"No Backtracking on Biomass!" is the New Rallying Cry in Massassachusetts

March 19, 2024

 

A confounding new bill, now numbered H.4503, has emerged from the MA Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy (TUE) – a bill that would dramatically increase subsidies for wood boilers and furnaces under the “renewable thermal” program of the state’s Alternative Portfolio Standard. The bill would also eliminate a long-awaited state study on the environmental and public health impacts of burning woody biomass.

 

Seventy-five groups signed a letter to TUE opposing this provision, and reiterating their support for two bills introduced by State Senator Adam Gomez and Representative Orlando Ramos, (S.2136/H.3210 and S.2137/H.3211) that would eliminate most remaining subsidies for woody biomass burning. 

 

Individuals are urged to contact their own legislators to support the Gomez/Ramos bills and say NO to any backtracking on biomass.

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Advocates Keep the Pressure on State Legislators To Eliminate MA Subsidies for Biomass

September 27, 2023

 

This legislative session, Massachusetts advocates continue the quest to remove subsidies for biomass energy from the state’s clean energy programs. Citizen activists and clean energy organizations from across the state testified in June in support of two bills, introduced by State Senator Adam Gomez and Representative Orlando Ramos, (S.2136/H.3210 and S.2137/H.3211). Over 100 groups submitted a letter to the committee urging that the bills be reported out favorably.

 

These bills would eliminate loopholes in Massachusetts’ clean energy laws that allow subsidies to be directed to polluting woodburning technologies. 

 

There’s still time for your legislators to co-sponsor this legislation.

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Upcoming Hearings on Priority Biomass Legislation!

June 11, 2023

The Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee has scheduled two hearings for Wednesday, June 28th that will include our two priority biomass bills! These bills build on the success of last year’s climate law which ended subsidies for wood-burning power plants in Massachusetts’ Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). 

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The Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy (TUE) Committee will hold hearings on these bills on Wednesday, June 28th at 10 am (House) and 1 pm (Senate). 

 

House hearing notice

To testify, sign up here by 5 pm Monday, June 26th

Email written comments to JointCommittee.Utilities&Energy@malegislature.gov

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Senate hearing notice

To testify, sign up here by 11 am Wednesday, June 28th 

Email written comments to Lexi.Concannon@masenate.gov

Written Comments are due by Friday, June 30th at 5pm

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Last year, the State Legislature stood up to Governor Baker and took biomass power plants out of MA’s RPS. Now, we have a chance to finish the job and end subsidies for biomass in Massachusetts’ other clean energy programs! Please sign up to testify and/or submit written comments in support of these bills:

• S.2136/H.3210 closes the loophole in the new greenhouse gas emissions standard for municipal lighting plants that counts biomass as “non-carbon emitting” energy
   

• S.2137/H.3211 ends subsidies for commercial-scale wood heating systems through Massachusetts’ alternative portfolio standard.

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More than 75 Massachusetts organizations have endorsed these bills, and the list is growing! To add your group to this letter, click here. For more information about the bills, go to the Legislative Campaigns page. 

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Click here for talking points on the bills.

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Factsheet on the MLP Bill

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Factsheet on the APS Bill

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New Bills Address Heating Subsidies and MLP Loophole for Biomass in Massachusetts 
April 23, 2023
 

Massachusetts State Senator Adam Gomez and Representative Orlando Ramos have introduced new legislation this year to end subsidies for burning woody biomass in Massachusetts. The new bills (S.2136/H.3210 and S.2137/H.3211) would improve air quality, ensure that clean energy subsidies are not directed to climate-harming technologies, and close a loophole in the law that was originally drafted to benefit the proposed Palmer biomass power plant in Springfield.

 

Last year, the Massachusetts Legislature took decisive action to end renewable energy subsidies for wood-burning power plants in MA’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The Legislature stepped up just in time to prevent the Baker Administration from rolling back the RPS rules in a way that would have allowed polluting biomass power plants from across the Northeast to qualify for this renewable energy subsidy. 

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This bold action from the Legislature creates momentum to fix other clean energy programs in Massachusetts that still subsidize biomass energy. The new Gomez/Ramos bills focus on the state’s new Greenhouse Gas Emission Standard for municipal lighting plants (MLPs) and the Alternative Portfolio Standard (APS).

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S.2136/H.3210 amends the 2021 Climate Roadmap law to remove biomass from the list of “non-carbon emitting sources” that municipal lighting plants can use to meet the new MLP greenhouse gas emission standard. Although the Climate Roadmap law is  intended to reduce emissions, this provision benefits biomass power plants like the proposed Palmer Renewable Energy plant in Springfield, which had been marketing its power to MLPs.  Calling biomass energy “non-carbon emitting” is counter to fact, and including woody biomass in the MLP standard incentivizes MLPs to purchase biomass power rather than truly clean energy like wind and solar power. 

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Passage of this bill will help protect communities like Springfield from this perverse incentive and put Massachusetts municipal utilities on a better path in their energy investments. Read more about S.2136/H.3210 here.

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S.2137/H.3211 makes commercial-scaled and institutional heating facilities that burn wood fuels ineligible for subsidies under Massachusetts’ Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (APS). These facilities include wood-burning boilers and furnaces, which emit a disproportionately large amount of air pollution in Massachusetts. Other “renewable thermal” technologies under the APS include non-emitting technologies such as solar hot water, air source heat pumps, and geothermal systems.

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This bill grandfathers in existing wood heating units that have already been qualified by DOER to participate in the program and simply removes the option for new commercial and institutional-scale wood boilers and furnaces to qualify under this clean energy program going forward.

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Read more about S.2137/H.3211 here.

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These bills are aligned with Governor Healey’s platform which states, “Burning wood for bioenergy depletes our forests, increases greenhouse gas emissions, and is a threat to human health. Maura will end subsidies for forest bioenergy for electricity and commercial-scale heat.”

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Massachusetts Ends Renewable Energy Subsidies for Wood-Burning Power Plants

August 11, 2022
 

Environmental groups today celebrated the enactment of Massachusetts’ new climate law, An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind, which will expand clean energy development and end renewable energy subsidies for wood-burning power plants.

 

The new law makes Massachusetts the first state in the nation to remove woody biomass from its Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS). While there are only two small biomass plants that currently qualify for MA’s RPS, that number was poised to balloon as a result of imminent  changes to the program advanced by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER). By removing woody biomass from the RPS program altogether, the new law will prevent DOER’s rule changes from going into effect.

 

“We are grateful to the Massachusetts legislature for taking bold action to address the climate emergency, and relieved that Governor Baker has signed the bill into law,” said Susan Theberge, co-founder of Climate Action Now.  “It is inspiring to see the power of grassroots organizing to create positive change and advance climate justice.”

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“The science is clear: burning wood for energy is not a climate solution,” said Laura Haight, U.S. Policy Director for the Pelham-based Partnership for Policy Integrity. “Massachusetts is once again leading the way by removing woody biomass from its definition of renewable energy, and we hope other states and nations will follow.”

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“Springfield has been an epicenter in the battle against biomass power,” said Springfield Climate Justice Coalition member Naia Tenerowicz. “Our community has been fighting for 15 years to stop Palmer Renewable Energy from building a commercial biomass power plant in one of Springfield’s environmental justice neighborhoods, which would have increased air pollution in a community already overburdened with polluted air and respiratory illness. Eliminating renewable energy subsidies for all wood-burning power plants is an important step towards the swift and just transition to truly clean, green, and renewable energy that is so urgently needed in the face of the climate emergency.”

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“This effort goes back to 2008, when citizens in western Massachusetts came together to oppose several large biomass plants that were proposed in Springfield, Greenfield and Russell,” said Janet Sinclair of Greenfield-based Concerned Citizens of Franklin County. “Burning trees is harmful to our lungs and the planet and should play no role in our state’s clean energy future. We’re grateful that the Legislature heard us and agreed that funding biomass projects is a bad idea. For Governor Baker, signing this bill was the right thing to do.”

 

Thousands of individuals testified and submitted comments over the past three years opposing DOER’s plans to roll back the stringent health and environmental requirements for biomass power plants to qualify for rate-payer subsidies through the RPS. When DOER continued to advance this wildly unpopular proposal, more than one hundred groups, elected officials, and countless individuals across the state called on the Legislature to change the law and end subsidies for woody biomass energy altogether.

 

For more information go to www.notoxicbiomass.org and www.pfpi.net.

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SCJC Groups and Legislators Applaud Biomass Provisions in Climate Bill & Call on Governor to Sign Immediately

August 3, 2022 

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Groups and Legislators Applaud Biomass Provisions in Climate Bill and Call on Governor Baker to Sign Immediately

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Climate justice advocates today applauded Massachusetts lawmakers for their bold action passing climate legislation that eliminates renewable energy subsidies for wood-burning power plants, and for standing firm against an 11th hour proposal by Governor Baker that would have gutted this measure. 

 

They were joined by Sen. Mike Barrett and Rep. Jeff Roy, who negotiated the climate bill; Sen. Eric Lesser, Sen. Adam Gomez, Rep. Jay Livingstone and Rep. Orlando Ramos, who sponsored the original biomass legislation; and Jesse Lederman, Springfield City Council President, in calling on Governor Baker to sign the climate bill into law.

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“We are so grateful to Speaker Mariano, President Spilka, Chairman Barrett, Chairman Roy, and all our other champions in the House and Senate for taking this important step, especially Senators Lesser, Gomez, and Representatives Ramos and Livingstone, who led the way,” said Susan Theberge, co-founder of Climate Action Now.  “It is inspiring to see our state legislators stand up for the climate and once again take meaningful action.  As the climate crisis escalates we call on Governor Baker to do the right thing and sign this bill into law as soon as possible.”

 

The climate bill, H.5060, An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind, removes woody biomass from the definition of “renewable energy” in the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and clarifies that wood-burning power plants cannot sell renewable energy credits in Massachusetts. The bill exempts a handful of small facilities that are currently in the program. Governor Baker had sought to create a loophole for all biomass power plants constructed prior to 2022. There are dozens of old and polluting biomass power plants across the Northeast that currently do not qualify for subsidies under Massachusetts’ existing RPS, but could become eligible under the Baker Administration’s biomass rule changes that will go into effect later this summer unless this law is enacted.

 

“The legislature is stepping up at a critical time to stop the Baker Administration from finalizing rules that will force ratepayers to subsidize polluting wood-burning power plants across the Northeast,” said Laura Haight, from the Pelham-based Partnership for Policy Integrity. ”Removing woody biomass from the definition of renewable energy is an historic step, and assures that our resources are directed toward real climate solutions.  After three years of grassroots efforts fighting this rule change, we urge Governor Baker to respect the will of the people and the legislature and allow this bill to become law.”

 

“Springfield has been an epicenter in the battle against biomass power,” said Springfield Climate Justice Coalition member Naia Tenerowicz. “Our community has been fighting for 15 years to stop Palmer Renewable Energy from building a commercial biomass power plant in one of Springfield’s environmental justice neighborhoods, which would have increased air pollution in a community already overburdened with polluted air and respiratory illness. Eliminating renewable energy subsidies for all wood-burning power plants is an important step towards the swift and just transition to truly clean, green, and renewable energy that is so urgently needed in the face of the climate emergency.”

 

“Funny thing about politics. People think good policy doesn’t count for much, but it does,” said Senator Michael J. Barrett (D-Lexington), Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy. “The communities’ take on biomass was not only just, it was also right, and that has brought it a long way.”

 

"While I appreciate the Administration's helpful technical edits that clarify intent, improve terminology, and optimize policy frameworks, I am deeply grateful to the Speaker and the Senate President for standing firm in rejecting attempts to weaken provisions in the bill, including removing biomass from the RPS," said Representative Jeffrey N. Roy (D- Franklin), House Chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy. "The Governor has an incredible choice to make to sign or veto the climate bill and we certainly hope that he embraces the compromises in this legislation like all of us have already done."

 

"Woody biomass pollutes our air, hurts our planet, and harms the health of our communities,” said Senator Eric P. Lesser (D-Longmeadow). “Removing RPS subsidies for woody biomass is not only a major victory for our state’s transition to clean, renewable energy, but it’s also a victory for families living near the proposed 35-megawatt biomass-fired power plant in Springfield. A tremendous thank you to the advocates who sounded the alarm from the very beginning and to the local officials, organizations, and residents who fought alongside us on this long effort.”

 

“There is no need for us to promote this polluting energy source in our state,” said Rep. Jay Livingstone (D-Boston). “I am proud to work with my fellow bill sponsors, legislative colleagues, and climate advocates to keep it out of Massachusetts’ clean energy programs.  I thank Speaker Mariano, Senate President Spilka, Chair Jeff Roy, and the rest of the conferees for including this in the bill we just sent to the Governor.”

 

“I believe the victory over the Palmer Renewable Energy Plant back in 2021 spoke to how I feel about harmful woody biomass – it’s not welcome here,” said Sen. Adam Gomez (D-Springfield). “Our communities, especially those that are designated environmental justice communities, needed us to fight for them in the legislature by passing the climate conference committee bill. This legislation will allow our communities to breathe easier, our children to grow up and flourish in cleaner environments, and it will bring us closer to the renewable energy goals the Commonwealth has set.”  

 

“Massachusetts taxpayers should not be subsidizing these harmful biomass incinerators,” said Rep. Orlando Ramos (D-Springfield). “I thank my colleagues for supporting this initiative, and I hope no other community in the Commonwealth has to go through what Springfield went through.” 

 

"We know first hand in Springfield the threat biomass polluters pose to the health and safety of our communities,” said Springfield City Council President Jesse Lederman. “The legislature’s action to ensure our public energy dollars are not subsidizing those polluters is an important step to ensure other communities don’t face the type of threat Springfield has, and can turn our full attention to transitioning to clean and renewable forms of energy."

 

“This effort goes back to 2008, when citizens in western Massachusetts came together to oppose several large biomass plants that were proposed in Springfield, Greenfield and Russell,” said Janet Sinclair of Greenfield-based Concerned Citizens of Franklin County. “Burning trees is harmful to our lungs and the planet and should play no role in our state’s clean energy future.The science is clear. And we think the public is clear on this too. Funding biomass projects is a bad idea. For Governor Baker, signing this bill is the right thing to do.”

 

More than one hundred groups, elected officials, and countless individuals across the state have called on the Legislature and Governor Baker to end subsidies for woody biomass energy. For more information go to www.notoxicbiomass.org and www.pfpi.net.

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SCJC Urges MA Legislature to Ban Biomass Subsidies

July 7, 2022 

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The Springfield Climate Justice Coalition is calling on the Massachusetts Legislature to block new rules advanced by the Baker Administration that would promote more wood-burning biomass energy throughout the Northeast. The controversial regulations are likely to be finalized this fall, just months before Governor Baker leaves office.
 

SCJC sent a letter today to House and Senate members who are racing to negotiate a climate and energy bill before the legislative session ends on July 30th.  The Senate proposal includes key provisions advanced by Springfield legislators Senator Eric Lesser, Senator Adam Gomez, and Representative Orlando Ramos and supported by the entire Springfield legislative delegation, that would end Massachusetts’ renewable energy subsidies for woody biomass energy.

“We can’t afford to waste more time or money on false climate solutions like burning trees for energy,” SCJC wrote in a letter to the conference committee. “We are in a climate emergency. Springfield needs support from our state government in order to conduct a swift and just transition to truly clean, green, and renewable energy, striving towards a future of energy democracy.”  

SCJC is urging the conference committee to remove subsidies for burning woody biomass from all of Massachusetts’ ratepayer-funded renewable energy programs: the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard, and the new Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standard for municipal light plants.

 

The No Toxic Biomass campaign is hosting a statewide call-in day today urging the conference committee to make a “clean sweep” and end all renewable energy subsidies for burning wood.

Read more about this critical legislation here. Check out instructions here for calling key legislators.

 

Senate Bill Would Ban New Biomass Subsidies

April 8, 2022 

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Breaking news: The Massachusetts Senate has ​advanced a sweeping new climate policy bill that would stop Governor Baker's biomass subsidies in their tracks and protect Massachusetts ratepayers. 

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S2819, An act driving climate policy forward, includes priority provisions supported by the No Toxic Biomass campaign.

The legislation would end subsidies for woody biomass in MA’s two main renewable energy programs, the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard and the Alternate Energy Portfolio Standard (i.e. wood-burning electricity and wood-burning heat).  The bill applies to existing biomass facilities as well as new ones, with an exception for any units that are currently enrolled in these programs.

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The Senate is expected to debate this bill during the week of April 11th. The bill is expected to pass, but significant advocacy will be needed to preserve the biomass provisions of this legislation in the Senate and to ensure the House/Senate conference committee adopts these provisions.

 

Don't wait. Contact your legislators to support this bill and ensure these provisions stay in the final bill. 

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Read more about this critical legislation here. 

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Upcoming Hearing on Biomass Regulations!

March 27, 2022 (hearing on March 29)

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It’s deja vu all over again in Massachusetts. The Department of Energy Resources (DOER) has announced yet another public comment period on its plans to roll back Massachusetts’ science-based standards for woody biomass energy. The new rules would allow dozens of polluting biomass power plants across New England to qualify for ratepayer subsidies through the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS).

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If all this sounds eerily familiar to you, you’re right. These are largely the same rule changes that DOER announced last April, that were debated before the Legislature last July, and which were expected to be finalized last November. But along the way, DOER took shortcuts with the public review process, so Secretary of State Bill Galvin has required DOER to do it all over again. No problem – we’re all getting good at this!

 

Hundreds of organizations and thousands of individual citizens have spoken out against these rule changes repeatedly since they were first proposed in 2019.  Absolutely nobody wants them – nobody except the biomass industry and their cronies in the Baker Administration, that is.

Take Action: Sign up to speak at the hearing on March 29th! Read more about the proposal here.

 

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