Legislative Campaign
These bills can stop biomass subsidies & prevent deadly pollution!
In the 2022-2023 legislative session, No Toxic Biomass urges passage of the following bills:
1) An Act to remove woody biomass from the greenhouse gas emissions standard for municipal lighting plants
This bill closes a loophole allowing local, publicly owned power entities to count biomass toward climate and clean energy goals. The legislation 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. More info here.
S.2136 sponsors & cosponsors:
Sen. Adam Gomez, Hampden
Sen. Jo Comerford, Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester
H.3210 sponsors & cosponsors:
Rep. Orlando Ramos, 9th Hampden
Lindsey Sabadosa, 1st Hampshire
Michelle Dubois, 10th Plymouth
2) An Act limiting the eligibility of woody biomass as an alternative energy supply
This bill would make commercial-scaled or institutional heating facilities that burn wood fuels ineligible for Massachusetts’ Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (APS). It grandfathers in existing facilities that have already been qualified by DOER to participate in the program. More info here.
S.2137 sponsor and cosponsors:
Sen. Adam Gomez, Hampden
Sen. Jo Comerford, Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester
H.3211 sponsors & cosponsors:
Rep. Orlando Ramos, 9th Hampden
Rep. Michelle Dubois, 10th Plymouth
Rep. Jack Patrick Lewis, 7th Middlesex
Background:
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).
Legislation introduced last session by Senator Gomez, Rep. Ramos and others (S.2197/H.3333) would have removed subsidies from burning woody biomass from both the RPS, for renewable electricity, and the Alternative Portfolio Standard (APS), for renewable heating. More than 100 groups endorsed this proposal and also supported removing biomass from the newly-created Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standard (GGES) for municipal lighting plants (MLPs).
In a major step for clean air and the environment. the Legislature adopted the RPS changes in the climate legislation that was signed into law in August 2022. However, neither the APS, which subsidizes wood-burning for renewable heating, nor the GGES, which creates a new standard for “non-carbon emitting” electricity for MLPs that will include biomass, were corrected.
These bills implement one of Governor Healey’s climate platforms: “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.”