Our legislature ended their formal session on a Thursday morning, August 1, without passing a climate bill. This is extremely reckless and dangerous governance that does nothing to protect Massachusetts residents from the impacts of the climate crisis, from our current summer of extreme heat to flooding. As our state swelters in record setting heat waves, our legislators go on vacation to run for reelection in some of the least competitive races in the country. We need them to come back and pass a robust climate bill as soon as possible.

What makes for a robust climate bill? How did we get here? And where do we go from here?

What makes for a robust climate bill?

Because fossil fuels are everywhere in our society, climate action covers a massive range of issues from transportation to housing to plastics. But when we talk about a robust climate bill, there are four key elements that must be included this year. It must:

• Phase out fossil fuels like methane gas
• Build renewable energy
• Prioritize environmental justice communities
• Ensure good jobs for workers building our new infrastructure and good benefits for workers displaced by the gas transition

We must be clear that a climate bill must include these four elements. Today, it is politically easy for legislators to build renewables and energy infrastructure. Even greenwashed fossil fuel corporations support those steps! But they falter when it comes time to actually replace fossil fuels with renewables. So it falls to us as activists to speak truth to power: a narrow focus on building new infrastructure is not enough. We need a bill broad enough to do all four – a robust bill.

How did we get here?

Our legislature is one of the least transparent in the country. But over the last year and a half, going back to January 2023, our hundreds of 350 Mass activists across the state have fought tirelessly for climate action. We stood with thousands of allies in the Mass Power Forward coalition, Gas Transition Allies, and other aligned organizations, working tirelessly over the past 18 months to engage with an opaque legislative process. We are a united movement for breathable air, good-paying green jobs, an end to fossil gas use in Massachusetts, and more.

Despite thousands of hours we spent on hearings, legislative briefings, meetings, lobby days, rallies, and more, our legislators failed to fully listen. We won some partial victories: the Senate omnibus bill contained crucial provisions to start moving the state away from heating buildings with methane gas and towards non-emitting heat. It also included important provisions to electrify the commuter rail and reduce the burning of woody biomass (wood).

In the House, internal democracy is even more stifled than the Senate. The end result was that amendments with over 50 cosponsors – nearly a third of the body – were killed by leadership in the dark without any public vote. While the bill included much needed language around a Cumulative Impact Analysis that would prevent unfair burdens from being placed on Environmental Justice communities, even that language was flawed. For more about the House process, read our blog post on the topic.

After passing flawed climate bills through each body, 3 Representatives and 3 Senators were assigned to a conference committee to negotiate a united bill. The House came in with one goal: to pass their language expediting siting and permitting (where we build renewable infrastructure). The Senate came in with a similarly singular goal, to pass their language around a gas transition. But the Senate was at a disadvantage in the negotiations. They had already passed similar siting language in their version of the bill, and lost their leverage over the House. The House could refuse to negotiate and justifiably think that they could get everything they wanted because it was already in the Senate bill.

Shamefully, neither body prioritized environmental justice. Both included some labor language, but only after intense pressure at the last minute before their respective votes. But the gas transition language in the Senate was crucial. It would start an orderly transition from our current methane gas based heating system to non-emitting heat, or clean technology like network geothermal systems and heat pumps.

In the end, neither side compromised. The Senate correctly refused to drop their provisions to phase out fossil fuels in a gas transition, despite extreme pressure from the House. The House refused to even consider phasing out fossil fuels. It is better that the Senate stood strong and refused to make a dirty deal that prolongs Massachusetts’ reliance on fossil fuels. Our Senate leaders rightly saw that building new electrical infrastructure without phasing out the old polluting infrastructure would saddle ratepayers with astronomical costs while raking in massive profits for the fossil fuel addicted utility corporations. That means no emissions reductions, massive costs for everyone, and massive profits for corporations. In the end, this horrible situation led to no bill.

Where do we go from here?

Now that the formal legislative session has ended, legislators are in an informal session where very little can happen. But another major bill was left unfinished this session – the Economic Development omnibus bill, a top priority of the Healey administration. In a rare public move, the administration has put public pressure on Senate President Spilka and House Speaker Mariano to call a special formal session this fall to finish the job on economic development.

If our legislators come back for a special formal session to pass an economic development bill, they must take up a climate bill. And if they take up a climate bill, it must be a robust bill – one that phases out fossil fuels like methane gas, builds renewable energy and transmission lines in a just way, prioritizes environmental justice communities, and ensures good jobs for the workers building all of our new infrastructure.

Our movement cannot afford to settle for false solutions. A climate bill that does not phase out fossil fuels is unacceptable. Let your legislators know that climate can not wait. Ask them to pass the message to leadership in each body: When they return for a special formal session, a robust climate bill MUST be on the docket.

Like our legislators, many of us will be taking some time this month to rest and recover after an intense end of the session. But if the legislature is called back for a special formal session, we will be ready.