Dear Friend,

The Legislature's two-year session is almost over. My weeks and months have been swallowed up in the process of listening to colleagues and voters and then assembling another massive climate bill. (I write a good deal of the legal language myself and my staff does a lot of it, too. Nerdy lawyer's work. We enjoy it.)

Despite my having been at this job for a while, I did not anticipate the dogged intensity of the resistance to change from quarters that would have preferred to settle for less and leave problems hanging until next time. Still, all's well that ends well; we got the ambitious scope we needed, and the bill is now law. We're equipping Massachusetts with state-of-the-art infrastructure, keeping an eye on the cost of living, and foreshadowing ways to make progress despite the tumult of national politics.

I don't mean to leave the impression that my staff and I work only in a single area. I pay close attention to issues of human services (I'm former Senate chair of the Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities), education, housing, and economic development. Knock on doors on any block in my district, and you will meet people with a wide list of priorities.

My thanks to all of you. You take positions on questions of the day and insist on sensible change. May you and your loved ones have the happiest of holidays.

State Sen. Mike Barrett



Honored to be named a 2024 Legislative Champion at an event promoting disability awareness in employment. Workplace politics can be tough for anyone, and one's disability often leaves a person at an additional disadvantage. Your employers and your coworkers may believe they're behaving well, but bias and discrimination are insidious. The result, intended or not, can add considerable stress to the day-to-day of holding down a job. Advocates have to stay vigilant and insist on the availability of reasonable accommodations. Thanks to the MA Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities for organizing.

To move around new supplies of clean energy, from where it's produced to where it's consumed, we need a largely-rebuilt electric grid. How to do this without swamping the household budget and turning monthly electric bills into a giant-sized headache for families and a volatile threat to climate policy -- that is the question.

The new act allows Massachusetts to install the necessary wires, poles, and substations, those sprawling, ugly-looking, but essential collections of gray boxes and transformers you see everywhere.

Importantly, the law aims to offset the future cost of new electric construction by decreasing the future cost of other things. One way to do this is to change state laws that give a special advantage to natural gas as a source of heat for buildings. For decades, in wording buried deep in the statute books, gas companies have enjoyed a competitive edge over other providers of heat. Given the global warming "greenhouse" effect of natural gas, this should go away. Under the new language, no one has to give up the natural gas service they have today. But the laws do become neutral, allowing businesses that sell cleaner alternatives to do so without disadvantage.

Meanwhile, and of special importance to my district, the new law also amends the missions of key state agencies. It revises Massport’s enabling statute, for example, to require the agency to prioritize environmental protection and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions alongside the promotion of commerce and growth.

A highlight of this year's state budget is a transformational change in state education policy: two-year community college becomes free. Huge tip of the hat to Senate President Karen Spilka, the driving force behind the idea. 

The budget also puts more than $1.5 billion towards lowering early education costs for families and antes up $170 million towards universally free meals in public schools. We're committed to chipping away at the expenses that threaten to overwhelm Massachusetts families.

Earlier this year, I joined legislative colleagues and concerned citizens in Lexington to discuss a new housing bond initiative filed by Gov. Healey. Signed into law in August, the act calls for a planned investment of roughly $2 billion through 2029.

An economic development bill just passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor commits major sums to spurring public- and private-sector investment in life sciences and clean energy technology, two sectors in which Massachusetts has advantages on which we can build.

"Here’s what’s in the new Mass. climate and clean energy bill"

WBUR

Another year, another sweeping climate bill in Massachusetts.



After several months of delay, lawmakers passed a sweeping climate and clean energy bill Thursday. It now heads to Gov. Maura Healey's desk, and she is expected to sign it soon.

This year’s bill builds on big climate laws passed in 2021 and 2022, and, should make it easier — and faster — to build the solar and wind farms, transmission lines and other pieces of energy infrastructure Massachusetts needs to meet its mid-century climate goals.



"Barrett Hopes New Legislation Changes Massport Culture on Climate"

The Bedford Citizen

State Sen. Mike Barrett is hopeful that a sweeping climate bill approved by both houses of the Legislature will change the culture at the Massachusetts Port Authority, perhaps even affecting plans for a massive hangar complex at Hanscom Field.

According to Barrett, Gov. Maura Healey is certain to sign the bill and it will become effective 90 days later. Meanwhile, the hangar development is not close to final approval.



The bill amends Massport's enabling act by ordering the agency to prioritize “environmental protection and resilience, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental justice principles” alongside more traditional commitments to “commerce, economic prosperity, safety [and] security.”