Phone calls needed before June 30: Urge these Amendments to MA Energy Bill

canPhoneCall your MA State Senator.  

Action needed now. Senate to act before 6/30.

In order to further support local clean energy resources, keep energy dollars in our communities, create good green jobs, and protect us from pollution and further damage to our climate, we ask the Senate to approve amendments to its good new energy bill that would:

  1. Prohibit electric utilities from charging ratepayers for new gas pipelines, and require them to repair existing pipeline leaks.

  1. Raise the solar net metering cap and restore retail net metering credits for low-income solar arrays.  The latest cap has already been reached in some places.

  1. Improve siting requirements for hydropower transmission projects and require local renewable energy inputs into the transmission lines, to effectively protect natural resources and to increase the availability of electricity from more local clean energy.

  1. Create a ‘Green Bank’ to jumpstart private investment in energy efficiency and clean energy in Massachusetts. In six states including CT and NY, Green Banks have proven to attract ten times more money from the private sector than the state provides as leverage.

  1. Adopt a Carbon Fee and Rebate policy to charge wholesalers of fossil fuels for the pollution their product creates. This has been instituted elsewhere and shown to reduce carbon pollution and create economic growth.

  1. Divest the state employee pension fund (PRIT) from fossil fuels over five years. It is antithetical to invest in fossil fuel companies that consistently act to preclude a transition to renewable energy when such a transition is exactly what we need to facilitate. Such investments are also a losing proposition as the world turns away from fossil fuels.

    CONTACT INFO FOR YOUR SENATOR HERE: Find your Senator https://malegislature.gov/People/Search