Press Release: 11/17/2025
Stop The Climate Rollback Bill
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November 17, 2025
Corporate Democrats are ramming a massive Climate Rollback Bill (H.4744) through the legislature. If you do one thing this week to help our climate and stop skyrocketing utility rates, call and email your State Representative to stop this bill.
Read on for more detail on what is happening, what's in the bill, and how you can help.
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What happened last week?
Last Monday (11/10), the powerful House Energy Committee Chair, Rep. Cusack, asked committee members to vote on a 98 page energy bill. Many had barely started reading through the bill, which would not be released to the public until after voting was complete. While advertised as an energy affordability bill, its main goal was to reverse the last five years of hard fought climate progress.
By Wednesday, our movement had sprung into action. State House insiders reported inboxes piled high with constituent emails, phones ringing off the hook, and legislators growing concerned over what they had unleashed. While the committee vote that night did move H.4744 on in the legislative process to the House Ways and Means Committee, it was far from the typical Beacon Hill lockstep. Four committee members abstained from voting on the bill, either in protest of the undemocratic process or because they understood it will hurt them in their districts.
On Thursday, over 150 climate activists including 350 Mass members and allies packed the State House for the hearing on the People Over Energy Profits bill, H.3547/S.2290, that would prevent the expansion of big pipelines and power plants within 5 miles of an environmental justice community. It's rare to get an opportunity to criticize legislators to their face, but at the hearing advocate after advocate got a chance to tell the House chair just how bad his bill will be for our communities, our climate, and for its supposed goal of affordability. Eventually the chair simply left and gave up on chairing his own hearing!
This past weekend, analysts and advocates have worked overtime to prepare rebuttals to the now public bill and get our network ready.
This week, we need everyone ready to fight like hell.
What's in the bill?
What we're naming the Climate Rollback Bill (H.4744) will demolish the last five years of climate progress in MA. The most problematic sections remove our mandatory climate goals, severely limit Mass Save's ability to save residents money through clean heating, and throw our clean energy economy into chaos. There are many more poison pills, including a new pipeline tax and the removal of reduced rates for middle income ratepayers. These two alone will immediately raise costs for many. For the nitty gritty on what's in the bill, check out this analysis from our friends at the Acadia Center.
The bill isn't exclusively bad policy. There were several bills from our allies on solar, biomass, and a just transition for workers that were attached to H.4744. Unfortunately, this was likely done to divide our movement. And when the Energy Committee reported out the bill, all of the cosponsors for those good bills were lumped on to this awful one.
At the same time, the bill does nothing to target the main cause of high energy bills: rebuilding and maintaining our outdated gas infrastructure. For more details, check out today's op-ed from former chair of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities Jamie Van Nostrand.
That's likely because there are fossil fuel fingerprints all over it. The House Chair has received over $4,000 in fossil fuel donations over the last week alone; gas lobby group the "Coalition for Sustainable Energy" have put out a public statement of support; and the FAQ's the chair sent out to the entire House Wednesday night appears to have been written by lobbyists who count fossil fuel companies as their clients.
How can you help?
The most urgent need is for every advocate to call and email their State Representative to stop this awful bill. This bill either needs to be scrapped entirely or needs additional time for a serious rewrite. You can find your Representative's contact information here and if they are on the Ways and Means Committee here.
Ask them to:
- Vote No on the Climate Rollback Bill (H.4744).
- If they were included as a cosponsor because of their support for one of the good bills attached to H.4744, ask them to remove their cosponsorship
- Let leadership and Ways and Means Chair Michelwitz know about their opposition
- Take a public stance on social media against this bill
Email Script (Easy Action Network)
350 Mass will be at the State House tomorrow (Tuesday, 11/18) at 10:30 am for a hearing on the climate bank bill. RSVP to join us. While this hearing is before a different committee, it is still a good chance to show the strength of our movement and help deliver literature to your Representative.
Our pressure is already scaring the House. If we keep it up, beyond winning this one battle, we can send a strong signal to the Senate and Governor that caving on climate will hurt them politically and drive up costs for ratepayers. Together, we can win.