How The MA Climate Bill Helps Brookline Meet Clean Energy Goals

BROOKLINE, MA — On Thursday, An Act driving clean energy and offshore wind was signed into law in Massachusetts. Here’s how the bill affects Brookline.

In addition to statewide policies that will expand the offshore wind industry, green transportation, and decarbonize buildings, the law includes several provisions that will help Brookline meet its climate goals.

For instance, the law authorizes ten communities, including Brookline, to ban fossil fuel use in new construction and major renovation. Also included is language filed by Rep. Tommy Vitolo that will allow municipalities like Brookline to procure Massachusetts offshore wind power.

"The ten towns program began on my front porch where Brookline Town Meeting Member Jesse Gray and I brainstormed meaningful ways to reduce emissions in Brookline and beyond,” Vitolo said in a statement. "Jesse Gray and Lisa Cunningham deserve credit for their work to unite Brookline’s Town Meeting and for continuing to work with the legislature after Brookline’s Warrant Article was deemed inconsistent with state law. Our home rule petition was not sufficiently local in nature, but I collaborated with colleagues to ensure the policy could proceed -- not just for Brookline, but for ten communities.”

“This progress is sorely needed in the face of growing federal gridlock, including a Supreme Court that has begun to neuter the EPA and a United States Senate hijacked by fossil fuel interests,” Jesse Gray, author of Brookline’s 2019 gas ban, said in a statement.

In addition to Brookline, nine other communities have passed fossil fuel bans, including Acton, Aquinnah, Arlington, Concord, Cambridge, Lexington, Lincoln, Newton, and West Tisbury.

"We have to work rapidly to decarbonize and electrify our existing buildings, but in the meantime it makes no sense to be building new fossil fuel infrastructure that we will have to pay for twice – to install and then to rip out –at far greater cost than building it correctly the first time,” Lisa Cunningham, architect and co-founder of ZeroCarbonMA, said in a statement.

The climate bill that was signed into law added language that requires each community seeking a fossil fuel ban to first meet the 10 percent affordable housing target set by state law 40B. Out of the ten communities that have passed bans, seven appear to meet this requirement, according to Vitolo.

"I am grateful that the legislature added this provision to prioritize economically disadvantaged families and make it clear that environmental justice and housing justice go hand in hand,” Vitolo said.

“Low and middle-income communities are exposed to more health-harming air pollution and suffer more resulting health consequences than others,” Wendy Stahl, a doctor and member of Brookline’s Zero Emissions Advisory Board, said in a statement. “Gas burning appliances release toxic fumes both indoors and out. For example, cooking with gas is associated with 42 percent increased rates of asthma in children, and gas appliances emit significant toxins even when they are not in use. These negative outcomes can be reduced with all-electric construction.”

Provisions of this law, filed by Vitolo, will instruct the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to create a dedicated fund that will make it easier for municipalities, businesses, and non-profits to procure Massachusetts offshore wind power.

“I am proud of Brookline’s municipal aggregation program and excited that the bill makes it possible for Brookline and dozens of other communities to get clean, renewable energy made in Massachusetts,” Vitolo said.

Brookline's electricity aggregation program, Brookline Green Electricity, gives residents and businesses more renewable electricity options. Through the program, the Town purchases 42.2 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of voluntary renewable energy from New England, enough to power 6,500 Brookline residential users exclusively with renewables.

The law has been signed by the Governor and will go into effect in November.