We are nearly two months into the Massachusetts legislative session and things are starting to pick up. Before we get into Sierra Clubs strategy, here’s what you might have missed since the beginning of the year:

New Committee Appointments

In January, Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka welcomed 28 new freshman legislators. As is typical for first-term representatives, they will be temporarily working out of two large conference rooms in the basement of the State House. This process can take several months and it’s likely that office assignments won’t be settled until late March or even April.

On Valentine’s Day, leaders in both legislative bodies announced the 2019-2020 committee assignments. Although many of the committee chairs have not changed from last session, the Committee on Ways and Means will have both a new House and Senate Chair this year. Leadership appointed Representative Aaron Michlewitz and Senator Michael Rodrigues respectively to fill those powerful chairmanships. Also notable, two new freshman Representatives who come from a career in energy policy, Reps. Maria Robinson and Tommy Vitolo, were unfortunately not appointed to the committee that most closely relates to their professional background: the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee.

You can check out the full list of committee assignments here:

• Senate Assignments
• House Assignments

Lots of Love for Our Co-Sponsors

Sierra Club and other groups in the Mass Power Forward coalition worked to get dozens of co-sponsors for priority climate, clean energy, and environmental justice bills. We participated in a the January 24th Mass Power Forward campaign launch and helped organized constituent meetings for over a hundred activists.

Then, on February 14th, we returned to the State House to drop off Valentine’s cards to the legislators who co-sponsored bills on Mass Power Forward’s priority list.

Below are a few highlighted bills that received support during the co-sponsorship period. Bills that received over 80 House co-sponsors have a majority of support from State Reps.

*Senators are still able to sign-on and co-sponsor legislation, so the Senate numbers may not reflect recent changes.

Check Sierra Club’s full list of priority legislation here.

House Voted Down Rules Amendments Intended to Increase Transparency and Accountability

One challenge when tracking and lobbying for state legislation is it can often be difficult to determine why bills move forward or die in the legislative process. The Massachusetts House takes very few roll call votes and many votes that do happen, occur behind closed doors. It can often be difficult to know where individual legislators stand on a particular issue, or even which special interests groups are lobbying for or against legislation. For a deeper dive into some of the State House dysfunction, check out this December article by former MA Sierra Club lobbyist Phil Sego.

At the beginning of each session, the House votes on rules that govern the legislative process. In an attempt to remedy some of these above issues this sesion, a small cadre of Representatives proposed three rules changes:

1. Representatives be given a reasonable amount of time to read the final language of any bill they’re voting on
2. Representatives be given a reasonable amount of time to read any amendment submitted on the floor that they’ll be voting on
3. Hearing testimony (for/against) a bill and all votes taken in committee to be publicly available.

Despite the common sense nature of these proposals, each proposed rule change failed. However, in a departure from previous sessions, about a third of the House (both Democrats and Republicans) voted in favor of the changes. If you want to see how your Representative voted, check out this blog post by Progressive Massachusetts. Or, if you want to learn more about issues of transparency and accountability in the House, check our our reading list below:

• Amid Debates on Rules Mass House Criticized for Lacking Transparency (Boston Globe 1/29/19)
• Massachusetts House rejects rules meant to boost transparency (Mass Live 1/30/19)
• Legislating in the dark? These Beacon Hill lawmakers voted no. (Boston Globe 2/1/19)

The Two Sides of Governor Baker

In early February Governor Charlie Baker testified before the US House of Representatives in Washington D.C., asking them to take urgent action to address climate change and adopt clean energy policies. He stressed that Massachusetts wants to be a leader on clean energy and climate policies. However, back at home the Baker administration continues to support the construction of fossil fuel infrastructure. Most prominently, his administration approved an air quality permit for the proposed Weymouth gas compressor station.

What's Next?

With recent reports such as U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment indicating that we have as little as 12 years to address climate change, urgent action has never been more important.

The Green New Deal

Sierra Club has be a longtime proponent of a Green New Deal and we are very excited by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Markey’s proposed Green New Deal resolution. We will be continuing to work with local partners and the Sunrise Movement to build enthusiasm and support for these ideas in Massachusetts. At the time of this writing, all but one member of Massachusetts’ federal delegation has signed on in support. Only Representative Neal is not currently co-sponsoring the resolution. Check out this link to learn more about a Green New Deal would entail.

Get Massachusetts to 100% Renewable Energy

The Sierra Club is deeply committed to state-level to address climate change. We’ve seen New York, California, and Washington D.C. take huge steps to reduce carbon emissions. However, Massachusetts is still lagging behind when it comes to investments in renewable energy. Massachusetts has historically been a leader state and we can become one again! This year Sierra Club is supporting a number of landmark bills that would reduce emissions from the transportation sector, make solar more accessible for low-income populations, codify the state’s definition of environmental justice, reduce plastic pollution, and move the state towards 100% renewable energy. Check Sierra Club’s full list of priority legislation here.

To build support for these state-level policies, we will be traveling around the state to offer 12+ climate activist trainings to our members and others interested in engaging on issues relating to clean energy and climate. We will also be working with our members across the state to arrange 20+ in-district meetings with our members and their legislators.

Finally, we will continue our work within the Mass Power Forward coalition (the largest coalition of environmental organizations in the state) to collaborate on larger actions both at the State House and across the Commonwealth.

We may not know until June 2020 which bills will move forward and which will fail. That’s why we plan to spend 2019 building momentum around clean energy. Join us! Email me (jacob.stern@sierraclub.org) if you want to get involved!

by Jacob Stern, Clean Energy Organizer