Massachusetts State Senator
And now for something different: Kudos to my amazing daughters, whose entrepreneurial embrace of happy endings makes me smile on my most challenging days.
State Sen. Mike Barrett posited to Davey that “there is a sense in which you’re rolling out SAFs, I think, as a shield and in order to disarm us,” a point that Davey heatedly denied, referencing an SAF startup in Charlestown in his defense. To this, Barrett replied: “We have lots of startups in Massachusetts that hope someday to cure cancer, and we certainly want to encourage them to try. But none of us go out and encourage our kids to smoke cigarettes because the cure is going to come in their lifetimes.”
“I hope that Massport appreciates that what is done today on climate is inadequate, and I hope it also appreciates that the policies have changed,” Barrett said. “I don’t pretend to be able to predict particular outcomes on particular projects, but I do know that Massport needs to take this seriously.”
Months after the close of the formal legislative session, when lawmakers on Beacon Hill came oh-so-close to passing significant reforms only to fall short at the eleventh hour, House and Senate negotiators announced a comprehensive bill on Thursday that addresses the climate crisis and promotes more clean energy adoption. The legislation would again put Massachusetts near the front of the pack of state houses fighting climate change.
The audacity of actually believing in the American Dream and the idea that all men and women are born free, we have Quock Walker to thank for that courage and for that persistence. Terrific job to all the folks in Lexington who helped commemorate the occasion.
The Senate on Tuesday approved another complex set of reforms to accelerate the spread of clean energy in Massachusetts, along the way hearing concerns about potential ratepayer burdens and embracing an expansion of the state’s bottle redemption law.
“The energy grid needs updating. It needs renewing every 30 years. But it’s pretty boring stuff,” said State Senator Mike Barrett, adding that it’s decarbonization of buildings and vehicles that gets his constituents excited. “It’s a source of emotional reinforcement, to the people who vote for me, that we’re not only doing the esoteric thing — which is the grid; important, but exotic — we’re also getting off fossil fuels with respect to cars and houses.”
State Senator Michael Barrett, who helped write the last two laws and is taking the lead in the Senate on this one, said the latest bill will be voted on later this week. But the aim is clear: “Here in Massachusetts, we have a number of medium-sized and small-sized discrete problems that we need to address,” Barrett said. “We have an opportunity to address them now.”
Massachusetts has an ambitious goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050, which will require a massive buildout of electricity infrastructure, retrofits to buildings, new transportation systems, and more. The plan could require what would essentially be a tripling of the electric grid and dozens of new substations.
“Basically, this is a huge construction project,” Massachusetts state Senator Michael Barrett told a crowd on Friday.
On constraining gas, the ideas are in place, the support, not so much. We need help communicating a simple message: Massachusetts needs to downsize the gas grid as we upsize the electric grid.
A new gas pipe has a useful life of 30-50 years and takes us years to pay off. We need to put our money into clean electric power. We can’t do both, because monthly bill payers will have a fit.
Private jet owners are doubling down on their Hanscom investments. Insulting our intelligence as they injure our environment, they claim they’re doing us a favor!
From Chuck Collins and the Boston Herald: “I know the destruction you folks intend to wreak on Massachusetts and I resent it,” said state Senator Mike Barrett, who represents the four towns where Hanscom is located.
“Please don’t erect these bogus environmental rationales for something that has nothing whatsoever to do with relieving the crisis that faces us in terms of climate,” Barrett said at the developers’ public hearing. “Just be honest about it. This is all about becoming a little richer yourselves by helping people even richer than you.”