Climate & Energy:
Preparing Massachusetts for a Clean Energy Future
Massachusetts has committed to leading the transition to a cleaner, more resilient energy system. The challenge is not only reducing emissions, but ensuring the transition strengthens the economy, creates opportunity, improves affordability, and positions Massachusetts as a leader in the industries that will define the next generation.
At a Glance
All four candidates support this principle. Azeem frames the transition primarily as an economic and startup-retention opportunity. McLaughlin and Barber both emphasize building decarbonization and workforce/ equity dimensions, with Barber grounding hers in a specific $3 billion bond bill she is currently advancing as committee chair. Uyterhoeven ties the issue most directly to ratepayer affordability, naming specific legislation (the Gas System Enhancement Program phase-out, Mass Save) she is pushing in the current session.
The Question Candidates Answered: "I support policies that position Massachusetts as a global leader in clean energy, climate innovation, and decarbonization while ensuring the transition strengthens our economy, creates opportunity, and remains equitable."
Burhan Azeem: I support this principle
How would you advance this principle if elected? Given the intellectual horsepower of the state, we are one of the best places for the development of clean technology. However, a lot of clean tech startups are founded here but don't build here. For example, Commonwealth Fusion started in Massachusetts but is building its first factory elsewhere. We should make it easier to permit and start businesses here and make our state a welcoming place for innovation to continue. We shouldn't take places like Greentown Labs or the Engine for granted and ensure that they have the regulatory tools they need to grow.
What would success look like? 2/3rds of the energy we generate is nonrenewables. Success would look like cutting that down to half that. Massachusetts already has one of the lowest consumption of energy per capita, but we can cut down that number by generating far more clean and renewable energy.
Christine P. Barber: I support this principle
How would you advance this principle if elected? I chair the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, so this is work I am doing now and will continue to advance.
Three priorities. First, finish the buildout. I advanced the MassReady Act, a $3 billion environmental bond bill, through the House to fund flood control, clean water including combined sewer overflows, parks, and public lands. It is the largest investment in climate resiliency in Massachusetts history. I am working to get it signed into law, and then fully implemented to get funds out to our communities.
Second, fix the delivery system. I championed the 2022 clean energy and offshore wind law requiring all new MBTA bus purchases to be electric by 2030 and the full fleet by 2040, with priority for underserved communities. Grid modernization, permitting reform for clean generation, and utility accountability are the next fights.
Third, keep the transition affordable. Ratepayers cannot carry the whole cost. I supported amendments to strengthen Mass Save and rein in utility profits, and I worked to strip the pipeline tax that would have made families subsidize fossil gas infrastructure on their electric bills.
On innovation, I secured $1 million in MassCEC grants for offshore wind innovation partnerships, including funding that reached Greentown Labs in Somerville. Massachusetts should back emerging technologies, including fusion, sited with real community consultation.
What would success look like? Massachusetts hits its 2030 and 2050 targets without pricing families out of their homes to get there. An electric bus fleet running through Medford, Somerville, and Winchester. Clean water in the Mystic and the Alewife. A grid that can carry the load. And a climate bond bill that is not just passed but spent, on projects residents can see.
Matt McLaughlin: I support this principle
How would you advance this principle if elected? To help combat the climate crisis, Massachusetts should require that new buildings be fossil fuel free. Large updates to buildings should also ensure fossil fuel free conversion. Building code passive house standards aren't just good for the environment and reducing carbon emissions, there are also great benefits to building insulation and air circulation, which will protect the residents and workers who use these buildings. There are co-benefits to investing in green buildings as well and opportunities to incorporate course work that benefits our local students pursuing a future in clean energy and green jobs and our local workforce who build these buildings and retrofit old buildings. Building decarbonization and green infrastructure represents a path forward for our climate innovation economy, yes, but more than that, it's about local blue-collar jobs and local climate resiliency for the people who live here. We know that climate change is here and worsening in Massachusetts, which will lead to worsening public health impacts, flooding and drought impacts, and the rest. The question to ask as public officials now is how do we combat that in a way that recognizes the reality of the working class and poor families that will feel the impacts of heat and flooding more, and how do we work towards a greener future that empowers our local workforce, and especially our blue collar workforce, to create the future we so desperately need from the ground-up.
What would success look like? Success looks very similar to the work being done in this district right now. Cambridge and Somerville are working hard to decarbonize public buildings and are developing building solutions. The state should expand that pilot to allow more cities and towns to make the proactive decision to experiment with building fossil fuel free. The innovations in non-carbon building practices are going to come from actually letting people build that way and learning to optimize in new ways.
Erika Uyterhoeven: I support this principle
How would you advance this principle if elected? Massachusetts leads on climate when we treat the clean energy transition as economic strategy, and I will fight to keep it that way. At doors across the district, the conversation starts with utility bills, and that is why I will work to pass the strongest version of the energy affordability legislation now in conference, preserving Mass Save, the energy efficiency program that returns $2.69 in benefits for every dollar invested. The Gas System Enhancement Program charges ratepayers nearly a billion dollars a year for pipelines we are moving beyond, and I will fight to phase it out by 2030 and redirect that investment toward grid modernization and networked geothermal. I voted to expand offshore wind and we must make investments in publicly owned renewable energy. I will defend our binding emissions limits, because long-term climate commitments are what give innovators and investors the certainty to build here. Our schools, libraries, and municipal buildings should run on clean electricity, and I will fight for the state capital support to electrify them, cutting operating costs while cutting emissions. And I will champion what Massachusetts is building right now, the workforce training and public research that will move clean power from the lab to the grid. As an economist, I know this: the states that lead this transition will own the next century's energy economy, and I will make sure Massachusetts is first among them.
What would success look like? Success looks like lower monthly bills and falling emissions at the same time: energy efficiency programs preserved, the Gas System Enhancement Program phased out by 2030, and our binding commitment to cut emissions in half by 2030 met rather than renegotiated. It looks like schools and municipal buildings across the state running on clean electricity. When families feel relief on their bills while Massachusetts builds the clean energy economy that follows, that is what success looks like.