It has been a remarkable week for the dark-sky bills that DarkSkyMass submitted to the Massachusetts Legislature in January 2025. Over the past few months, it seemed that this session’s submissions (identical bills in the House and Senate) would fall victim to what has become their usual fate: passed along favorably by the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, then dying a slow death from inaction in the two chambers’ respective Ways and Means committees.

Yet, we are thrilled to announce two remarkable developments from both sides of Beacon Hill!

First, the House: Our dark-sky bill (H.3934) was included as an amendment to the environmental bond bill, a major piece of legislation, that was passed by the House very late on June 17th. Check out Facebook reel posted by Reps. Sean Garballey and Simon Cataldo (our two principal House sponsors) outside the State House after the night’s marathon session concluded.

This environmental bond bill is considered “must pass” legislation because it provides $3.5 billion in funding for dozens of new initiatives. Legislators often try to get their favored bills attached as amendments, but in most cases those attempts fail. The bond bill will now go into conference committee, where the House bill and the Senate bill (which did not include the dark-sky legislation) will be reconciled, and a compromise bill will be produced.

This compromise bill may not be released for months; it may even take until the end of the year before we know whether the dark-sky legislation will be passed into law. The six conferees have now been appointed — two Democrats and one Republican from each chamber — and we will advocate to them to include the dark-sky legislation in the final, compromise bill (also known as the conference report). 

A huge thank you and congratulations to Rep. Garballey and Rep. Cataldo — our champions in the House — whose strong and persistent advocacy was instrumental in this accomplishment! 

Second, the Senate: This session’s Senate version of the dark-sky bill (S.2243) has been languishing in the Senate’s Ways & Means Committee for months. Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem, our lead Senate sponsor, tried to get it attached as an amendment in the Senate version of the environmental bond bill, but she withdrew it due to apparent but unspecified opposition. (DarkSkyMass volunteers had been lobbying intensively behind the scenes but hadn’t made much progress.)

Then, remarkably (and inexplicably), on June 24th we got word from Sen. Creem’s office that the dark-sky bill had been forwarded by the Ways & Means Committee and was headed to the Senate floor for a vote as early as July 1st. The Senate leadership even took the unusual step of issuing both a press release and a fact sheet about this bill! “It seems like they are full steam ahead with passing it,” notes Anna Darrow, who has injected new energy into our efforts as the Appalachian Mountain Club’s New England Policy manager.

The forwarded version has a new number, S.3145, and it’s been “wordsmithed” with revised wording and organization. But all the critical components that we’ve championed for so long — full shielding, reduced color temperature, new streetlight tariffs, and more — are all still there. If the Senate approves S.3145, then it will become a key part of the upcoming legislative reconciliation by the House-Senate conference committee.

Our work is not finished, but the dark-sky legislation has never been closer to approval. Check back next week for an update!