S2136 (Amendment #34) has been adopted as part of the Senate Climate Bill, S2829.
If adopted by the House and eventually signed by the Governor, woody biomass will no longer qualify as a “non-carbon emitting” fuel source for Municipal Light Plants (MLPs), thereby preventing them from using rate-payer-funded clean energy dollars to purchase polluting biomass power. Now we need to focus on the House!
Please call your MA Representative and urge them to reach out directly to Chairman Roy and Chairman Michlewitz who are working on the legislation now and ask that our top biomass priorities (below) be included directly, or as amendments, in the House climate bill.
- SUPPORT H.3210 (Rep. Ramos), An Act to remove woody biomass from the greenhouse gas emissions standard for municipal lighting plants
H3210 would close the “biomass loophole” for municipal light plants (MLPs). Because the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) does not apply to 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 carbon-emitting biomass as an eligible “non-carbon emitting source” starting January 1, 2026. H.3210 would remove this clean energy subsidy eligibility for toxic woody biomass, and has already been adopted by the Senate.
- SUPPORT H.3211 (Rep. Ramos), An Act limiting the eligibility of woody biomass as an alternative energy supply.
H.3211 would exclude large and intermediate-sized wood heating units from qualifying for credits through the Alternative Portfolio Standard (APS). 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. Both H.3210 and H.3211 implement the biomass provisions in Governor Healey’s campaign platform to “end subsidies for forest bioenergy for electricity and commercial-scale heat.” Ten states, including Massachusetts, recently sued the EPA over their ineffective testing and certification standards for residential wood stoves.
- OPPOSE Sections 8 and 22 in H.4503, An Act relative to clean energy generation
This bill may serve as the “anchor” for the new House climate bill, and it includes very BAD biomass language which would take the Commonwealth in the opposite direction.
Section 8 would dramatically increase subsidies for wood heating in our clean energy programs. 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, we oppose Section 22 which cancels a required study of the health and climate impacts of biomass energy. The Legislature directed that the Healey Administration complete this study by March 2023.
Summary: Please urge your legislators to support and incorporate language from H.3210 and H.3211 in any House climate legislation, and reject Sections 8 and 22 as proposed in H.4503.
With appreciation from the Stop Toxic Biomass Campaign
