This week finds us standing at a historic crossroads. The many years that all of us have put into pushing the needle toward a more climate friendly energy sector and economy are finally paying off in some big, meaningful ways.

Last Thursday, Governor Baker signed into law An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind. This joins 2008’s Global Warming Solutions Act and 2021’s Next Generation Climate Roadmap Act as the third bold climate bill Massachusetts has passed. Each subsequent bill has set goal and then further codified the means to reach those goals.

This latest bill, signed into law yesterday, was hard won, with No Fracked Gas in Mass and BEAT joining our fellow environmental groups, largely under the organizing umbrella of the Mass Power Forward coalition, in guiding its crafting and pushing legislators and the Governor to reach the finish line right down to the last minute. The importance of groups working together cannot be overstated. With PFPI's expertise and guidance on biomass issues, the work at the statehouse by 350MA and their letting us all know what points of pressure are needed there, and the constant cross-organizing and public engagment of all groups at the grassroots level, we're being heard and have managed to change the conversation in the State House.

Highlights of this bill include:

Both TUE Committee member Jeff Roy has a great explainer thread on Twitter.

There is still much work to be done like extending fossil free construction pilots statewide, ensuring better air quality monitoring programs, instituting a Net Zero stretch code, reforming and expanding our public transportation – especially in rural areas and connecting major regional systems. But the passage of this bill will allow us to make many of the bold climate-positive steps we’ve been requesting for years.

With the Inflation Reduction Act, after much wrangling among Senate members, finally passing the Senate and likely the House later today, it looks like we’re standing on the same edge of a sea change in the way our country is addressing the climate / clean energy challenge.

But among the huge strides for clean energy and equity in transitioning to it, there are many painful giveaways to the fossil fuel industry that helped sweeten the pot to get it over the finish line with Joe Manchin.

Along with increased access to federal land and water for oil and gas drilling, a particularly harsh provision of the bill is its pairing with the future passage of another bill that seeks to secure the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. This highly impactful and unnecessary pipeline is one that activists have been battling for years, and Ted Glick, one of the leaders in that fight, sums up the dynamics of these two bills’ perilous joining in his recent post.

As summed up in Forbes magazine, "It takes a “more now, less tomorrow” approach to oil and gas – a policy that is gaining more traction around the world in the aftermath of the Ukraine crisis." But as outlined in Slate magazine, there are also some measures, even if more tepid than we'd like to see, that will reign in the fossil fuel industry to some degree.

Also, another bill recently passed at the federal level is seldom framed as climate positive, but it has some very good provisions. As outlined in The Altantic, the “CHIPS” Act, will “boost efforts to manufacture more zero-carbon technology in America, establish a new federal office to organize clean-energy innovation, and direct billions of dollars toward disaster-resilience research.”

This and the Inflation Reduction Act will finally push us onto the road of taking concrete steps toward climate solutions.

Indeed, there’s still much to be done. Watchful vigilance and pressure on our lawmakers and regulators will need to continue, as does the work to dismantle the fossil fuel economy and destructive infrastructure.

But it’s definitely time to take a moment, look around, take stock and give yourselves a pat on the back … then get back to the work of making our world a cleaner, more balanced and more equitable place. Bill McKibben's recent Crucial Years post frames three next steps to work on: defunding fossil fuels at Wall Street, leveraging our legislative progress to press other countries into similar action, and make sure to maximize the build out of clean energy afforded in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Onward, with much gratitude and new wind in our sails!

More than 4.4 million people in urban areas in the United States live within one mile of a peaker power plant and are unnecessarily and directly exposed to air pollutants that cause significant health problems and increased morbidity, according to The Peaker Problem: An Overview of Peaker Power Plant Facts and Impacts in Boston, Philadelphia, and Detroit.

This report, released by Clean Energy Group with the consulting firm Strategen, examines the environmental justice and public health impacts of peaker power plants in these three U.S. cities. Peakers are some of the dirtiest, least efficient, and most expensive energy sources, and most of them are located in low-income communities, environmental justice communities, and communities of color.

Long-term exposure to peaker emissions, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), can cause asthma, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, chronic kidney disease, diminished fertility, miscarriages, and other adverse health conditions.

» Register here

Free public event. Hosted by Clean Energy Group.

If you're a renter or someone who works with renters and/or low income residents, the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) is interested in your input on the new "Strategic Renters' Plan" drafted by the Mass Save Program Administrators. Mass Save has historically been far less accessible for renters, especially renters of color, lower income or with lower English proficiency.

Though there are some seemingly positive actions in this plan, it could use some reality checks on how to actually reach people in need with word of what's available. It also doesn't mention the very real barriers of older housing stock that needs repair before Mass Save can make energy efficiency upgrades, lack of funds to make those repairs, the fact that participation in Mass Save often needs multiple calls and appointments that are hard to fit into tight schedules of folks working multiple jobs, taking care of multiple generations, etc.

Input to the EEAC of your on-the-ground experiences as a renter or someone who works with assisting renters can be very valuable.

» Register here

Written comments:

You can also provide input in writing via email to ma-eeac@mass.gov.

As always, check our Events Page for more ways to engage!

Be sure to check the No Fracked Gas in Mass Weekly News Check-In. Published nice n' fresh every Friday. Look for the Subscribe option at the bottom of each week's post to get the news right in your inbox.

Fill out the Online Home Energy Assessment at MassSave.com/OHEA

And don't forget, you can keep sending your support all year by setting up a monthly donation as well.

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No Fracked Gas in Mass is a program of Berkshire Environmental Action Team.