Massachusetts Senate Candidate Backed A Bill To Ban Balloons

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2024/10/29/dylan-fernandes-balloon-ban/

Ban balloons?

A candidate for the Massachusetts Senate has supported a bill to do it.

State Representative Dylan Fernandes (D-Woods Hole) co-sponsored H.843, “An Act Relative To Helium Balloons,” during the 191st legislative session (2019 to 2020); state Representative Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown) introduced the bill. 

The bill would have fined people $100 for selling balloons.

Here is the exact text of the bill that Fernandes co-sponsored:

 

SECTION 1. Chapter 131 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016 official edition, is hereby amended by adding the following new section:

Section 119. The sale, distribution and release of any type of balloon, including, but not limited to, plastic, latex or mylar, filled with any type of lighter than air gas, both for public or private use, is hereby prohibited.  Whoever violates any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars.

The provisions of this section shall not apply to (i) balloons released by or on behalf of any agency of the commonwealth or the United States for scientific or meteorological purposes, or (ii) hot air balloons that are recovered after launch.

 

Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Craney criticized Fernandes for wanting to ban balloons. Craney said offshore wind is a far bigger pollution problem than balloons. 

“If State Rep. Dylan Fernandes is so concerned about pollution, as this ban would suggest, he should be speaking up against the massive offshore wind project being built off MA’s ocean,” Craney told NewBostonPost in an email message. “There is a broken turbine blade polluting our ocean that is doing a lot more damage that balloons sold in MA. This is a very unserious piece of legislation and it says a lot about the lawmaker who is proposing it.”

As Craney points out, a wind turbine that was over 300 feet long collapsed at a Massachusetts offshore wind farm this past summer, according to The New York Times. 

Proponents of a balloon ban argue that it helps protect wildlife and the environment by reducing litter and preventing animals from ingesting or becoming entangled in balloon debris, while opponents contend that such a ban infringes on personal freedoms and traditions associated with balloons. For example, balloons are popular at children’s birthday parties and weddings, among other occasions.

The bill Fernandes supported did not become law. The Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture sent it to study, effectively killing the bill. No roll call of that vote exists since legislative committee votes aren’t public in Massachusetts.

Similarly, Fernandes is backing a current bill (H.875) that would fine people $100 for intentional balloon releases; it does not, however, ban the sale of balloons. The bill sits in the House Ways and Means committee, but no action has been taken on it.

Fernandes is running for Massachusetts Senate because incumbent state Senator Susan Moran (D-Falmouth) is not seeking re-election; she’s running to be the Barnstable County Clerk of Courts. Fernandes is running against state Representative Matt Muratore (R-Plymouth). 

The Plymouth and Barnstable District, which Fernandes is running to represent, includes Kingston, Pembroke, Plymouth, Plympton, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, and Sandwich, according to Senator Moran’s office.

Democrats currently outnumber Republicans in the Massachusetts Senate 36 to 4.

Fernandes and Muratore could not be reached for comment on Monday or Tuesday.

 

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