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Volunteers for DarkSky MA have once again filed identical bills with the Legislature’s House and Senate that, if enacted during this session, will provide forward-looking guidelines for outdoor lighting installed for state- and municipally-funded projects.

These two bills, designated H.3494 and S.2243, are what the Legislature calls “refiles” — they’re essentially identical in scope and language as the same bills proposed during the previous legislative session. As before, the bills’ principal sponsors are Reps. Sean Garballey and Simon Cataldo, and Sen. Cynthia Creem.

You’ve no doubt read or heard that this state’s Legislature is a challenging environment for new legislation. That’s especially true for modest, standalone bills such as ours. During last session Tim Brothers and Kelly Beatty worked very hard to try to get our bill enacted, working closely and repeatedly with the House and Senate chairs of the Joint Committee for Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy. After testifying with other advocates at TUE’s two public hearings, they were hopeful that DarkSky MA’s broad coalition of municipal, lighting, and environmental stakeholders would get the bills moving toward enactment.

But that didn’t happen. In an attempt to secure passage, our bills were bundled in both the House and Senate into large, “must-pass” omnibus bills dealing with energy. However, inexplicably, our bill was stripped from both packages before they moved on for votes.

This session, we’ll try a different approach that focuses more on gaining the support of House and Senate leadership. Of course, gaining support from individual legislators remains key to the bills’ visibility with in the Legislature and to their ultimate success. The next step for these bills will be to await their expected public hearing before the Joint Committee on TUE.