Legislative Campaign
These bills can stop biomass subsidies & prevent deadly pollution!
Please contact your legislators and urge them to co-sponsor SD1351/HD2067 and SD1350/HD2066
to remove incentives for biomass energy. Thank you - and check back soon for updates!
In the 2025-2026 legislative session, No Toxic Biomass urges passage of the following bills:
1) An Act to remove woody biomass from the greenhouse gas emissions standard for municipal lighting plants
This bill closes a loophole allowing local, publicly-owned utilities to count biomass toward climate and clean energy goals. The legislation amends the 2021 Climate Roadmap law to remove biomass from the list of “non-carbon emitting sources” that municipal lighting plants can use to meet the new MLP greenhouse gas emission standard.
See PFPI's support memo for the MLP bill here.
SD1351 sponsor:
Sen. Adam Gomez, Hampden
HD2076 sponsor:
Rep. Orlando Ramos, 9th Hampden
2) An Act limiting the eligibility of woody biomass as an alternative energy supply
This bill would make commercial-scaled or institutional heating facilities that burn wood fuels ineligible for Massachusetts’ Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (APS). It grandfathers in existing facilities that have already been qualified by DOER to participate in the program.
Read PFPI's support memo for the APS bill here.
SD1350 sponsor:
Sen. Adam Gomez, Hampden
HD2066 sponsor:
Rep. Orlando Ramos, 9th Hampden
Background:
In 2022, Massachusetts removed incentives for woody biomass from its signature clean energy program, the Renewable Portfolio Standard. These new bills build on that legislative success by removing incentives for woody biomass from other Massachusetts clean energy laws. More than 100 groups have endorsed previous bills to remove subsidies for burning woody biomass from the Alternative Portfolio Standard (APS) for renewable heating and also removing biomass from the newly-created GGES for MLPs (municipal utilities).
The bills we are supporting this session implement one of Governor Healey’s climate platforms: “Burning wood for bioenergy depletes our forests, increases greenhouse gas emissions, and is a threat to human health. Maura will end subsidies for forest bioenergy for electricity and commercial-scale heat.”