House climate bill is a big step backward

Massachusetts is known as a leader in clean energy and climate action. Our policies have lowered emissions, created jobs, and helped families save money on energy. But a bill currently under consideration in the House of Representatives on Beacon Hill threatens to undo that progress and would be a damaging mistake for our state.

This bill, proposed by Rep. Mark Cusack, the co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, is essentially a fossil fuel industry wish list. It rolls back the Commonwealth’s enforceable 2030 climate targets, weakens the Mass Save energy efficiency program, eliminates efforts designed to make energy efficiency more affordable for working families, and even resurrects the disastrous “pipeline tax” that would allow utilities to charge residents for unnecessary gas infrastructure. In short, it hands fossil fuel companies a gift while leaving Massachusetts households to foot the bill.

At a moment when President Trump is dismantling federal climate policy, this bill would do the work for him. It would abandon our 2030 emissions targets, gut our most effective programs, and lock Massachusetts into the very fossil fuel dependence that has driven today’s affordability crisis. It would cede our hard-earned reputation as a clean energy innovator and put our economy, our health, and our climate at risk.

Our lawmakers must be clear on what’s really driving high energy costs: it’s not clean energy. It’s fossil fuels, gas infrastructure, and aging transmission systems.

In 2023 alone, Massachusetts consumers spent $20 billion on energy in their homes and businesses. Programs like Mass Save delivered over $34 billion in savings between 2012 and 2023 and generated more than $3 for every $1 invested. The program is the only tool we have that actively reduces energy burden for all of us, including low- and moderate-income households that are hardest hit by rising energy costs.

Mass Save has weatherized 350,000 homes (including 70,000 low-income homes), created nearly 76,000 jobs, and saved the equivalent output of five power plants. Even if you’ve never used it directly, you’ve benefited from lower wholesale energy prices because your neighbors did. These are real savings in people’s wallets.

By rolling back these programs and weakening enforceable climate targets, House members would lock the state into an outdated, expensive fossil fuel system. Weakening the 2030 climate target removes enforceable benchmarks that ensure our government takes the action we demand.

Without those benchmarks, Massachusetts risks falling behind while other states, and the world, invest in the clean energy technologies of the future. Communities that are already most vulnerable to pollution and climate impacts—low-income and environmental justice communities—will feel the consequences first.

The House also risks undermining the thriving clean energy economy Massachusetts has built.

Our clean energy sector supports more than 115,000 workers, there are over 7,500 energy businesses statewide, and the clean energy industry has added more than $15.9 billion to the state’s economy since 2012. Clean energy is not just good for our planet; it’s good for our wallets. Weakening climate laws now would send a chilling signal to investors, slow innovation, and damage our long-term economic growth, not to mention dirty the clean air and water we deserve.

This bill tells the rest of the nation that when federal leadership falters, Massachusetts folds. It tells clean energy workers that their jobs don’t matter. It tells communities on the front lines of climate and pollution that their health is negotiable.

But that’s not who we are. Massachusetts became a clean energy and climate leader by setting ambitious goals. We still have five years to hit our 2030 targets. Our legislators must reject this fossil fuel gift and recommit to a future built on affordability, innovation, and climate responsibility. A vote for this bill is a vote to cede our leadership to the Trump administration and the fossil fuel lobby. A vote against it is a vote for Massachusetts – to protect our progress, our economy, and our environment.

The choice is simple: Massachusetts can lead, or we can go back. The people of Massachusetts deserve leadership.

Cindy Luppi is the national field director for Clean Water Action. Kyle Murray is director of state program implementation at Acadia Center. Caitlin Peale Sloan is Conservation Law Foundation’s vice president for Massachusetts. John Walkey is director of climate justice and waterfront initiatives at GreenRoots.

To read the full article from Commonwealth Beacon, click here.