Lobbying our Representatives
By Mary Pritchard and Diane Shen
On December 5, members of Andover WECAN and the North Parish Climate Justice group participated in a Climate Legislative Lobby Day organized by Mass Power Forward, a coalition of over 200 environmental leaders, community development organizations, clean energy businesses, and faith groups. The coalition works to power the state forward towards clean, affordable, and reliable energy. Meetings were held across the state with members of our state legislature to highlight and gain support for 6 climate bills currently in committee. These bills are:
H.2131/S1180 An Act to improve outdoor and indoor air quality for communities burdened by pollution
H.3187/S2113* An Act Relative to Energy Facilities Siting Improvement to address environmental justice, climate and public health
H. 3232/2365* An Act establishing a zero carbon renovation fund
H.3237/2135* An Act establishing a moratorium on new gas system expansion
H.872/S481 An Act establishing a climate change superfund and promoting polluter responsibility
H.1677/953 An Act to create access to justice
Our local meetings were held with Representative Tram Nguyen and Senator Barry Finegold. These meetings were productive conversations about the import of these bills and the overall legislative process. Each meeting ended with an ask that our representatives on Beacon Hill support these bills.
Representative Nguyen gave the meeting attendees insight into the volume of bills in the house committees currently, about 6,000-7,000. Of those, she has co-sponsored around 300 including the first 3 bills listed above. Co-sponsoring a bill requires much time and attention to work on and advocate for the bill. She remarked how helpful it is for her to hear from constituents about what we consider to be priorities for the legislature and she will be learning more about the bills we discussed. Rep. Nguyen encouraged us to write testimonials to the chairs of the committees about the importance of these bills.
Sen. Finegold's meeting was tight as all six bills were presented to him in a short space of time. The Senator will review these bills, along with his legislative aide, Dennis Rosner. Three of the bills, starred above, are filed in the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy (TUE) Committee of which Sen. Finegold is a member. Constituents in Finegold's district should email Sen. Finegold and the chair of the TUE committee, Sen. Michael J. Barrett to let your voices of support for these bills be heard.
tram.nguyen@mahouse.gov
Barry.Finegold@masenate.gov
Mike.Barrett@masenate.gov
