Brookline Appeals AG’s Rejection Of Anti-Fossil Fuel Bylaws

BROOKLINE, MA — The Town of Brookline and the petitioners of Brookline’s 2021 gas bans, known as Warrant Articles 25 and 26, have appealed Attorney General Maura Healey's rejection of the two bylaws, said ZeroCarbonMA in a news release.

Filed with the Supreme Judicial Court, the appeal is a response to the latest state preemption of local attempts to combat climate change. Brookline’s status as a town requires that all changes to bylaws be approved by the Attorney General’s Office.

In February, Healey determined that two bylaws approved by the Town of Brookline that would stop the use of fossil fuels in new buildings conflicted with state laws including the Zoning Act, the State Building Code, and Chapter 164.

ZeroCarbonMA noted that the Healey’s rejection is “rooted in outdated law” and does not take into account the Commonwealth’s legally binding emissions targets.

”Construction costs for all-electric buildings are similar to gas, yet have lower life cycle costs, lower operational costs, lower emissions, and result in significantly improved outdoor and indoor air quality — as well as substantially better health outcomes,” architect Lisa Cunningham, a co-founder of ZeroCarbonMA, said in a statement. “We have to decarbonize and electrify our existing buildings, but in the meantime it makes no sense to be building new fossil fuel infrastructure that we know we actually need to be ripping out, at far greater cost than building it correctly the first time.”

"We are appealing this ruling because the Commonwealth must give all municipalities permission to stop digging our climate hole deeper, if it is to meet its own legally binding emissions targets,” Heather Hamilton, Chair of the Select Board of Brookline, said in a statement.

ZeroCarbonMA is a non-profit organization that advocates for state and local climate policies that are working to achieve net-zero by 2050 and a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. For more information, visit www.zerocarbonMA.org.