At the signing, the atmosphere was cordial. Still, peculiar. Why schedule this important ritual — putting the official touch on the most important climate legislation in Massachusetts in over a decade — on a Friday, at 2:30 in the afternoon? Why situate it in the lovely but bounded quarters of the State House Library, when several gorgeous and larger ceremonial spaces, big enough to accommodate social distancing, beckon just down the hall? Why issue no invitations at all to the advocacy organizations for climate policy, clean energy, and environmental justice, despite the pivotal roles they played?
And why, in his prepared remarks, did Gov. Baker spend so much time reprising and saluting the valuable yet more modest energy bills of years past, and so little time celebrating the content contained in the 114 sections of the legislation he had just signed?
I sense a problem, and I’m uneasy. I hope the Governor is not toying with the idea of slow-walking implementation of the bill. That would not do. Legislators like me will be watching too closely. I know many of you will, too.
Read The Barrett Report…