• We Need Your Input!
• Chapter Meeting Details
• Deep Dialogue Details
• Legislative Priorities Update
• Offshore Wind Legal Update
• Updated Bottle Bill
• Plastics Webinar
• Town of Stow Award

Do you have ideas about what ECA Mass should be doing? How we can be most effective? Your Leadership Team is convening our Annual Strategy Retreat on Monday, January 12 - TODAY - and we need your input.

Please send your suggestions or ideas to MaiyimBaron@gmail.com today so we can take them up at our Strategy Retreat. We will also bring these ideas forward in our Members Conversation at the Tuesday Chapter Meeting. 

Not sure if you're a member? If you received this email, you are a member. ECA Mass membership requires only your email sign up and doesn't charge any dues. That said, we'll be fundraising this winter to fund our work for 2026.

Jamie Van Nostrand, Policy Director at The Future of Heat Initiative

Tom Ferguson, PhD

Energy Storage Programs Manager

MA Department of Energy Resources

DEEP DIALOGUE

MONDAY, JANUARY 26

4 - 5:30 PM on Zoom

Energy Storage in a Net Zero Commonwealth

Register here for Zoom link!

Energy storage is key to our clean energy strategy. It is used for peak shaving, integration of renewables on the grid, and other applications. Dr. Tom Ferguson will describe how the state is developing policies and programs to spur the deployment of energy storage throughout the Commonwealth. 

Tom Ferguson, PhD, is Energy Storage Programs Manager at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER).

Our monthly Deep Dialogues are where a lot of our deep education and learning goes on in ECA Mass. Take advantage of these wonderfully informative programs. We do record our Deep Dialogues when the speaker allows, as we do our Chapter Meetings. They are usually posted on our website within a few days of our sessions. Access them there and make them available to other interested friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

Keeping Watch on Ways and Means

Most bills that have a chance of passing this session have been parked in the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees (more than 700 in each); ECA Mass can reach out directly to committee chairs and some key members to advocate for our bills. But we are likely to have more of an impact when individual constituents get their legislators to reach out to Ways and Means and leadership.

Fighting for the Energy and Climate Bill We Need 

Thanks to all who heeded our call for meeting with your representatives to urge them to call for some radical changes to the energy affordability bill (H.4744) sponsored by Rep. Cusack. Mass Power Forward reported that so far, meetings have been held with 60 representatives, and more are scheduled.

There is still time to reach out to your representative to seek their support for the key changes to H.4744 that the ECA Mass Legislative Team is endorsing (see below). If you would like help in recruiting other residents of your district to a meeting, let a Legislative Team leader know (Roger.Luckmann@umassmed.edu).

The Legislative Team is working on a detailed template for a revised and amended H.4744 that calls for...

Roger Luckman

When Massachusetts launched its bottle bill, Sally Ride was poised to become America’s first woman launched into space and Michael Jackson was sending “Thriller” into the universe.

The year was 1983. Since then, all who’ve tried to update the MA bottle bill – by ballot referendum or at the State House – have failed. On Beacon Hill, common sense is overpowered by the beverage lobbyists’ hushed words while the proponents of needed changes are outspent by a bottle industry clinging to the status quo.

As a result, MA bottle redemption rate ranks lowest in the nation.

In 2026, ECA’s Plastics Committee will meet biweekly with Plastic Free Mass, a collaborative group of MA organizations involved with climate and environmental advocacy. In the months ahead, we’ll offer easy-to-do actions which each of us can take (and share) to advance Plastic Free Mass’s statewide campaign to MODERNIZE the state’s bottle bill in this legislative session. 

An Act to Update the Bottle Bill (H.3464)

Expands bottle bill coverage (see also here) to include most plastic beverage containers, increases the deposit to ten cents, with a provision to increase the fee further if targets for return and recycling are not met. A parallel Senate bill (S.2245) also requires a study of the resources needed to move to a system of refill and reuse of glass bottles. 

Let’s band together to give this bill the fighting chance it deserves to win. Its passage benefits climate, since plastic production is a major driver of fossil fuel emissions, and it reduces our ever-expanding plastic pollution that sickens us with its petrochemical toxins.

Only when we pitch in to educate and energize our friends, neighbors and community members will we overcome the powerful forces that are aligned against this ECA priority bill.

Later in January, Plastics Free Mass will send out a petition in favor of this bill. Signatures will be presented to MA legislators. We’d love to see your names on it – alongside ours.

Intrigued? Please, reach out to Dave Damm-Luhr with ECA Plastics at dammluhr@gmail.com and we'll keep you informed.

Melissa Ludtke

ECA Mass is pleased to support The League of Women Voters of Needham and Green Needham’s ZOOM presentation with Dr. Philip Landrigan on Thursday, January 28 at 4:00 PM. Please share the webinar information with your networks and be sure to tune in to learn more about the issue and more importantly, what we can do to protect our collective and personal health.

ECA Mass had previously hosted Dr. Landrigan, a pediatrician and expert on the pervasive health impacts of plastics in our environment on September 9, 2025. Dr. Landrigan directs the Global Health and the Common Good Program at Boston College.

Register HERE.

Launa Zimmaro

If you’ve heard of the town of Stow, you probably think about apple picking. But this small rural community, 30 miles west of Boston has been making strides in clean energy and decarbonization. 

At a ceremony at the State House in December, Stow was recognized by the state with the 2025 Leading by Example Award. The Department of Energy Resources recognizes outstanding decarbonization, clean energy, and other environmental efforts.

Town officials and community members have spent more than a decade working toward and implementing sustainability initiatives. Stow has two groups focused on sustainability: Sustainable Stow - a volunteer group established in 2012 and the Green Advisory Committee - a town committee established by the Select Board in 2021. Activities have included: 

• The Stow Solar Challenge. 59 households installed rooftop solar.
• The “HeatSmart” initiative. 53 homes had heat pumps installed.
• Retrofit three municipal buildings to heat pumps with support from state Green Communities grants.
• A $500,000 Building Decarbonization grant to support the renovation of the town library.
• Achieved a 20 percent reduction in municipal energy use.
• Acquired five municipal electric vehicles.
• The 16th community in the state to adopt the Specialized Energy Code which encourages all-electric new construction.
• One of 19 communities in the state to be designated as a Climate Leader under the new state program. Climate Leader communities are eligible for state grants up to $1,000,000 to support decarbonization of municipal buildings.

It's an ongoing journey. But with hard work, commitment, and state and community support, progress can be made in your town.

Arnie Epstein

Thanks to all who joined us for our in person chapter meeting on December 9. Special thanks to Stan Eichner for taking this great photo of us. Stay tuned for more in person chapter meetings in 2026!

Maiyim Baron

If you would like to become more involved with ECA Mass on one of our teams (Communication, Education, Legislative, Membership or Research) please contact Tina Grosowsky, tgrosowsky@verizon.net.

Tina Grosowsky

We send announcements of our meetings and Action Alerts to eca-mass@googlegroups.com, which includes all those on our active list. 

Please contact Dawn Edell if you want to confirm you are on our active list.

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Did you miss an ECA Mass chapter meeting or deep dialogue? Or do you want to share one with friends and family? 

We have you covered! Videos of past chapter meetings are here and videos of past deep dialogues are here.