I am writing to urge people to contact their state senators and representatives to ask them to support bills S.1319 and H.2082. These bills would give municipalities the ability to regulate large solar installations by removing the following words from the outdated 1985 law CH.40 Section 3: “No ordinance or bylaw shall prohibit the installation of solar energy systems or the building of structures that facilitate the collection of solar energy.”

Recently a judge invalidated aShutesbury’s bylaw that regulated solar and was passed overwhelmingly by the town’s residents.

The wording quoted above was used as the reason for invalidating the bylaw. Excellent articles and letters have recently been published in the Recorder about threats to towns involving solar. Bills S.1319 and H.2082 need to be passed in order to protect the forests and farmlands in Massachusetts. To pass these bills, even to get them out of committees, will require a great deal of public support because there is no doubt that the large, often international solar companies and their advocates are doing everything they can to defeat them.

Kathryn Sternstein

Hawley