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News Release | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

MA Senate Passes Much Needed Consumer Protections for Student Loan Borrowers

The Masachusetts Senate adopts vital consumer protections for borrowers of student loans.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Transportation

MASSPIRG Statement on Regional Transit Authority Budget in House Fiscal Year 2019 Spending Plan

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee released its fiscal year 2019 budget recommendation, which decreases funding for the Regional Transit Authorities to $80 million. This comes despite the urgent requests from  public transportation advocates and the RTAs, for adequate funding at a level of $88 million.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

EVERSOURCE GRANTED HIGH PROFIT MARGINS, AUTOMATIC ANNUAL RATE INCREASES, AND DETRIMENTAL CHARGES FOR NEW SOLAR CUSTOMERS:

57 Consumer, Clean Energy, and Community Organizations Call on State Leaders to Address Counterproductive Decisions

 

 

 

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Report | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

Joint Statement on Eversource Rate Case in Massachusetts

In January 2017, Eversource filed its first complete rate case in many years. After a lengthy proceeding, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) issued two orders addressing Eversource’s proposals, one in November of 2017 and the other in January of 2018. Despite widespread opposition from parties in the rate case, the DPU approved four major proposals from Eversource that are bad for ratepayers and move us away from a future with consumer control and widespread local clean energy.

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News Release | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

MA Senate Passes Much Needed Consumer Protections for Student Loan Borrowers

The Masachusetts Senate adopts vital consumer protections for borrowers of student loans.

> Keep Reading
News Release | MASSPIRG | Transportation

MASSPIRG Statement on Regional Transit Authority Budget in House Fiscal Year 2019 Spending Plan

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee released its fiscal year 2019 budget recommendation, which decreases funding for the Regional Transit Authorities to $80 million. This comes despite the urgent requests from  public transportation advocates and the RTAs, for adequate funding at a level of $88 million.

> Keep Reading
News Release | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

EVERSOURCE GRANTED HIGH PROFIT MARGINS, AUTOMATIC ANNUAL RATE INCREASES, AND DETRIMENTAL CHARGES FOR NEW SOLAR CUSTOMERS:

57 Consumer, Clean Energy, and Community Organizations Call on State Leaders to Address Counterproductive Decisions

 

 

 

> Keep Reading
News Release | MASSPIRG | Transportation

MASSPIRG, RTA Officials, Regional Community Leaders and Students Discuss Transportation Issues in Southeastern, MA at UMass Dartmouth

 On Thursday, April 5, at UMass Dartmouth, MASSPIRG hosted a transportation forum where RTA officials, regional community leaders, and students discussed transportation issues in Southeastern Massachusetts.

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Result | Democracy

Winning voter reforms in Massachusetts

MASSPIRG helped win two important reforms to engage new voters and give all citizens an equal opportunity to vote. We fought for and won online voter registration, which allows residents with state IDs or driver’s licenses to register to vote online. We also won early voting, which allows residents to vote 11 business days before Election Day.   

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Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

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Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

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Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

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Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Report | MASSPIRG | Consumer Protection

Joint Statement on Eversource Rate Case in Massachusetts

In January 2017, Eversource filed its first complete rate case in many years. After a lengthy proceeding, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) issued two orders addressing Eversource’s proposals, one in November of 2017 and the other in January of 2018. Despite widespread opposition from parties in the rate case, the DPU approved four major proposals from Eversource that are bad for ratepayers and move us away from a future with consumer control and widespread local clean energy.

> Keep Reading
Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Public Health

In Your Face

The negative health effects of asbestos are well-known. Most people may associate asbestos contamination with the workplace or decades-old construction material, but alarmingly, recent media reports have found asbestos contamination in kids' makeup from popular stores like Claire's and Justice. 

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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Plugging In: Readying America's Cities for the Arrival of Electric Vehicles

With electric vehicles (EVs) hitting U.S. streets in record numbers, this new study by MASSPIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group highlights best practices to help local officials make their cities as EV-friendly as possible.

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Report | MASSPIRG | Solid Waste

Recharge Repair

A survey looking at the rise in battery replacement requests and self-repair interest in response to news breaking that Apple was slowing down older phones to preserve battery life. 

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Report | MASSPIRG Education Fund | Consumer Protection

Trouble in Toyland

Stores nationwide are still offering dangerous and toxic toys this holiday season and, in some cases, ignoring explicit government safety regulations in the process. 

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Blog Post | Public Health

Home remodeling shouldn’t be a deadly project: Toxic paint removers being sold by Lowe’s and other stores | Dev Gowda

No one should lose a loved one to deadly chemicals. But right now you can walk into Lowe’s and other stores and buy paint removers containing highly toxic chemicals.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Legislature Considers Proposals to Preserve Internet | Deirdre Cummings

MASSPIRG urges SH committe to preserve an open internet, preserve Net Neutrality.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Testimony in Favor of a Free and Open Internet and Strong Consumer Privacy Protections | Deirdre Cummings

MASSPIRG testifies in favor of a free and open internet. 

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Blog Post | Transportation

To Build A 21st Century America, Start Here | Jeff Robinson

The stakes in the current infrastructure debate are high. But what matters most is not the size of any federal infrastructure package, nor how it is financed, nor even how many jobs it creates in the coming years. What matters most is building the infrastructure that will enable America to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

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Blog Post | Solid Waste

Why is it so hard to repair our stuff? | Nathan Proctor

We generate way too much waste, and companies use their power in the marketplace to make things harder to repair. That’s the idea behind “Right to Repair” laws -- they check companies ability to limit repairs and empower us to fix our own stuff. 

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Tools & Resources

  • STAND UP FOR BEES
    Bees pollinate 70 percent of the world’s crops. Protect bees and the health of our planet by telling our governor to ban bee-killing pesticides.
    TAKE ACTION
  • TELL CONGRESS TO STAND UP FOR CONSUMERS
    The House is considering a bill that benefits credit bureaus at the expense of average consumers and servicemembers. Tell Congress to oppose it.
    TAKE ACTION
  • STOP THE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS ON FARMS
    Antibiotics are often given to animals that aren’t even sick, and are given without a duration limit. Tell Congress: Protect our life-saving medicines.
    TAKE ACTION
  • ASBESTOS FOUND IN CHILDREN’S MAKEUP
    Some makeup sold by Claire’s retail stores is contaminated with asbestos. Tell your representatives: Kids’ makeup shouldn’t contain toxic chemicals.
    TAKE ACTION

Defend the CFPB

Tell your senators to oppose the “Financial CHOICE Act,” which would gut Wall Street reforms and destroy the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as we know it.

Act Now

Support Us

Your donation supports MASSPIRG's work to stand up for consumers on the issues that matter, especially when powerful interests are blocking progress.

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