create local clean energy jobs. Also, adopt Section 17 of the final version of H.4933, addressing the cap for certain net metering facilities and any credits accrued in excess of annual electricity consumption by those facilities.
- Reject the expanded definition of non-carbon emitting sources now in H4933. Municipal Light Plants should not be allowed to include more biomass, landfill methane gas, trash, anaerobic digestion and wood as in the House’s proposed new greenhouse gas emissions standard. Only resources that are qualified under the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard or the new Clean Energy Standard.
Mothers Out Front is a grassroots movement dedicated to a swift, complete, and just transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable, and sustainable energy in order to ensure a healthy and viable future for all children. We thank you for your support for these goals and look forward to a climate bill that is robust, equitable and fully committed to mitigating climate change.
Ellie Goldberg, Newton, and Hewon Hwang, Concord
On Behalf of the Massachusetts Mothers Out Front Legislation Team