Watch Sen. Barrett's interview with Cheddar News here. ...
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After passing a landmark climate law, Mass. officials now face the hard part: how to wean the state off fossil fuels – The Boston Globe
After months of pressing Baker to sign the climatebill, Barrett said he’s now focusing on ensuring his administration implements it. He has threatened legal action if the administration seeks to “evade legislative intent and substitute the weaker preferences of the executive ...
Lexington Sen. Barrett’s climate bill signed at last – Lexington Minuteman
Sen. Michael Barrett, who led the negotiations for the Senate and said he is concerned that the Baker administration has tried to “evade legislative intent” of the new law, said Friday that everyone in state government now must start “pulling in the same direction” now that ...
Bill Aims To Stomp Out Biomass Power Subsidies – WBUR News
“Under the environmental justice policy in the new biomass regulations, which are set to take effect this week, future biomass facilities could be located and be eligible for incentives in just 10 to 11 percent of the state — a stretch of communities west of the Connecticut River and along the Connecticut border, a strip of coastline that runs through Cohasset, Scituate and Marshfield, and small shreds of various other towns.
“Sen. Mike Barrett, the co-chair of the TUE Committee, said the bills Livingstone and the Springfield lawmakers supported seemed like it ‘simply makes formal what the Baker people already conceded informally, which is that there is not to be any additional biomass built in Massachusetts.’
“’If we’re going to create a map by administration regulation that bars biomass for 89 percent of the state, I think this is a de facto admission that biomass should no longer be part of a clean energy portfolio for Massachusetts,’ Barrett said. He added, ‘All we’re being asked to do is to formalize something that has already become an informal rule. And in so formalizing this new policy against biomass, we would be protecting a handful of remaining towns that don’t qualify for environmental justice protection.’”
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Hearing shows desire to spend ARPA $$$ on infrastructure – WWLP.com
Sen. Michael Barrett questioned why the administration had chosen not to fund certain climate projects, such as a modernization of the electric grid that will be necessary as the state transitions to more electric heating of homes and businesses.
“I don’t sense a consistent theme of trying to get a two for one hit, or trying to make sure mitigation, averting future climate problems, is always part of an adaptation policy,” Barrett said.
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These lawmakers wrote the climate bill. They’re worried the state won’t achieve it. – The Boston Globe
“You can’t have utilities in charge of an all-out push to electrify,” said Senator Mike Barrett, a Lexington Democrat who was the lead author of the state’s 2050 climate law. “Mass Save is probably not going to be the quarterback to bring us to the emissions reductions Super Bowl as it’s currently constituted.”
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State proposal could deter biomass plants from almost all Mass. communities – Boston Business Journal
Lawmakers called on the Baker administration to restrict woody plants altogether, saying those 35 towns could be “targeted” for incentivized biomass production.
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Biomass power rules leave 35 towns in industry “crosshairs” – WWLP.org
Sen. Michael Barrett, who co-chairs the committee, told Woodcock that it sounded to him like DOER was taking a position that “is somewhat supportive of current biomass, but distinctly unenthusiastic and bearish about additional biomass.”
“Why don’t we formalize what seems to be the informal and unofficial thrust of these proposed new regulations? Why leave 35 out of 351 municipalities in the crosshairs?” Barrett asked, referring to a request O’Connor included in his letter that Woodcock support legislation that would make all new in-state biomass ineligible for state incentives.
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