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New from CommonWealth Beacon |
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EVERETT: Everett’s new mayor, who is just settling into office, is now tasked with implementing a flurry of major development deals put into motion as his predecessor was heading out the door. Hallie Claflin has the details. |
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NOEM: Gov. Maura Healey is calling on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign following deadly clashes with federal immigration officials in Minnesota. Sam Drysdale at State House News Service explains. |
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OPINION: A Massachusetts data privacy bill under consideration in the Legislature would hamstring local businesses by installing undue restrictions on data collection, writes Shaun Spencer, associate dean for academic affairs and a professor of law at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Law. |
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If Rep. Mark Cusack's effort to weaken Massachusetts’s ambitious 2030 climate commitments was the first shot across the bow in the contentious energy affordability debate, the nation’s largest environmental organization is making an unprecedented move to try to blunt his influence. |
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The gamble from Cusack, a Braintree Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, prompted a backlash in November that knocked legislative leaders on their heels. Protesters filled the State House with signs reading, “Stop Rep. Cusack’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’” a reference to President Trump’s landmark law enacted last summer that featured sweeping cuts in federal support for health care and nutrition programs and clean energy initiatives. |
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That blowback hasn’t left Beacon Hill. |
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The Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club is set to call on House Speaker Ron Mariano to remove Cusack as chair of the powerful energy committee on Tuesday, citing his legislative efforts to use Gov. Maura Healey’s energy affordability legislation as a vehicle to pull back on the state’s clean energy targets and energy efficiency program. |
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Leaders of Sierra Club’s Massachusetts chapter, which boasts 20,000 members, said those actions are enough to call for Cusack to step aside, the chapter’s first such move in its 56-year history. |
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“At a time of increasingly severe temperature extremes, ballooning energy demands, and utility bill spikes, Massachusetts needs someone to lead the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy committee who understands the essential role of clean energy and efficiency in saving ratepayers money each month — not someone who answers to the beck and call of fossil fuel interests scrambling to hold onto massive profits at our expense,” said Amelia Koch, vice chair of the Sierra Club Massachusetts Executive Committee, which unanimously voted for Cusack’s demotion. |
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Evan MacKay, a member of the Massachusetts Sierra Club’s executive committee who recently launched a campaign to unseat a state lawmaker representing Cambridge, is expected to be one of the speakers at a Tuesday press conference to push for Cusack’s ouster, according to Vick Mohanka, director of the state’s Sierra Club chapter. |
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Cusack didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Mariano harshly criticized the Sierra Club’s call for him to replace the energy committee chair. |
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“With this foolish request, the Massachusetts Sierra Club is demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the legislative process, and is simply overreacting to old news stories about an outdated committee redraft of the House’s energy affordability legislation,” Mariano said in a statement. “Just last week, [Ways and Means] Chairman Michlewitz and Chairman Cusack hosted several member meetings regarding this bill and are now working to incorporate the feedback that they received. For months now, the House has been clear that this legislation will not alter the state’s climate goals or retreat from our commitment to clean energy. Instead, our sole focus is on bringing down energy costs for residents, a goal that everyone should be capable of supporting.” |
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Such a bold move from a progressive but mainstream environmental organization kicks the already-high tension around energy issues in Massachusetts up a notch and offers somewhat of a finer point on the political fallout from Cusack’s proposal last year. It comes as House members are debating how best to tackle soaring electric and heating costs, a pocketbook issue only bound to intensify as Healey seeks reelection, even with legislative leaders taking Cusack’s attempts to walk back the larger emission reduction commitments off the table for now. |
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Still, Sierra Club’s decision to call for Cusack’s ouster comes with its own consequences, too — and has left some allies scratching their heads over the tactic. |
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More from CommonWealth Beacon |
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STATE OF THE STATE: Gov. Maura Healey leaned into affordability concerns and took aim at the Trump administration during her 2026 State of the Commonwealth speech. Chris Lisinski digs into the governor’s promises for the final year of her first term. |
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OPINION: Addressing ADHD calls for a wholesale rethinking of our approach to the attention disorder, writes author Mike Goldstein, co-founder of Reset Teen Coaching in Boston. The approach must be guided by evidence and a better understanding of the dynamic nature of attention problems, he says. |
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AI: Elon Musk’s AI companies are wading into Massachusetts. (Mass Live) |
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WIND: Vineyard Wind is in court today to try to convince a federal judge to let construction for the project resume. (WBUR) |
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REACTION: Massachusetts Republicans weighed in on the events unfolding in Minneapolis. (WGBH) |
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ICE: The Boston Police Department ignored all 57 requests from federal authorities to detain immigrants in 2025. (The Boston Globe – paywall) |
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HYDROPOWER: A new transmission line delivering hydropower from Canada into New England brought in little power during Sunday’s major snowstorm and frigid temperatures. (The Boston Globe – paywall) |
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