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Rather than call in enough Democrats from the House’s supermajority to facilitate enactment of a clean energy bill, House Speaker Ronald Mariano said Monday he will postpone consideration of the climate compromise until whenever an as-yet-unfiled economic development accord surfaces.
Since last week when the Senate endorsed the energy report on a 38-2 vote, House Minority Leader Bradley Jones Jr. has sought a similar opportunity to take a recorded vote on the rewritten bill in the House, which has been meeting in informal sessions. The entire Republican caucus (25 members at the time) voted against an earlier version of the legislation in July.
The move keeps a pair of real estate developments, including The Davis Companies’ massive Everett Docklands project, in limbo. The Docklands projects’ first phase and the entirety of Flatiron Energy’s Project Lite Brite in Brighton are battery-based energy storage facilities intended to capture electricity made by offshore wind farms, and they rely on elements of the clean energy bill to attract financing.
The Everett project just received state environmental approval for its first phase.
With eight representatives in the chamber Monday morning – five Democrats and three Republicans – Jones doubted the presence of a quorum and there were not the needed 81 lawmakers on hand to transact business.
While Democrats didn’t show up in the numbers needed to pass the bill Monday, their leader pointed a finger at Republicans.
“Because Republicans continue to block the passage of the clean energy bill, the House will take it up when we convene in a formal session to pass the economic development bill,” Mariano said Monday afternoon in a statement to the News Service.
Negotiators working on a final version of the economic development bill since July have not yet produced any results.
As for what sort of a timeline the climate bill faces, a Mariano spokesperson said later in the day: “Timing for the formal will be determined when there’s a deal on economic development.”
Jones on Oct. 24 filed an order, modeled after one the Senate approved, that would have allowed the House to take a roll call vote on the energy report even though formal sessions ended for the term on Aug. 1.
“It was an interesting work-around, so I said well we’ll just emulate what they did. It’s a joint rule that governs both of us, but we’re just going to say, well, regardless of what the Joint Rules say, we’re just going to do what we want,” he told reporters last week.
Rep. Jeff Roy, the House’s lead architect of the bill, was in the chamber for a few moments Monday. Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz – the branch’s lead conferee on the economic development package – was also on hand. He could be seen talking with Jones ahead of the session.
Jones said after adjournment that he and Michlewitz had been talking about both the economic development and climate bills along with “what other matters may be out there” and whether “you wanna get through the other items that are pending before we get to [the] climate bill today.”
On the docket for Monday’s informal session, Jones said, there were other bills waiting for action that did not surface before he doubted the presence of a quorum. “Parochial” matters like local bills for municipal governments, Jones said, that were ready to advance.
“And I have no interest in holding – all the ones that were out there, I have no interest in holding up,” he said.
In his statement, Mariano said it was “disappointing that House Republicans continue to use procedural tools to delay the passage of the clean energy bill” and that “House Democrats remain committed to sending this critical legislation to the Governor’s desk for her signature.”
Jones had also doubted the presence of a quorum on Oct. 24, though Democratic leadership did not call a quorum of members (sufficient to reach 81 in the chamber) to Beacon Hill on Monday.
“We’re in informal sessions. My colleagues are working hard in their district,” Rep. Tommy Vitolo, a Brookline Democrat, told the News Service after attending Monday’s brief session. “Some of them are on the ballot within the next, what is it? Eight days? 15 days? Coming soon. I guess it’s eight days. So when the path is ready, my colleagues will be here. It will pass.”
Of the House’s 160 members, there are 115 incumbents running for reelection who are unopposed on Election Day – 34 more beyond the quorum threshold that would allow the branch to take up the climate bill over Jones’ objection.
The North Reading Republican acknowledged that the bill could have cleared the House notwithstanding his objections Monday, if enough Democrats had come to the capitol building.
Forecasting Mariano’s words that came later in the day, Jones told reporters Monday morning that it would “make sense” to vote on both the climate bill and a hypothetical economic development deal at the same time.
“You know, I like to see what each day brings because, you know, it’s like – the Legislature’s like the weather in Massachusetts. Wait a minute, it’ll change. So, we’ll see. There’s a lot of moving parts … the eco-dev, I mean, if what the speaker said is true, then maybe we’re close to reaching agreement. … So I would think that if we do get to a point where there’s an agreement on eco-dev – if – and it’s anytime soon, that it would just make sense to just do ’em the same day and have a vote,” Jones said.
Jones also shot back at the speaker’s office. A Mariano spokesperson last Thursday said that House Republicans had delayed the clean energy bill vote in a way that was “consistent with the national GOP playbook that includes denying climate change and opposing all efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.”
“And that’s their page out of the national Democratic playbook,” Jones told reporters Monday when asked about the statement. “Because if they want to take a look at that, I would gently suggest that the spokesperson from the speaker’s office go back and look at who has been the conferee on climate for the last several bills, going back, 2016, ’18, ’20. Who’s signed ’em, and who’s voted for ’em. A modicum of research would undercut any veracity to that argument whatsoever.”
Democrats, who have the supermajority numbers to easily pass those priority bills, find themselves in this autumnal situation after failing to get those matters across the finish line before a self-imposed July 31 deadline for formal sessions.
Mariano followed his budget chair’s lead Monday, concurring with Rep. Aaron Michlewitz’ recent comments to the Boston Globe about a need to review that internal rules package.
“The Joint Rules and associated legislative timeline are both due for updates,” the speaker said. “That, however, is a discussion for the 194th General Court after the New Year.”
