Worcester Telegram
The City of Worcester recently finished an ambitious lighting retrofit by changing all municipal lights to LEDs, one of many initiatives that are part of the city’s Green Community Plan. This change will provide better illumination, save close to a million dollars on power costs each year, and reduce the use of fossil fuels. This kind of change does not make national headlines, but cumulatively makes a difference in people’s lives and communities and in the health of our planet.
Let’s scale the latest local accomplishment up and push for an environmental win-win at the state level by passing a Carbon Pricing and Rebate bill. There are two bills working their way through the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy in the Massachusetts Legislature, S.1821, sponsored by Senator Mike Barrett D-Lexington, and H.1726, sponsored by Representative Jennifer Benson D-Lunenburg. Both bills accomplish the goal of reducing our dependence of fossil fuels in an efficient and fair way. We need to urge our legislators to support these bills and to push the committee to report out one bill for a vote.