On Monday, September 13, at 1:30 p.m, the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy will hold a virtual public hearing on a slate of bills, including H.3333/S.2197 – An Act to prevent biomass energy to protect the air we breathe.
This bill is critical as the Baker administration is pushing forward with new rules expanding subsidies for biomass power plants that will go into effect next week, over the strong objections raised by state legislators and health and environmental advocates at the TUE committee’s recent oversight hearing on July 30th.
The state legislature must take swift action to block Governor Baker’s plans to use Massachusetts’ ratepayers’ dollars to prop up polluting biomass power plants in Maine, New Hampshire, and elsewhere.
H.3333/S.2197, sponsored by Rep. Jay Livingstone and Sen. Eric Lesser, would strike out woody biomass from renewable energy statutes altogether and make biomass plants ineligible for clean energy incentives.
State legislators are clearly paying attention to this issue, thanks largely to the thousands of citizens from Springfield and across the state voicing their concerns to them. Tell the legislature:
- These bills are necessary to protect public health
- Subsidizing woody biomass goes against Massachusetts’ legally binding climate commitments
- Ratepayer dollars shouldn’t fund pollution here or elsewhere
Please sign up to speak at the hearing on Monday or send a letter voicing your strong support for ending renewable energy subsidies for polluting biomass energy. Click here for more information about H.3333/S.2197.
To testify at the hearing, you must register using this form by Friday, Sept. 10th at 4 pm and indicate that you plan to speak in support of H.3333 and S.2197.
You can also submit written testimony in support of the bills via email to Magda Garncarz at magdalena.garncarz@mahouse.gov and Dina Nathanson at dina.nathanson@masenate.gov. The deadline to submit written testimony is Monday, September 13, 2021 by 5:00 p.m. Don’t forget to copy your own legislators!