Author: senmikeb

GBH News

Barrett argues that urgency is essential, beyond the impacts of just the first 10 cities and towns, because the hope is that data gathered from the pioneering communities will help create a roadmap forward for how to meet the state’s ambitious climate goals.

“The additional delays anticipated by the draft regulation mean that we will remain in the dark about how to move forward on our climate strategy for additional months,” the senator said. “We’re hoping the state hears us and hastens the process along.”

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Concord Bridge

State Senator Michael J. Barrett (D-Third Middlesex) describes himself as a “child of Camelot” whose passion for public service was first awakened by the idealism of John F. Kennedy. Barrett has represented Concord, as well as Bedford, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Lincoln, Waltham, Weston, and a large part of Lexington and Sudbury since being elected to 2012. He also served an earlier stint as a state senator for Cambridge and as a state representative for his hometown of Reading.

Barrett likens his work as a state senator to being a jack-of-all-trades, handling everything from individual complaints such as frustration with commuter rail and bus service,to going to bat for local businesses, for instance, helping Plug Power, a Concord based supplier of green hydrogen, bid for special storage incentives, and legislating on climate change as the Senate’s chair of the Climate Policy Committee.

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Lexington Observer

During the webinar, State Senator Mike Barrett (D-3rd Middlesex) strongly challenged the plan primarily on environmental grounds, saying “I’m just channeling my constituents’ general concern — but four towns surrounding this airport are striving on their own to go ‘green’ and to be sensitive in all kinds of ways, from housing to transportation to the way they procure electric power, to be sensitive about emissions … But private jet travel, whether by corporations or by individuals, despite the improvements made in jet propulsion technology, are exceedingly emissions-heavy, per capita, per dollar, on any metric you might choose.”

Barrett characterized Massport as “intent on building its private jet business” and said he wanted “to register that foundational objection to this process going forward.” He said his “conviction that this is fundamentally misplaced” stems from an “awareness that a Massport facility in our midst will single-handedly undo much of the progress we make in terms of ‘greening’ transportation and buildings.”

Both of Lexington’s representatives in the Massachusetts House, Rep. Ken Gordon (D-21st Middlesex) and Rep. Michelle Ciccolo (D-15th Middlesex) agreed with Sen. Barrett’s comments and posed their own questions during the webinar. Gordon wondered about the actual number of current “ferry flights” and Ciccolo asked about quantifying the number of trees that will be lost and how many of the proposed hangars are already reserved or purchased by aircraft already based at Hanscom.

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Boston Globe

Senator Michael Barrett, who represents the area, said that while there is understandable confusion about the situation, the interest in helping “nicely counterbalances the angst.”

“Townspeople in my district aren’t given notice when a hotel fills up for a trade show, or when a hotel fills up with tourists,” he said. “Too little notice would stoke resentment. Too much notice would go to another extreme.”

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Concord Bridge

State Sen. Michael Barrett, D-Lexington, has been hearing from constituents in Concord, concerned and curious alike.

“The general feedback I’m getting is cautiously supportive of the effort,” Barrett said. “I’ve been able to reassure them that DHCD is not a faceless bureaucracy that is acting capriciously.”

Barrett pointed out the Best Western near the Route 2 rotary represents a compromise for housing families. There is some access to kitchen facilities, for example. Also, families won’t share bathrooms, as they would in a shelter. There is also access to good schools and some transportation.

“This is not a first choice, and it’s not viewed as a long-term solution, but the state is at the point of needing some fallback options for these families,” he said.

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Bedford Citizen

Several of the objections to the project were on environmental concerns, led by State Sen. Mike Barrett, whose district includes the four Hanscom towns. Barrett is one of the Legislature’s leading voices on climate issues. 

“I’m just channeling my constituents’ general concerns. There is genuine concern about the use of private jets and corporate jets,” he stated, which are “exceedingly emissions-heavy, on any metric you might choose. 

“It is striking that in the middle of our attempt as a state to deal with an existential crisis, Massport is intent on building its private jet business,” he continued. “This is premium traffic at a huge environmental cost to all of us collectively, and it’s obviously crucial to Massport’s plan for this particular airport.” 

The solar panels and other energy-saving features planned for the buildings “will not negate the extraordinary emissions impact of the jet trips themselves,” he said. The issue is “hyperlocal,” he asserted, because “a Massport facility in our midst will single-handedly undo much of the progress we made” in carbon elimination. 

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Lowell Sun

Barrett is one of two lawmakers who filed legislation that would remove safety oversight of the MBTA from the Department of Public Utilities.

If approved, Barrett’s bill would establish a “commission on transportation safety oversight and regulation,” an independent public entity not subject to the supervision or control of any other executive office of the commonwealth.

“The feds tell us they do not want oversight in the hands of an agency directly responsible to the same governor who directs mass transit itself,” Barrett said. “So we’re trying to create some separation.”

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