The Legislature’s original bill would have allowed 10 communities — Cambridge, Newton, Brookline, Lexington, Arlington, Concord, Lincoln, Acton, Aquinnah, and West Tisbury — to adopt bans. To implement the bans, communities would first have to ensure at least 10 percent of their ...
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Massachusetts lawmakers OK compromise climate change bill – AP News
State Rep. Jeff Roy and State Sen. Mike Barrett, both Democrats, helped hammer out the compromise, combining elements of legislation approved separately by the House and Senate.“Massachusetts needs to open up huge new sources of green electric power if it’s to stay on course for ...
Senate passes big climate bill focused on getting to net-zero – WBUR.org
"Last year's climate bill was about laying out a plan for tackling this formidable challenge of climate change. This year, in this legislation, we propose to begin to execute on the plan. If you like metaphors, last year was about laying out a roadmap, today we start traveling ...
Governor’s Climate Change Bill Amendments Make Passage Uncertain – NewBostonPost
“This looks to be a major rewrite. Hard to know what the two legislative branches will manage to agree on, in the time we have left,” state Senator Michael Barrett (D-Andover), a lead climate change negotiator, said in a text message to State House News Service. “This has already been a tough negotiation.”
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More Work to Do on Major Mass. Climate Bill as Baker Makes ‘Major Rewrite’ – NBC Boston
His Senate counterpart, Sen. Mike Barrett, was a little less optimistic.
“This looks to be a major rewrite,” Barrett texted a News Service reporter. “Hard to know what the two legislative branches will manage to agree on, in the time we have left.”
“This has already been a tough negotiation,” Barrett added.
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Massachusetts should require gun liability insurance – Boston Globe
Mandatory liability insurance for gun owners, requiring them to absorb the full costs associated with their gun ownership, would be a giant step forward in the Commonwealth to combat gun violence. “An Act to Require Liability Insurance for Gun Ownership,” sponsored by Representative David Linsky and Senator Michael Barrett, is currently up for debate in the next legislative session.
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Mass. climate legislation in limbo as Baker files amendments – Boston Globe
[T]here’s little time left on the clock to pass a bill that advocates and legislators say is key to the state’s climate response. “There is quite a bit here, none of which appears to be good beach reading,” said Barrett. “The sheer density of it will complicate prospects for the two branches coming together.”
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Governor should sign climate bill that would end gas-powered car sales in 2035 – Boston Globe
The Commonwealth’s push to encourage electric vehicles suffered a major setback last year, when a multistate agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks collapsed. That effort, spearheaded by Governor Charlie Baker, would have been a transformative program and could have cemented Baker’s own pollution-fighting legacy by speeding the Northeast’s transition away from planet-warming, gasoline-powered vehicles.
Now the Legislature has given Baker a second chance of sorts, sending him a climate bill with a potpourri of policy changes and one major deadline designed to reduce the Commonwealth’s greenhouse gas emissions — and a sizable new commitment to electric cars.
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