Vote Description

This was a vote on S.30, which is a slightly amended version of S.9, An Act creating a next-generation roadmap for Massachusetts climate policy. This bill was previously voted on last session, and the governor vetoed it. It was also refiled, and voted on at the beginning of this new session (without a recorded vote in the Senate) and the governor amended it and sent it back to the legislature. The legislature adopted some of the technical amendments that the governor offered, but none that would change major policy in this bill. This bill sets an arbitrary GHG emissions reduction goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and sets incremental sublimits every five years to get there. It does this by mandating limits on carbon emissions by sector: electric power, transportation, commercial and industrial heating and cooling, residential heating and cooling, industrial processes, and natural gas distribution and service. These arbitrary limits will mean drastic and costly changes in certain sectors in order to stay under the limit, and leaves the power to make these changes in the hands of unelected bureaucrats. In addition, it sets new CA style energy efficiency standards on appliances and fixtures you are allowed to purchase and install in your house or business. It also allows for changes to the state building code, which is now in the hands of DOER, not BBRS, and allows towns to adopt their own net-zero stretch energy codes and changes the make-up of the state board of building regulations and standards (BBRS.) Essentially this bill allows for drastic regulatory oversight and increased costly burdens by unelected bureaucrats, on the people of MA for the foreseeable future.