Lack of quorum sees state energy bill stall in House
Photo | Courtesy of National Grid
A battery and wind turbine at Saint Paul Diocesan Junior/Senior High School in Worcester
The Senate voted 38-2 Thursday to approve a 139-page clean energy bill (S 2967) but the legislation stalled out in the House due to a lack of a quorum.
The bill is intended to speed the siting and permitting of clean energy sources and facilitate the embrace of electric vehicles through charging infrastructure investments.
The House held its session open while the bill was advancing through the Senate and House Democrats hoped to pass the bill Thursday but adjourned until Monday after Republicans doubted the presence of a quorum, and not enough representatives were present.
The House and Senate have been meeting in informal sessions since July 31, according to Joint Rule 12A, and those sessions are scheduled to run through the end of this year.
Suspending the joint rule requires votes in both branches, but senators adopted their own order designed to facilitate some recorded votes in that branch this session. Roll calls are not permitted during informal sessions, so normally cannot be taken after July 31.
An aide to Senate President Karen Spilka said the order will enable roll call votes on conference committee bills in the Senate for the remainder of this session. The order says "the Senate shall be allowed to convene for formal business for the purposes of considering conference committee reports filed in the Senate or received from the House under the provisions of Joint Rules 11 or 11A."
The order was adopted by voice vote. About 10 of the 40 senators attended session in person on Thursday, with many senators staying away from Beacon Hill and voting on the bill remotely. Sen. Marc Pacheco of Taunton addressed the Senate while he was in Tennessee.
The bill includes "nothing radical," chief Senate conferee Michael Barrett said, but features an "extremely ambitious suite of provisions."
Ticking off laws passed in previous sessions, Barrett described a legislating-as-they-go approach to the complex effort to transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to one where clean energy is more dominant, while paying attention to reliability and affordability concerns.
"I want senators to be climate mechanics," Barrett said, urging his colleagues to avoid policies that have already generated headlines in other states about high consumer costs attached to clean energy.
The bill divided the four-man Senate Republican caucus, with Sens. Bruce Tarr and Patrick O'Connor voting in favor, and Sen. Peter Durant and Ryan Fattman voting against.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments