Climate change bills to go before state Senate Thursday

By Doug Fraser

Posted Jan 28, 2020

The state Senate will debate a package of climate change bills Thursday that sets a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving a net zero carbon emissions goal by 2050.

The package, which the Senate Ways and Means Committee released to the full Senate last week, is actually three bills: An Act Setting Next Generation Climate Policy establishes the carbon emissions goals; An Act to Accelerate the Transition of Cars, Trucks and Buses to Carbon-Free Power is focused on electrifying the transportation network, municipal fleet and residential vehicles; and An Act Relative to Energy Savings Efficiency sets stringent standards on electrical appliances.

The three bills face separate votes in the full Senate Thursday before being sent to the House of Representatives, according to state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro.

“Cape Cod and Islands residents see every day the effect of the climate emergency,” Cyr said. “It’s already changed the way we live our lives. ... It’s very much an existential question for the communities I represent.”

Climate change advocates said the most important part of the bills is the goal of reducing emissions by half over the next decade.

“It’s much more actionable and accountable (than the 2050 net zero goal) for current officeholders because most of them will still be around,” said Craig Altemose, executive director of the Better Future Project. Plus, it specifies reductions in the near future instead of large cuts later.

In his State of the Commonwealth address last week, Gov. Charlie Baker changed the state’s goal of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050, which was set in the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act, to 100% by 2050.

That was not enough, climate change activists said.

“It’s really important to set that 2050 goal, but it was more important to set the 2030 goals,” said Caitlin Peale Sloan, a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation. “That will get us on track to decarbonize our economy and this bill does that.”

The Next Generation bill requires the state to hit goals that begin in 2025 and continue with benchmarks that must be met every five years after that, with limits set for transportation, buildings, solid waste, natural gas distribution and other sectors.

Other New England states have committed to more ambitious goals. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo recently signed an executive order requiring the state be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2030.

Massachusetts’ solutions still leave room for greenhouse gas emissions because they use offsets like forests, which absorb carbon for some of its carbon budget.

The three big emitters of greenhouse gases in Massachusetts are electric power generation, transportation and buildings, Sloan said. The state is already one of the nation’s leaders in solar power, and the prospect of large offshore wind farms becoming a reality could dramatically reduce the need for gas-fired electric power plants. The Senate bill tasks the Department of Public Utilities with power supply reductions in greenhouse gases as part of its mission and requires the Department of Energy Resources to incentivize solar energy projects in low-income neighborhoods.

The Senate would require the executive branch to initiate a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, possibly one similar to the Transportation Climate Initiative for the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. The initiative seeks to cap emissions from the transportation sector and reduce them by 25% over the next decade by charging fuel distributors and then investing that money into cleaner transportation options.

The new Senate bill required the administration to establish a cap-and-trade system for transportation by 2022; for commercial, industrial and institutional buildings by 2025; and for residential buildings by 2030.

Cyr said the Senate is not saying exactly how that will be done. Rather, they are leaving that up to this and future administrations to figure out.

The bill to transition the transportation sector to electric vehicles requires the MBTA to limit bus purchases to zero-emission vehicles by 2030 and to maintain a zero-emission fleet by 2040. It also requires the state to limit its fleet purchases to zero emissions vehicles starting in 2024, as long as they are affordable.

Cyr, Altamose and Sloan all believe electrifying the transportation sector is achievable given technological improvements and an increased market share that will make them more affordable.

“Attack the biggest emitters, electrify the bus fleet,” Sloan said. “We also need intensive work on electric vehicles making them affordable for folks that can’t afford them now.”

Other aspects of the three bills include: establishing an independent watchdog commission overseeing government progress on climate change; greater accountability to gauge progress; more financial incentives for consumer purchases of electric vehicles; and more research into solutions and technologies like heat pumps.

“It’s absolutely doable if we set ourselves out to accomplish it,” Altamose said of the 2030 goal, which he said will require boldness, like proposals of free mass transportation and aggressively pursuing solar and wind power.

“It has to be achievable for the survival of the species,” Sloan said. “It’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of changes, up-front investment.”