Climate Energy Bill Update

Dear friends,

First, thank you to everyone who took the time to call, email, and share your thoughts with me about this legislation. Your advocacy made a real difference. I heard your frustration about high utility bills, the concerns about accountability, and the urgency around protecting our climate commitments and worker standards. Your voices strengthened this bill.

Today, the House passed An Act relative to energy affordability, clean power, and economic competitiveness (H.5151). This legislation is significantly stronger than the version first released in November, and it contains many essential provisions that make it an important and consequential step forward for our Commonwealth.

When the original bill came out of committee, I had serious concerns. It included provisions that would have weakened our climate commitments and undermined worker protections. I was clear that I could not support the bill in that form. Because so many of you spoke up, we paused the vote and pressed for substantial revisions. I worked closely with House leadership, met with stakeholders, and submitted detailed feedback to ensure the final version reflected our district’s values.

As a result, we secured meaningful and lasting improvements in H.5151:

• Restored strong labor standards for clean energy projects. The clean energy transition must also be a just transition — with good jobs, fair wages, and protections for the workers building this future.

• Reaffirmed our commitment to our 2030 climate goals. Language that would have weakened climate regulations was removed, keeping us on track toward net zero by 2050.

• Maintained the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) annual increase at 3%. This standard — which I fought to secure in 2020 — ensures utilities steadily increase their use of clean energy instead of relying on fossil fuels.

• Preserved the Fossil Fuel-Free Community Pilot Program. Communities like ours rely on this program to make all-electric affordable housing financially feasible. Several Cambridge affordable housing developments depend on these incentives.

• Maintained the moderate-income discount rate, protecting meaningful relief for many households.

• Preserved consideration of the social value of emissions reductions within Mass Save, ensuring equity and public health remain central to decision-making.

• Removed subsidies for woody biomass and excluded Mass Save spending on new fossil fuel infrastructure, better aligning investments with long-term decarbonization.

• Prohibited deceptive practices by predatory third-party competitive retail suppliers, adding important consumer protections for residents who have too often been misled into high-cost energy contracts.

I also filed three amendments to strengthen the bill. Two were adopted:

• Amendment 69 ensures prevailing wage protections apply to the full scope of thermal energy network construction and repair, protecting workers building geothermal systems.

• Amendment 84 requires the Inspector General to hold four geographically diverse public hearings during their comprehensive review of Mass Save, ensuring transparency and meaningful public input.

My third amendment, Amendment 70, which addressed Mass Save ratepayer relief, did not pass. I worked until the eleventh hour to build support for it. The amendment would have required utilities to reduce Mass Save surcharges by an average of 10% per month by cutting marketing, advertising, and administrative costs, delivering real ratepayer relief without dismantling the program’s core infrastructure.

The collective strength of the improvements outlined above, protecting workers, reaffirming our climate commitments, preserving affordability programs, strengthening consumer protections, and aligning investments with long-term decarbonization, made this a bill that was hard not to support. The final product reflects substantial progress from where we began.

I am disappointed, but I am not deterred. I am confident the Senate will take up the work on Mass Save and further examine ratepayer relief and accountability. I fully expect that these issues will continue to be negotiated and that we will see additional improvements incorporated into the final bill before it returns to the House for a final vote. I remain committed to pushing for those reforms in conference.

It is possible to recognize both realities: we advanced important protections and reforms in this bill, and there is still more work to do. I will continue fighting for increased savings for ratepayers, stronger consumer protections, accountability from utility companies, and bolder climate policy that centers workers, equity, and public health with urgency.

Thank you again to all the advocates and constituents that reached out and worked alongside me.

And to you all, thank you for your advocacy, your partnership, and your trust. Please continue to reach out — your voice matters at every stage of this process.

Sincerely,

Marjorie