Tag: Sierra Club Massachusetts

Greenies And Democrats at Each Other’s Throats as Climate Change Talking Point Evaporates

The Sierra Club is calling for a local Democratic representative to be dismissed from his role on a key committee, which the Democratic Massachusetts House Speaker panned as a “foolish.”

A determined woman leads a group of rugged, fearful people through a foggy landscape filled with menacing figures, suggesting an apocalyptic or survival scenario.

From Watts Up With That?

From The Daily Caller

Daily Caller News Foundation

Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter

The Sierra Club is calling for a local Democratic representative to be dismissed from his role on a key committee, which the Democratic Massachusetts House Speaker panned as a “foolish.”

State-level Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Mark Cusack, who chairs the state’s House Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, was reportedly planning to soften the state’s climate mandates and cut some funding for a green program, according to the CommonWealth Beacon. The local Sierra Club executive committee chapter then unanimously voted for Cusack to be removed as chair in a first-ever move for the chapter, outraged at the purported effort to “walk back the state’s landmark clean energy laws,” according to the local publication and Sierra Club.

“With this foolish request, the Massachusetts Sierra Club is demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of the legislative process and is simply overreacting to old news stories about an outdated committee redraft of the House’s energy affordability legislation,” Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano told the CommonWealth Beacon. “Just last week, [Ways and Means] Chairman Michlewitz and Chairman Cusack hosted several member meetings regarding this bill and are now working to incorporate the feedback that they received. For months now, the House has been clear that this legislation will not alter the state’s climate goals or retreat from our commitment to clean energy. Instead, our sole focus is on bringing down energy costs for residents, a goal that everyone should be capable of supporting.” 

(RELATED: Top Dog At Sierra Club Jettisoned After Staff Revolt)

Cusack did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

As an energy affordability bill moves through the Massachusetts legislature, the Sierra Club is opposing language hostile to the state’s climate goals, though the CommonWealth Beacon wrote that this language is not likely to remain in the final bill-.

A Sierra Club spokesman told the DCNF that the reported plan to water down climate goals “is one part of a complex and comprehensive bill to charge ratepayers more money for electricity and gas by vastly expanding our gas distribution system which is the main driver of high costs. … Two other reasons we are calling for this are the inappropriate, rushed, and nontransparent process he [Cusack] used to try to move the bill out of committee without having public hearings for these issues, and that he took fossil fuel donations almost exactly as the bill was released.”

The CommonWealth Beacon reported that Cusack raked in over $2,000 from energy interest groups around the same time the plan was made public. However, according to the publication, it is unlikely Mariano will remove Cusack from the committee, and two environmentalists from other local organizations said they are unsure what impact his removal would have and are concerned the Sierra Club’s action could backfire.

Affordability is set to be a major Democrat talking point heading into the midterm election season, while some Gallup polling indicates that climate change is fading from voters’ minds. Several Democrats have marketed green energy initiatives as keys to affordability, a point also touted by the Sierra Club.

Critics of this view contend that these green policies disturb energy markets, shut down reliable power supply and drive industry out of the state, causing costs to climb. Notably, Democrats in other states including New York have recently moved to punt their climate goals over affordability concerns and several congressional Democrats have pivoted from climate change messaging and refrained from mentioning the “Green New Deal,” once widely championed by their political party.

Massachusetts has set ambitious climate targets, planning to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and to slash emissions by at least 50% of 1990 levels by 2030.

The publication noted that some climate advocates distanced themselves from the Sierra Club’s move, saying that they are instead “encouraging interested people to keep engaging with all House members.”

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Climate Activists Want to Blame Americans’ Soaring Utility Bills on Anything but Green Energy

A coalition of Massachusetts climate activist groups sent a letter to government officials on March 18, in response to high utility costs concerning energy bills, though several renewable energy projects in the state have been driving up utility costs in the area for years.

From Watts Up With That?

THE DAILY CALLER

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Audrey Streb
Contributor

A coalition of Massachusetts climate activist groups sent a letter to government officials on March 18, in response to high utility costs concerning energy bills, though several renewable energy projects in the state have been driving up utility costs in the area for years.

Six environmental activist organizations, including Sierra Club Massachusetts and HEETlabs, sent the letter to Democratic Gov. Maura Healey and Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper. The letter included calls for provisions to lower energy bills.

Massachusetts has historically supported several expensive green energy projects that have been found to raise utility costs, including offshore wind farms like Vineyard Wind and the abandoned Cape Wind project. The Bay State plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a goal also championed by the Biden administration to the tune of $3 trillion.

“The sharp spikes in heating bills throughout the Commonwealth in January and February have been a financial shock and burden to customers,” the letter opens. “This spike has caused real pain and has been seized upon by climate deniers and opponents of clean energy.” (RELATED: One Of America’s Priciest Green Boondoggles May Be Going Offline After Sucking Up Subsidies And Incinerating Birds)

View this document on Scribd

Letter on Gas Price Spikes to Maura Healey by Boston 25 Desk

“In 2023 alone, Massachusetts gas customers were charged $160 million to hook up additional buildings to the gas system, an average cost of nearly $10,000 per new customer for infrastructure that only serves those customers,” the letter continues.

The letter demands quicker action on lowering utility bills, outlining the first step as reducing infrastructure spending unless it is “financially appropriate.”

The document also claims that local “gas companies are charging ratepayers for their lobbying, advertising, and other expenses,” through a “loophole.” It also states that under the “reform the obligation to serve” request that “the 2024 climate law indicated that gas utilities can no longer be compelled to serve customers where alternatives to distributed gas are available.”

The letter included steps to lower energy bills, which prompted critics to point to Sierra Club’s expensive energy policy goals. Sierra Club advocates for 100% clean energy by 2050, according to its website. The Institute for Energy Research writes that it would cost trillions of dollars to enact this goal, citing studies from both Wood Mackenzie and American Action Forum, which estimate that this policy, shared with the Green New Deal, is unrealistic and expensive.

“It’s not fast enough to help with energy burden,” Vick Mohanka, the chapter director for Sierra Club’s Massachusetts chapter, told Boston 25 News. “It’s 100% on our bills and we’re paying more profits on this than other states,” she said.

The chapter dubs its state as “a leader” when it comes to “tackling climate change.” The group’s website reads that “Massachusetts has been rated #1 among all states for energy efficiency four years in a row,” and that the state was “one of the first states to pass aggressive climate change goals.”

Sierra Club Massachusetts did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

We need a multi-trillion dollar investment in the infrastructure necessary to weather and avert climate change, not a bipartisan bill with climate deniers. #NoClimateNoDeal. pic.twitter.com/nDEH2Xxchz

— Sierra Club (@SierraClub) June 23, 2021

“Each year, gas utilities spend more than $1 billion to replace aging methane gas pipelines in Massachusetts, costs that are increasingly passed onto consumers in the form of rising delivery rates, meaning some residents are stuck with a $400+ bill even before they use any gas,” a spokesperson for HEETlabs wrote to the DCNF. “Governor Healey and the Massachusetts State Legislature can lower utility costs consumers by reining in this utility spending.”

The spokesperson also pointed to research from Our World in Data, E & E News, Bloomberg, IRENA, Trading Economics and Nuveen that might indicate that renewable energy is a “safe and sustainable” supply of energy.

 A spokesperson for Healey’s office told Boston 25 News that “energy costs are too high in Massachusetts and Governor Healey is focused on bringing them down.”

“Governor Healey has already taken action to lower people’s bills by $220 million in March and April, and her plan would save nearly $6 billion for electric and gas customers over the next five years,” they continued. “She also agrees that more needs to be done. Governor Healey will be filing legislation in the coming weeks to lower costs further, and she appreciates everyone’s ideas and advocacy on this important issue.”

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and Healey’s office did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.