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The NextGen Roadmap bill will step up the pace of our collective effort to slow climate change. This is the strongest effort of its kind in the country.

Some tools go to the state, some to the private sector, and some to cities and towns. The projects and buildings municipalities approve for construction this year will still be up and going strong in 2050, when the entire economy of Massachusetts, in all its aspects, must put out “net zero” emissions. So we give the force of law to the creation of a “net zero stretch energy code,” with flexibility for communities to opt in when they’re ready.

The Next Gen Roadmap bill is a climate toolkit. The tools we’ve selected integrate seamlessly with the Global Warming Solutions Act. We give the force of law to a greenhouse gas limit for 2050 of net zero emissions. We set statewide emissions limits every 5yrs & commission reports on what each plan is actually accomplishing.

Today the Conference Committee on Climate is pleased to issue its report, An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy (S.2995).

This bill is a climate toolkit. Reducing emissions to net zero is the contribution Massachusetts must make to the nation’s, and the world’s, larger climate effort. No question, doing our part is a big lift. With the tools the Legislature brings together here, we can construct the response we need and provide a blueprint to other states. The toolkit approach is not a vision statement. It is not abstract or general. It is detailed. It is concerned with the practical. It focuses relentlessly on the work of reducing greenhouse gases, creating jobs, and protecting the vulnerable. It’s about the ‘how’ of it, as in “Here’s how we get this done, one step at a time, starting now.”

The diversity and energy of its residents make Waltham shine, at a fair hosted by Charles River Community Health. Here with CRCHC’s Exec. Director Elizabeth Browne.

Met to discuss representation of low-income people on matters like evictions, heating shutoffs and hospital bills. From left to right: Michael Avitzur, Gov. Relations Director for the Boston Bar Association; Jonathan Albano of Weston, President of the BBA; Abbigail Shirk, Staff Attorney at MetroWest Legal Services; Elizabeth Soule of Waltham, Exec. Director of MWLS; me; and Joseph Sherman of MWLS.

At yesterday’s tribute to the illustrious Jay R. Kaufman, I joined State Rep. Michelle Ciccolo (Jay’s able and excellent successor) and Deborah Johnson Brown (representing terrific State Senator Cindy Friedman) in presenting the honoree with a rather rare document — a Resolution, honoring his achievements, enacted jointly by the Massachusetts State Senate and the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The lovely head of hair in the foreground belongs to the distinguished Congresswoman Katherine Clark.

 

Having served as chief Senate sponsor of the proposed “Act Safeguarding the Healthcare Decisions of Young Adults” and as co-sponsor of additional bills to protect the healthcare decisions of Massachusetts women and men, I’m pleased to have received an A+ on NARAL’s first-ever Pro-Choice Massachusetts Reproductive Freedom scorecard. In our state, on the healthcare front, the 2017-2018 legislative session has given us reason to hope. We passed the Contraceptive ACCESS Act, An Act to Protect Access to Confidential Healthcare (the PATCH Act), the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Still, this is but a warm-up. In the next several years, as federal protections for women suffer, state government will need to fill the vacuum and preserve personal rights.

I was delighted to attend the recent ribbon-cutting for the the Anna and Neil Rasmussen Education Center at the Concord Museum (Anna and Neil in the middle, with prominent environmental attorney Gregor McGregor).

The Rasmussen Center features cultural and educational space for learners of all ages from Massachusetts and beyond. It has three state-of-the-art classrooms, including a colonial cooking space with a working hearth, a History Learning Center for up-close encounters with the Museum’s nationally significant collection, and a Lyceum lecture hall for mock town meetings, colonial dance, and public programs.

Adjoining galleries within the facility are closed for renovation, so for now the Center hosts rare objects belonging to the museum, including Paul Revere’s lantern and Henry David Thoreau’s desk.

The Sudbury Valley Trustees and OARS safeguard the fortunes of the Assabet, Concord and Sudbury Rivers.  They don’t stop there; they promote statewide action on drought management, pollution programs, and climate change.  Top left, my introductory remarks at a recent meeting.  Top right, with Lisa Vernegaard, SVT’s Exec. Director.  Bottom, the entire crew.

State Senators, ready to march. What a crowd. What a day. What spirit! What a way to mobilize for the next four years!