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 ...
Op-ed: Next Steps On MA’s New Climate Law – Sudbury Patch
My constituents have been instrumental in seeing to it that Massachusetts passed the most ambitious climate bill in the country, which is cause for celebration. Now we need to make sure it gets implemented well.
—State Sen. Michael Barrett, Assistant Majority Leader
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Gov. Baker signed the climate bill, but there may be a hitch – The Barrett Report, March 2021
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…
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 the work turns to implementation.
“The order of the day beginning tomorrow is ensuring interpretations of the law that are true to legislative intent and then overseeing implementation in a way that is true to legislative intent,” he said. “One reason I’ve been so concerned about the administration’s insistence on idiosyncratic readings of the new statute is that today’s abstract discussion segues over in tomorrow’s implementation. If the administration pushes back against the plain language of the law today, how are they going to implement it tomorrow?”
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Landmark Legislation Signed in the Fight against Climate Change – The Bedford Citizen
A landmark climate bill has been signed into law, placing Massachusetts among the world leaders in the fight against global warming. The new law, representing the contributions of many legislators but assembled, edited, and defended principally by Bedford’s state senator Mike Barrett, overhauls the state’s climate statute, advances the clean energy industry, protects low- and middle-income families, and provides tools to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.
“This bill is about getting down to brass tacks. It’s about getting the job done, one step at a time, starting now,” said Barrett, the Senate’s leader on climate and energy. “The pace of climate change is picking up — so the pace of climate policy must pick up. The Next Generation Climate Roadmap law reflects the concerns of people of every age, from every part of the state. The grassroots climate movement of Massachusetts is a force to be reckoned with.”
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The new law is a game-changer.
“The new law is a game-changer for Massachusetts that other states are sure to follow. The NextGen Roadmap steps up the pace of our collective effort to slow climate change.” – State Sen. Mike Barrett.