News Clips

Senators Seek Quick Action on “Disconcerting” DCF Report

senmikeb
State House News

After an independent group called for reforms to the way the Department of Children and Families handles appeals, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg on Wednesday called the report “very disconcerting” and committed to working with the administration to resolve the highlighted issues. Lawmakers last year ordered the state’s Child Advocate to hire an outside consultant to review DCF’s “fair hearing” process. The report released Monday from the Ripples Group found a growing backlog of cases waiting to be decided, a lack of access for families to easily-understood case materials and a system that lends itself to a perception that hearing officers are not independent from department administrators.

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Barrett draws on Canadian experience to promote carbon fees

senmikeb
State House News

“British Columbia, with its population of about 4.4 million people, first imposed a carbon tax in 2008 as part of the province’s climate action plan. By 2012, the province had hit its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 6 percent below 2007 levels at the same time that British Columbia’s population was growing and its gross domestic product climbed 9 percent.”

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With Mass. Off Track On Emissions Goal, Advocates Seek 1st State Carbon Tax

senmikeb
WBUR

“This is carbon pricing,” State Senator Mike Barrett said, “and the idea is to make it a little more expensive to pollute, a little more expensive to buy something that results in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — which is the greenhouse gas that causes climate change — make it a little more expensive to do all that, but then you send the money back so that you spend it on something less polluting.”

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Mass. can lead on greenhouse gas reduction

senmikeb
Boston Globe

In the The Boston Globe, Mike Ross writes on my bill to combat climate change by pricing carbon:

“The idea of a lone state like Massachusetts getting out ahead of the rest of the country and leading a program of this magnitude might strike some as incredulous. But this is precisely what the Commonwealth has been doing on a host of issues — from marriage equality to health care. Being ahead of the curve is a good thing, especially when our future depends on it.”

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