While the Legislature dawdles, climate change presses on

If you were building a house in 1910, would you add a barn and hayloft for the horse to pull your carriage, or a garage for a new Model T? By 1930 when you wanted to sell that house, you would be glad to have a garage instead of an unnecessary hayloft.

But now, in 2024, Senator Ryan Fattman, a Republican of Sutton, put a state climate bill on hold because he claims that discouraging the use of natural gas in new construction will have a "chilling" effect on the building industry (" Climate bill sees another holdup ," Metro, June 24). And he's doing this in the midst of record heat around the globe, when climate experts are shouting that we must stop using fossil fuels now. We need to be retrofitting older homes for clean electric heat and certainly not building anything new for this old, dirty fuel. He's all in on haylofts, when we need to be building garages.

Natural gas is a fuel of the past. There's no reason to hold up a good bill to keep an outdated fossil fuel front and center in our housing.

Mary Memmott

In Matt Stout's recent , he references legislative work piling up on Beacon Hill, with a major climate bill stuck in these delays. Often not understood is that environmental and climate justice are deeply intertwined with Indigenous wisdom and history. Currently, bills related to the MA Indigenous Legislative Agenda also are waiting to be moved to the floors of both chambers for a vote. I, and my congregation, First Parish Unitarian Universalist-Canton, support all of these bills, while focusing on "An Act Establishing Indigenous Peoples Day" (S.1976/H.2989), currently before the House Steering, Policy, and Scheduling Committee.

An referencing a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report by leading climate scientists states that "Although they only make up 5 percent of the world population, Indigenous peoples protect 80 percent of global biodiversity." It's a moral and a practical issue that we honor Indigenous wisdom and labor and reflect our history accurately for the sake of our children as well as for our shared survival. Like 17 other states in this country, let's pass Indigenous Peoples Day now.

Rev. Michelle A. Walsh

State Senator Michael Barrett has put an important climate change bill before the Massachusetts Senate that proposes what is necessary for the Commonwealth to meet our stated greenhouse gas reduction goals. The bill has the support of Senate President Karen Spilka, Senator Will Brownsberger, and many others.

But Senator Ryan Fattman, of the Worcester and Norfolk District, twice delayed votes on the bill. He appropriately shared the safety concerns of the New England Gas Workers Alliance, whose members may lose employment opportunities due to the energy transition but may gain some if they apply their expertise to geothermal and hydrogen development.

Fortunately, Fattman has agreed to no longer delay the bill. But I am concerned about his statement, "The idea that natural gas [would be] used as a last option is problematic ..."

Our climate reality is that making natural gas anything but the last option will surely be much more problematic for us and our descendants.

Bill Beckett

Matt Stout's description of the Legislature delaying critical climate change legislation is very disturbing and paints a picture of a state government that is unresponsive to critical public priorities. Massachusetts has an urgent need to address the issues addressed in this bill: improving our electrical vehicle charging infrastructure and decreasing the use of natural gas, which increases greenhouse gas emissions. We experience the increasingly devastating impact of climate change on our physical environment every day. The Senate needs to put aside its partisan differences to pass this important piece of climate legislation. Our health and safety demand nothing less.

Marvin Berkowitz