Climate activists 'furious' at Beacon Hill's climate bill failure

A small crowd of climate activists marched through the State House Thursday morning, chanting about lawmakers' failure to strike a deal on a clean energy bill deemed urgent and essential by same the very lawmakers who could not agree on a mutually acceptable version.

As the Senate adjourned at around 10 a.m., members of the climate advocacy organization 350 Mass and the Mass Power Forward coalition held up signs outside the chamber that read "failure of leadership" and "climate change doesn't wait." The activists made their way up to the fourth floor and were later chanting outside the empty House chamber.

Daniel Zackin, legislative coordinator for 350 Mass, said House and Senate negotiators' inability to reach a compromise on siting and permitting reforms to accelerate clean energy infrastructure projects was "incredibly disappointing."

"They love to look like they're taking action on climate," Zackin told the News Service. "When it actually comes to phasing out fossil fuels, they don't do it. And there were major provisions in the Senate side of the climate omnibus bill that would have done that. They would have phased out fossil fuels in an orderly way that prioritizes gas workers to make sure that we have a truly just transition, and our legislators chose not to do that."

Zackin said organizers had intended to hold their last "mobilizing day" Wednesday, though they decided to gather for an "emergency mobilization" Thursday following the late-session deal collapse. Lawmakers have "very little to show for their work," he said.

"There's a culture in the building of, 'We don't yell, we don't shout, we play by the rules, we play very nicely.' And it's important for there to be vocal, loud disagreement with that, saying that this is not OK," Zackin said, adding activists came to Beacon Hill to express their "rage."

The Senate climate bill had also sought to update the state's bottle redemption law. Through an amendment, senators approved doubling the five-cent deposit to 10 cents and expanding it from beer and soda to apply to most beverage containers.

"We are furious, incredibly disappointed that the climate bill did not pass. None of the plastic reduction bill passed and the bottle bill as far as we know has not moved forward," Eileen Ryan, a 350 Mass member and leader of the Beyond Plastic Greater Boston group, said in a statement.

Evan Bell, organizing director for 350 Mass, called this Legislature "historically unproductive."

"No climate bill this session is a disaster that will be remembered by future generations," he said in a statement.