Bill > H3306

This bill aims to improve outdoor lighting, conserve energy, and increase dark-sky visibility. Key provisions include: 1. Restricting the use of state or municipal funds to install or operate certain types of permanent outdoor fixtures, such as requiring them to be fully shielded or limit uplight emissions, unless exemptions are granted for specific purposes like roadway underpasses or historic structures. 2. Mandating the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources to develop regulations to implement and enforce the lighting requirements, and to ensure compliance of new permanent outdoor fixtures installed by electric companies and municipal aggregators. 3. Requiring the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to review and report on roadway lighting, including an analysis of operational costs, impact on human health and safety, and a plan to replace high-wattage, unshielded fixtures with more efficient, fully shielded ones. 4. Directing the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to develop rates for part-night service and low-wattage unmetered lighting fixtures for roadways and parking lots, to incentivize energy-efficient outdoor lighting.

Transportation and Infrastructure

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H3306