YOUNG CLIMATE ACTIVISTS from at least 98 countries are boycotting schools Friday – one of the biggest environmental protests in history and another step in reframing the climate debate in this country. We’ve gotten used to hearing about the challenges future generations will face. Deadly heat waves – mega-storms – rising sea levels – new pathogens – […]
Climate change
Posted inOpinion
Use VW settlement to electrify bus fleet
IMAGINE WALKING down a city street and being able to take a deep breath without inhaling tailpipe exhaust left and right from cars, buses, and trucks. If you live in a car-congested area, the experience of being surrounded by tailpipe emissions from gas-guzzling and greenhouse gas-emitting, toxin-spewing vehicles is so much a part of your […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
DeLeo proposes $1b in municipal climate investments
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE HOUSE SPEAKER ROBERT DELEO proposed a sweeping $1 billion environmental grant program Friday that, over the next decade, would fund municipal efforts to build renewable-energy infrastructure and invest in climate resiliency programs. DeLeo, speaking alongside members of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy after a tour of Somerville’s GreenTown […]
Posted inEnvironment
A rural take on climate change
AS A STATE REPRESENTATIVE, I routinely drove 125 miles between my home in the Western Massachusetts Hilltown of Worthington and Beacon Hill. This makes it all the more remarkable that during my 25 years in the Legislature, I probably logged the majority of my driving miles within my far-flung rural district, serving my constituency in […]
Posted inThe Download
Markey leery of McConnell move on Green New Deal
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to turn the Green New Deal into a new green wedge, and that has rankled US Sen. Ed Markey, a co-sponsor of the policy idea. The so-called GND has become a plank in the platform of several Democrats, including presidential contenders, but Republicans see an opening to create divisions […]
Posted inEnvironment
Baker, bucking GOP, goes green
MUCH HAS BEEN made of Gov. Charlie Baker’s “evolution” on taxes, as the state’s Republican governor, seemingly liberated by his November reelection, has shed his longtime aversion to new revenue-raising schemes. Baker’s willingness to consider new taxes is a mark of his separation from Republican orthodoxy. Now, in another move that sets him apart from […]
Posted inThe Download
Baker, bucking GOP, goes green
Much has been made of Gov. Charlie Baker’s “evolution” on taxes, as the state’s Republican governor, seemingly liberated by his November reelection, has shed his longtime aversion to new revenue-raising schemes. Baker’s willingness to consider new taxes is a mark of his separation from Republican orthodoxy. Now, in another move that sets him apart from […]
Posted inOpinion
In the face of climate change, Bostonians need to call a retreat
2018 WILL APPEAR in retrospect as the year when climate change became a daily reality and not some debatable future possibility. Jurisdictions across the globe are now struggling with planning for extreme weather, greater human health hazards, uncertain economic consequences, and potential social instability. Coastal regions are anticipating costs of property and business losses due […]
Posted inEnvironment
Spilka: Addressing climate change top priority
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SENATE PRESIDENT KAREN SPILKA told a room full of environmental advocates on Wednesday that nothing the Legislature does in the next two years will be as important as addressing climate change, but the Democratic leader gave no assurances of what that policy solution might look like. Spilka, who was elected to […]
Posted inOpinion
BIDs can play role in climate resiliency
THE OCTOBER ANNOUNCEMENT of the “Resilient Boston Harbor” proposal by Boston Mayor Martin Walsh united two critical public policy considerations: long-term adaptation response to climate change and increased access to open space. The mayor’s vision for the city’s 47-mile shoreline offers a much-needed framework to protect waterfront neighborhoods while increasing the public’s enjoyment of Boston’s […]