It's Never Over Until the Fattman Rides Again!

Guest post by Jim Willis of Marcellus Drilling News.

Something incredible is happening in Massachusetts. The entire legislature, minus one brave Republican (maybe the only patriot left in New England), wants to pass a law that empowers state regulators to “terminate [natural gas] service to consumers so long as they have access to ‘safe, reliable, and affordable alternatives.'”

It is a breathtaking seizure of freedom from the residents of the state. Government weenies can decide whether or not to rip pipelines out of the ground that feeds your home with natural gas. Except Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, who used a procedural tactic to push off debate by another day. It’s a desperate move to buy time to sound the alarm like Paul Revere. Fattman is a modern-day Paul Revere. Wake up, Massachusetts residents! Stop this insanity while you can!

It is the Massachusetts Democrat Party that is ramming through this anti-freedom bill. Are people really this blind? Can they not see what is happening? Did their ancestors who fought and died for freedom end up dying for nothing? Read on for the answer (emphasis added:

A Senate Republican blocked a wide-ranging climate bill from advancing Thursday after airing concerns over provisions he argued restricted access to natural gas in Massachusetts and increased energy costs for residents around the state.

Democrats were prepared to pass legislation that granted more authority to state regulators to determine the scope of natural gas use in Massachusetts, including by giving them the go-ahead to allow providers to terminate service to consumers so long as they have access to “safe, reliable, and affordable alternatives.”

But Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, used a procedural tactic to push off debate by another day, arguing the bill had no public hearing and was released on Monday with little time for review during a week bifurcated by a federal holiday.

“We have some of the highest utility rates in the country. It’s incredibly expensive in our housing and commercial and industrial development, and this bill, quite frankly, will make it more expensive and less affordable, and that’s really concerning to me,” he said in an interview.

At a press conference earlier in the day, Sen. Michael Barrett, a Lexington Democrat and chief author of the proposal, said the legislation seeks to implement a “smart, managed retreat” from over-reliance on natural gas.

Among the provisions in the bill that target natural gas, Democrats proposed to allow the Department of Public Utilities to approve plans to retire or replace portions of existing natural gas infrastructure with non-gas pipe alternatives.

That would in turn grant gas companies the authority to “terminate” service to customers only if the affected people have continued access to “safe, reliable and affordable energy services and can secure adequate substitutes for gas-fired services as determined by the department,” according to the bill text.

Barrett, who co-chairs the Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee, said senators were trying to figure out how to “intelligently step back” from using natural gas too much, including in the residential sector.

“If you’re going to decarbonize this critical sector, second only to transportation as the source of the problem, you simply must figure out a way to handle a smart, managed retreat from our over-reliance on natural gas in the residential sector,” he said. “That’s what we’re about here.”

After the bill’s path forward was delayed, Senate Democratic leadership scheduled another session for Friday at 1 p.m., though Fattman said he is prepared to block the legislation again if concerns are not heard by then.

Senate President Karen Spilka expressed disappointment at the delay.

“While the senate president respects every Senator’s right to raise questions about legislation, she is disappointed that climate change will outpace climate action for yet another day,” a spokesperson for Spilka said in a statement.

The bill backed by Senate Democrats would also require the Department of Public Utilities to take into account greenhouse gas emissions and the state’s climate targets when considering an expansion of gas service territory or access for new gas consumers.

Gas companies would be allowed to pursue geothermal projects “when appropriate” under the bill and a natural gas line replacement program would be phased out by 2030, a move that has spurred pushback from unions representing laborers.

Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem, a Newton Democrat, argued the natural gas provisions in the bill “will help keep energy costs down for Massachusetts residents.”

“Massachusetts residents shouldn’t be paying billions of dollars for fossil fuel infrastructure that will soon serve no purpose,” Creem said.

But Republicans have pushed back, including on allowing natural gas service providers to terminate service through decommissioning proposals.

Sen. Patrick O’Connor, a Weymouth Republican, said Democrats were “moving at warp speed without really taking into account the 20,000-plus union people that work inside of this profession right now.”

“Where’s the bridge to carry over them, to upskill them, to retrain them, to bring them into different new clean energy markets, to make sure that they’re secure? Where is the protection for low-income and middle-class families to make sure they can afford the retrofitting and transitions that are about to be coming their way,” he told the Herald outside the Senate Chamber.

Government has placed many different kinds of restrictions on private residents in the name of public health, Barrett said. Homeowners cannot place a septic system of any size they want in their backyard or heat their homes with wood with no regard for the environment or safety of others, he said.

In the case of natural gas, Barrett said homeowners cannot “stay warm by any fuel source they want.”

“In this particular case, it is a balancing act. But, yeah, individual property owners don’t have the right to choose any heating source they want. It has to be a source that’s consonant with the general public health of the neighborhood,” he told the Herald.

We hope people living in Mass. like to sit in the dark and the cold. That is their future if this bill passes.

Editor’s Note: Agreed, Jim! My family just returned from a vacation on Cape Cod where we usually go every few years. We love it and Barnstable County is not as nutty as the rest of the state, thank goodness. Many of my ancestors were, in fact, among the Puritans and others who settled the area, including Steven Hopkins, who was an amazing character to say the least and often went against the grain.

It appears the Bay State needs another Steven Hopkins, if not a Paul Revere, and may have found him in Ryan Fattman. But, where are the other Republicans in the State Senate? Are they so gutless as to align with Democrats on such a wacky piece of legislation? Has everyone else in that state gone stark raving mad? It appears so. And, if so, they deserve whatever they get.

#Massachusetts #NaturalGas #Fattman #StateSenate #Pipelines

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