Monthly Chapter Meetings

Another lively and informative chapter meeting! This month we were privileged to welcome four special guests who brought us the inside scoop on some of the most important climate initiatives pending in Washington and New England.

First, on the national scene, we heard from Anna Lenhart, Senior Legislative Assistant to U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, and from two of U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey’s aides – Katherine Morfill, Staff Assistant, and Nolan O’Brien, Regional Director. They shared the latest news about the federal Infrastructure bill and Reconciliation package, and answered our questions about key climate priorities, strategy for getting these bills passed, and how we can focus our advocacy.

Our meeting’s second hour featured an inspiring presentation by Susannah Hatch, Regional Lead for the New England Offshore Wind coalition, and Clean Energy Director at the Environmental League of Massachusetts. Susanna explained how offshore wind is “the single biggest lever we can pull to meet New England’s climate goals.” She filled us in on the coalition’s work (which ECA Mass supports as one 95 regional coalition partners), and she updated us on the status of the Massachusetts offshore wind bill that’s one of our priorities, H.3302/S.2158.  

You’ve probably seen the acronyms RPS, CES, and CEPP, but you’re not alone if you’ve been confused about what they mean and why they’re so important in tackling climate change. Arnie Epstein and Roger Luckmann of our Research and Legislative Teams answered our questions and clarified what climate activists need to know about the state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) and Clean Energy Standard (CES), and how those compare with the Clean Energy Performance Program (CEPP) in the $3.5 trillion federal Reconciliation Bill now in Congress.

After their informative talk, we heard from Leah Robins, Senior Government Affairs Specialist at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). Her engaging presentation focused on a state bill we support, H.3350/S.2202, An Act Relative to building energy and decarbonization filed by Massachusetts Rep. Joan Meschino and Sen. Jason Lewis. The bill provides a plan for how the state can address greenhouse gas emissions from new construction and existing buildings, empower municipal leadership, and ensure access for overburdened communities. Leah also told us about the wide-ranging climate initiatives of MAPC.

As usual, we learned a lot at the September chapter meeting! Watch the recording of the meeting with all the presentations, discussion and announcements here.

At our August 10 meeting, our Research and Legislative Teams shared a draft policy statement about the climate solutions ECA Mass supports, and why we sometimes differ from the positions taken by friends and allies in the climate movement.

ECA Mass believes that we should be open to all potentially effective technological, socio-economic, and nature-based means of combating climate change. But we disagree with some other environmental organizations, which contend that certain approaches, such as carbon capture and sequestration, carbon fees, and advanced nuclear power, are “false” solutions that should be taken off the table.

We divided up into small break-out groups on Zoom to consider the ECA Mass draft policy statement, and then we all came back to the full meeting group for a lively facilitated discussion about our feedback and questions.

Watch a recording of our meeting here. And read the updated ECA Mass Policy on Climate Solutions here.

At our July 13 chapter meeting, Paul Dryfoos of our ECA Mass Leadership Team and his colleague Jan Singer updated us about the Elders for Sound Democracy (ESD) campaign. (ECA Mass is partnering with ESD, which is a project of our parent organization, Elders Action Network.) Watch the video of their presentation, explaining the threats to our democracy and many specific actions we can take NOW to protect our freedom to vote. See the presentation slides here, and read the ESD Action Agenda and ESD Why Now?

We also heard from Michael Sales of ECA Mass, who has been following federal climate action, about the bipartisan infrastructure bill soon to come before Congress and the proposed budget reconciliation package that will likely include a lot of climate funding. He helped us make sense of the complicating political maneuvering on climate in Washington! Watch his presentation on the YouTube video. The slides from the presentation are here. 

At our June 8th chapter meeting, we were honored to host state Senator Michael Barrett. Senator Barrett is a longtime climate champion, the lead author in the Senate of the landmark climate “roadmap” bill, and the Senate chair of TUE (Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy joint committee) which is responsible for most state climate legislation.

Senator Barrett shared his thoughts about the climate bill and the way forward. He presents this issues head on and directly addresses difficult issues during the Q&A period.