THE HOUSE THIS WEEK will not take up a contentious energy policy bill that would weaken the state’s 2030 climate mandate, punting a major debate until after the Legislature’s extended holiday break that begins Thursday.
Ten days after CommonWealth Beacon first reported on the proposal, House budget chief Aaron Michlewitz on Monday said more conversations need to take place about whether or how to defang the state’s next major emissions-reduction target.
He described the bill as “still something that we’re working on,” and added he does not “foresee us necessarily getting to it before the end of the week.”
It’s a significant balking from House leadership after state Rep. Mark Cusack, a Democrat from Braintree who is the chamber’s point person on energy policy, fast-tracked the reform bill through committee last week.
“Some of the rollback pieces on the 2030 numbers have gotten a lot of interest, a lot of energy behind it, no pun intended there,” Michlewitz said of the blowback to the early House plan. “We are certainly wanting to focus on affordability and not necessarily on things of that nature,” he said, referring to the emissions deadlines.
Under Cusack’s measure, the state’s legal goal to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels could become merely “advisory.” The bill would also trim the energy efficiency program known as Mass Save by $500 million and cut the amount of clean energy utilities here must purchase from a 3 percent annual increase to 1 percent.
But those dramatic changes are on ice, at least for the next few months, and Cusack’s proposal now looks more like a trial balloon whose journey quickly hit a tempest than a plan with the full backing of House Democrats.
“We are probably going to have to have to have a conversation at some point related to whether we can meet our goals for 2030,” Michlewitz told reporters. “I think that’s a real challenge that we’re facing, particularly when you have a federal government that is trying to thwart us at every possible turn in relation to trying to get to those goals. Having that conversation is certainly coming to a head at some point, but I do not think it will be in this vehicle as we move forward.”
“We still have a lot of work to do on that particular piece,” he added.
The delay will give House Democrats time to forge a position more palatable to climate groups. It also pushes any action on Gov. Maura Healey’s energy-affordability legislation, which she filed in May, until into or after the winter with high utility bills again looming.
Cusack’s proposal sharply raised eyebrows both in Massachusetts and across the country. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board highlighted the bill as a symbol of Democrats reconsidering climate priorities.
It triggered an avalanche of opposition from climate groups, who viewed it as a betrayal of the state’s legal commitment to slashing greenhouse gas emissions and a sudden pivot with little warning.
Activists rallied outside the State House last week, and representatives from nearly 100 environmental and development groups wrote to Michlewitz on Friday calling the proposal a “grave misstep.”
Some influential voices outside the climate movement supported the measure. Associated Industries of Massachusetts president Brooke Thomson last week announced her group “unequivocally supports” Cusack’s proposal, saying it “balances realistic climate policies with real savings that keep the lights on.”
Cusack said he wanted the 106-page bill — which was released publicly for the first time on Thursday — to receive a House vote by Wednesday, November 19, the last day for major action before lawmakers break for the year.
The Braintree Democrat also said from the outset that he had the support of House Speaker Ron Mariano, though the speaker’s office later said Mariano had not yet taken a position on the bill.
“I do think that we still have some work to do on this bill, and I think that that’s been very clear,” Michlewitz replied when asked if he thought Cusack was incorrect to claim the speaker’s backing.
With the energy bill out of the mix, Michlewitz laid out the House’s plans for the remaining two days before lawmakers shift into holiday vacation mode. The chamber on Tuesday will take up a nearly $3.3 billion borrowing bill to fund investments in higher education infrastructure. On Wednesday, the House will tackle legislation dealing with workplace violence and a resolution rescinding an application for a federal Constitutional Convention amid fears of federal overreach.
Both branches are also set to vote this week on a compromise $2.3 billion spending bill to close the state’s financial books for fiscal year 2025, which ended June 30.
Michlewitz and his Senate counterpart, Michael Rodrigues, on Monday announced an agreement on that legislation, which will direct $1.67 billion toward MassHealth, put $10 million in state funding on the table for costs associated with the 2026 men’s World Cup, and demand a new probe of spending by county sheriffs.
The final accord will provide about $27 million for sheriffs, withholding more than $100 million that Healey originally proposed until after the inspector general reports on spending habits in the county law enforcement offices.
Lawmakers stopped short of embracing the Senate’s more dramatic proposal, which would have created a new oversight council to keep a close eye on sheriffs’ budgets.
“I don’t think we necessarily were objecting to that from the House side, but I think it was more we want to see what the IG actually has to say,” Michlewitz said. “We’re open-minded to it, but just for right now, I think we wanted to make sure that the IG had the ability to do his job on it [first].”