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 ...
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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 ...
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 ...
Climate bill clears Senate again after last week’s delay – The Lowell Sun
“Global warming is generating large-scale spectacles — fire in California, floods in the Midwest, freezing infrastructure in Texas — but this particular legislation is not about mega-events. It’s about dealing with our business, our everyday climate business right here at home. If you compare Massachusetts and its emissions with emissions across the world or even across the United States, it’s the differences that pop out at you,” said Sen. Michael Barrett of Lexington, one of the chief climate bill negotiators.
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Senate passes climate change bill 39-1 – Commonwealth Magazine
“This is a moment that does the Legislature – Senate and House – proud,” said Sen. Michael Barrett of Lexington, the Senate’s point person on climate change.
During debate on the bill, Barrett sought to demonstrate how Massachusetts faces unique challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He said agriculture and land use account for 24 percent of all emissions worldwide but only 0.3 percent in Massachusetts. He said industry accounts for 22 percent of emissions in the United States, but only 5 percent in Massachusetts.
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Massachusetts Republicans slow push on climate change bill – Metrowest Daily News
“We have done everything we can to make sure that we hear everyone in Massachusetts and certainly the members of the minority party in this very chamber,” Barrett said. “It is disheartening to realize we are once again facing the prospect of delay and once again we have to wrestle with the question of whether we are capable of rising to the occasion of what we’re told is an existential crisis.”
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Updated State Climate Bill Will Go To Senate Vote Thursday – WBUR.org
Sen. Michael Barrett, a Lexington Democrat and one of the authors of the bill, said the plan is for the Senate to vote on the revised bill Thursday, and he believes the House could follow suit as soon as next Wednesday.
“The bill has gone through a hazing over the past several months, but it’s emerging unbowed,” said Barrett.
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Climate bill faces a final threat – The Barrett Report, Feb. 2021
By putting sublimits and sublimit planning in place, the Legislature gives the governor responsibility for coming up with practical answers.
So, to summarize, we need to save the net zero building option. We need to save “50% by 2030.” And we need to save sublimits, the structural underpinning of the climate bill.
Write your friends to write their legislators. Let’s get this done.
Read The Barrett Report…