Massachusetts Legislative Session Ends without the Passage of a Climate Bill or Other Key Environmental Priorities

BOSTON, MA. – Today, the State Legislature ended the 2023-2024 session without the passage of a climate omnibus bill, S.2838 An Act Upgrading the Grid and Protecting Ratepayers.  Negotiations fell apart when the Massachusetts Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives could not reconcile an abridged bill that would expedite siting and permitting issues for companies building electrical infrastructure. House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka made inflammatory public statements yesterday, blaming each other for waiting until the last month of a two year legislative cycle. 

The environmental priorities that were not addressed include: rapidly expanding methane gas pipelines despite clear health and climate risks; new construction of fossil fuel power plants; environmental justice communities continuing to rank nationally for childhood asthma caused by fossil fuel consumption; and energy bills still set to skyrocket in the winter due to an overreliance on international fossil fuel markets.  

This comes after a year and a half of advocacy that included hundreds of meetings and thousands of calls and signatures to legislators. Many of the most popular policy proposals received vast majorities of legislative co-sponsors yet Speaker Mariano and President Spilka did not allow them to come for a vote. Many policies ‘died in committee’ where politicians take secret votes that their constituents are not able to see. Many more died in the backroom process where amendments to bills were withdrawn before they had a chance to receive a vote.  

In response to the legislature’s deadlock, Massachusetts Sierra Club Leaders released the following statements: 

“This is outrageous. This session was a chance to make serious progress slowing the expansion of our dirty and expensive methane gas system but instead legislative leadership got tied up in political spats and chose not to extend the session & finish the job,” said Massachusetts Sierra Club Director Vick Mohanka. “Our members are deeply disappointed. We set out to win critical protections for environmental justice communities, reductions in plastic pollution, improved air quality, and the transition away from unhealthy, expensive methane gas. Instead, we saw the least productive session in Massachusetts history. Because of this, ratepayers are going to spend more than $34B unnecessarily on gas pipelines.”

"These leaders have had plenty of time to make decisions on environmental priorities. The legislative process is broken and undue influence from corporations routinely blocks popular and effective legislation in favor of utility and developer profits,” said Massachusetts Sierra Club Executive Committee Chairperson Celia Doremus. “This gives me very little confidence that these lawmakers have their constituents' best interests at heart. It makes it difficult to endorse legislative candidates when we have this type of dysfunction."