Thanks to everyone’s advocacy the biomass legislation has been filed as amendments to the newly released Senate climate bill, S2829.
Earlier this week Senator Gomez also filed both biomass bills as amendments #34 and #35 to S2829, An Act upgrading the grid and protecting ratepayers. What better way to protect ratepayers than to stop subsidizing polluting biomass with our clean energy dollars?
Please call your Senator today, tomorrow and even Tuesday if you are unable to call before then and urge them to vote to end subsidies for toxic biomass by voting “yes” on amendments #34 and #35.
Toxic biomass makes our communities and our planet sick. You can learn more about these bills and our biomass campaign at the No Toxic Biomass campaign website.
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Senator Gomez, the chief sponsor of biomass bills S2136 and S2137, organized a sign-on letter opposing clean-energy ratepayer subsidies being used for polluting woody biomass. The text of the letter is below.
June 19, 2024
Hon. Michael Barrett
Chair, Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy
Massachusetts Senate
24 Beacon St., Room 109-D
Boston, MA 02133
Re: Removing subsidies for woody biomass energy in proposed climate legislation
Dear Chairman Barrett:
We respectfully request favorable action on two important pieces of legislation currently pending
before the committee: S.2136 and S.2137. These measures advance the Legislature’s goals of
protecting public health, protecting ratepayers, and addressing the climate crisis by removing
woody biomass from clean energy standards in Massachusetts. We further urge you to reject
Sections 8 and 22 of H.4503, which would lead to the expansion of subsidies for woody
biomass energy in the Commonwealth.
Both S.2136, An Act to remove woody biomass from the greenhouse gas emissions standard for
municipal lighting plants, and S.2137, An Act limiting the eligibility of woody biomass as an
alternative energy supply, implement the biomass provisions in Governor Healey’s campaign
platform to “end subsidies for forest bioenergy for electricity and commercial-scale heat.” These
bills are mirrored in the House by H.3210 and H.3211, sponsored by Rep. Orlando Ramos, and
endorsed by more than 100 health, environmental, social justice, religious, and community-based
organizations.
Last session, you led efforts in the Legislature to remove biomass power plants from qualifying
for the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) with the passage of An Act Driving Clean Energy
and Offshore Wind. However, because the RPS does not apply to municipal light plants (MLPs),
incentives remain for developers to build and operate wood-burning power plants in
Massachusetts, or to purchase biomass energy from other New England states. The MLP
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standard (GGES) includes biomass as an eligible “non-carbon
emitting source” starting January 1, 2026. We ask that you include S.2136, which would remove
this MLP “biomass loophole,” in the climate package that is currently being negotiated.
Importantly, Palmer Renewable Energy is still suing the Commonwealth to reinstate its permits
to build a controversial wood-burning power plant in East Springfield – and potentially reap the
benefits of the MLP GGES biomass loophole – all at the health expense of a community recently
rated as the asthma capital of the United States. More broadly, including woody biomass in theGGES could help subsidize failing wood-burning power plants throughout New England by
funneling MA ratepayer “clean-energy” dollars to out-of-state facilities.
We also support S.2137, which would exclude large and intermediate-sized wood heating units
from qualifying for credits through the Alternative Portfolio Standard (APS), consistent with
Governor Healey’s campaign platform. Public health advocates have long raised concerns about
air pollution from wood-burning stoves and furnaces, which are the major source of health-
harming PM2.5 emissions in Massachusetts. Ten states, including Massachusetts, recently sued the
EPA over their ineffective testing and certification standards for residential wood stoves.
Unfortunately, certain provisions in H.4503 would take the Commonwealth in the opposite
direction. Section 8 would dramatically increase subsidies for wood heating in the APS. The
House proposal to give wood-burning stoves and furnaces twice as many credits through the
APS as clean technologies like heat pumps or solar hot water heaters must be rejected. Even with
emissions controls, wood burning is highly polluting. In addition, Section 22 cancels a required
study of the health and climate impacts of biomass energy. As part of the 2021 Climate Roadmap
law, the Legislature directed the Administration to complete this study by March 2023.
Massachusetts has a longstanding commitment to promoting science-based policies to address
the climate crisis. Subsidies that promote burning wood for energy undermine efforts to meet our
climate goals and siphon clean energy dollars away from truly clean sources like wind, solar, or
geothermal. We urge the legislature to reject policies that use public or rate-payer funds to
promote technologies that are harmful to communities and pollute the air we breathe.
We respectfully ask that you incorporate language from S.2136 and S.2137 in any climate
legislation, and reject Sections 8 and 22 as proposed in H.4503
Signed,
ADAM GOMEZ JASON LEWIS JAMIE ELDRIDGE
State Senator State Senator State Senator
Hampden Fifth Middlesex Middlesex and Worcester
PAVEL PAYANO PATRICIA D. JEHLEN MICHAEL MOORE
State Senator State Senator State Senator
First Essex Second Middlesex Second Worcester
MARC PACHECO JAKE OLIVEIRA
State Senator State Senator
Third Bristol and Plymouth Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester
