Boston – The Massachusetts Sierra Club issued an alert last week asking members and supporters to contact Governor Baker regarding his decision to encourage new natural gas pipelines and pay for them via a fee on ratepayers.

Since that time over 2,300 members followed through, telling the governor “Massachusetts residents want a clean energy future powered by solar, wind and energy efficiency not a doubling down on the failed dirty energy policies of the past.”

“Governor Baker ran on a platform that touted his ability to make sound business decisions,” said Cathy Buckley, Massachusetts Sierra Club Chair. “Now he is promoting pipeline projects that threaten our safety, health, economy, and climate. And he has decided that ratepayers, not the private pipeline companies, utilities, or fuel producers, will bear the financial risk.”

The Baker Administration has called for expansion of natural gas pipelines and electric transmission facilities, and reiterated this position at a meeting with other New England governors in April of this year. Governor Baker has also called for capping net metering credits which act as an economic subsidy to the solar power industry, in spite of a recommendation by the Net Metering and Solar Task Force to increase the cap.

“We believe there are more economically secure and environmentally sound ways to meet our energy needs that also create local jobs,” said Ed Woll, Chair of the Massachusetts Sierra Club Energy Committee. “We need more energy efficiency, demand management, conservation, and investment in renewables. And for those few frigid days that we truly do need more than our present pipelines can handle, we can rely on Liquified Natural Gas shipments, as we did this past winter.  Clean and renewable energy sources wean us off our already excessive dependence on the volatility of  natural gas pricing, and investment in more pipeline capacity only slows our necessary and inevitable transition to a clean energy economy.”

Said Emily Norton, Massachusetts Sierra Club Director, “Our children deserve better than a future powered by fossil fuels. This is a fight about their future. And it’s a fight we must win.”

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The Massachusetts Sierra Club
Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest and most effective grassroots environmental group. The Massachusetts Chapter was established nearly fifty years ago and has a strong track record of enabling Bay Staters to “enjoy, explore and protect the planet.”

For more information visit us at sierraclubmass.org.