"Broadly speaking, passage of the climate act was the coup of the year. More specifically, the act has already given an entirely new look — and new marching orders — to Mass Save, the state’s principal tool for greening our buildings."Read more... ...
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Thoughts on the Glasgow Climate Summit – The Barrett Report, December 2021
For delegates like me, there was a good deal of work to get down to. Big breakthroughs on the nation-to-nation level weren't going to be easy, so government officials at other levels had to meet and move forward on their own. At a panel discussion I attended in Glasgow, a ...
In the void of national climate legislation, locals lead the way – The Boston Globe
“Our current situation is different, and yet in some respects it’s the same,” said Barrett. “What we’re doing in Massachusetts becomes all the more important as the odds go longer around significant national action.” While in Glasgow, Barrett said that in addition to speaking ...
Massachusetts’ biggest climate wins and losses of 2021 – The Boston Globe
“Broadly speaking, passage of the climate act was the coup of the year. More specifically, the act has already given an entirely new look — and new marching orders — to Mass Save, the state’s principal tool for greening our buildings.”
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Energy boost: Massachusetts doubles offshore wind in power pipeline with new projects – Cape Cod Times
Among those proposed reforms is the idea of scrapping the state’s offshore wind price cap, which requires the power from each new project to be cheaper than the project before it. Gov. Charlie Baker and House Speaker Ron Mariano have both supported the idea but state Sen. Michael Barrett worried that eliminating the cap would mean even higher electricity prices for Massachusetts ratepayers in exchange for economic development projects.
In a press release from the administration, Barrett said Friday’s announcement shows that economic development and affordability are not mutually exclusive.
“This round sees a wise balance struck between economic development, on the one hand, and protection against excessively high monthly electric bills for families, on the other,” the Senate chairman of the Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy said. “Going forward, this can serve as a model for us.”
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TMLP customers stand to gain as House and Senate agree on $4B federal relief spending plan – Taunton Daily Gazette
Barrett said the money he earmarked for Walsh to study the consumer impact of transitioning to heat pumps goes hand in hand with the $5 million he secured for the Clean Energy Center to hire a research team to analyze the design and operation of networked geothermal demonstration projects approved by the Department of Public Utilities.
He said he worried that if he had just proposed putting the study out to bid it could get lost in the upheaval of a Cabinet “exodus” if Baker decided, which he did on Wednesday, not to seek a third term.
“I had never understood the money to be intended for something intimately related to the pandemic itself,” Barrett said. “This is the sort of initiative that you imagine being undertaken in the middle of a crisis like the one we’re experiencing with the climate.”
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No compromise needed: Lawmakers pack all pet projects into $4B bill – WWLP.com
Barrett said the money he earmarked for Walsh to study the consumer impact of transitioning to heat pumps goes hand in hand with the $5 million he secured for the Clean Energy Center to hire a research team to analyze the design and operation of networked geothermal demonstration projects approved by the Department of Public Utilities.
He said he worried that if he had just proposed putting the study out to bid it could get lost in the upheaval of a Cabinet “exodus” if Baker decided, which he did on Wednesday, not to seek a third term. “I had never understood the money to be intended for something intimately related to the pandemic itself,” Barrett said. “This is the sort of initiative that you imagine being undertaken in the middle of a crisis like the one we’re experiencing with the climate.”
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Local leaders returning from UN climate summit say MA needs local action for clean, green – WickedLocal Medford
“The residents of Medford need to advocate for the municipality to support Net Zero,” Barrett told Medford residents and Tufts students attending a recent webinar sponsored by the city and the Tufts Energy Group, a student organization.
Barrett, the chairperson, of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy, as well as the vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate change, was a key sponsor of the Massachusetts Net Zero climate action legislation, signed into law earlier this year.
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