Learn about the “Climate Bank Bill”: with Senator Paul Mark

How can you sign up to join the June 9th, 4 PM meeting?  Reply to jmiserve183@gmail.com  and please include the names of your State Senator and Representative.

You are invited you to learn about a climate bank bill that Senator Mark and Rep. Joan Meschino have sponsored this session.  The purpose is to inform attendees from across the state about the proposed climate bank, and answer their questions, so they can join with others from their district to both educate and ask their State Rep. and State Senator to co-sponsor this bill.  

What is the bill?  S.786/H.3937 establishes a Massachusetts Climate Bank as an independent public authority to finance and support climate and clean energy initiatives. This legislation positions Massachusetts as a leader in climate financing, while also supporting efforts to meet statewide emissions reduction targets and drive sustainable economic growth.  See the link below to the bill’s fact sheet.

Why organize a special coalition to focus on this specific bill? This is a ‘linch-pin’ bill for climate financing.  Private sources of investment are our State’s last, largely untapped, funding source for financing the transition to a clean energy economy.  The climate bank is a public/private partnership in which public seed monies are used to attract a much larger amount of private investment.  For example, since 2011 the CT climate bank has attracted $8.60 in private investment for each $1.00 of public seed money.  Furthermore, with retrenchment of federal support for clean energy projects, and general uncertainty regarding federal funding for state-level programming, the state of MA will benefit significantly from this valuable source of new climate specific financing.  Without this ‘linch-pin’ legislation, meeting the state’s clean energy target deadlines will be harder.

Who is organizing this initiative? A 3-person team from Citizens Climate Lobby [CCL]-Berkshire chapter and Voices for Climate [V4C] is spearheading this collaboration.  To date, partner groups include: the 5 CCL MA chapters; Elders Climate Action [ECA]; 350 MA; Third Act;  IN-SLWM’s climate team; CAN’s Green Futures working group;  and the climate team at FCCPR.  We anticipate additional advocacy groups will be joining.  

How can you sign up to join the June 9th, 4 PM meeting?  Reply to jmiserve183@gmail.com  and please include the names of your State Senator and Representative; this will streamline our later advocacy work.  Once we’ve all met with Sen. Mark, we’ll collaborate on connecting you with other attendees and citizens from your district to advocate with your legislators.  If you’re new to constituent advocacy, our leadership team and other experienced CCL facilitators will assist you in organizing and conducting a constituent meeting with your Rep. and/or your Senator, using CCL’s guidelines.

There’s strength in numbers.  We’d love to have you with us in supporting this key bill to sustain and expand our state’s clean energy transition.  Please tell us soon if you plan to join us.  Climate Bank Fact Sheet is here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O80mdI-dJpJuUdosqR1bMAWTwpDHHl0ENAx0N9RPrfI/edit?usp=sharing 

Paul W. Mark serves as a Democratic member of the Massachusetts Senate. He represents the Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire District, which includes 57 cities and towns throughout Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties. Wikipedia