Dear Friend,

I hope it's been a good summer for you. As we move into fall, I want to tell you what I’m working on.

Mike

Almost everyone in my district knows Hanscom Field, tucked into the towns of Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln. It’s owned and operated by Massport, a public body set up to run in some ways like a private business, which gives it a certain amount of insulation from the influence of elected officials. 

Sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes it isn’t. Case in point: Private developers are pitching Massport on a massive expansion at Hanscom -- 27 new hangars to house private jets, triple today’s capacity for such aircraft -- and so far the agency seems happy to entertain the deal.

Worried about the climate? If Massport says yes to this, Hanscom, an institution in our own backyard, becomes a super-emitter. Per capita, air travel is the most polluting form of transportation, and private jet travel is -- by far -- the most polluting form of air travel. People who fly by private jet generate up to 7,500 tons of CO2e per year -- dwarfing emissions by the average American by a factor of 100.

Massport sends out press releases about being climate-conscious -- it trumpets going “net zero” in its buildings by 2031 -- but the greenhouse gas effect of new jet flight operations in and out of Hanscom will swamp anything it might do on the ground. 

In February, I organized the first group pushback against the agency and its interest in the project. I have a different vision for Massport and, by extension, for state government. I want to see Massachusetts lead the country in greening aviation. As a practical matter, this starts by stopping the hangars. 

In the 1970s, under a governor named Frank Sargent, Massachusetts pulled the plug on a major highway project called the Inner Belt, which would have built a mini-Rt.128 through neighborhoods in Brookline, Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. Highways seemed synonymous with economic progress at the time. Stopping the Inner Belt was hopeless -- until it wasn’t. Grassroots pressure grew and grew. State government heeded the protests and found a way to shut the project down. This set a precedent, one that Massport -- and, by extension, all of today’s state government -- needs to follow on the Hanscom hangars.



In August, Sen. Will Brownsberger and I went to sea (for six hours, anyway) to inspect a massive new development -- 62 individual "rigs," or turbines, spread out over 118 square miles of ocean -- all of them designed to generate clean electricity for Massachusetts. Vineyard Wind I, as it's called, is the first major offshore wind farm in the nation. Similar projects the world over are running into delays, but this particular project is getting built. Some turbines will begin to spin this fall, and all of them are expected to be operational by next year.

If the fight to save the planet is the work of our lifetimes, then how sweet it is to lay my eyes -- literally -- on signs of progress.

The state budget for 2023-2024 is in place. For me and other local legislators, a highlight is an amendment I offered to appropriate $1 million to celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, ignited in 1775 at the battles of Lexington and Concord.

One of the lesser-told stories of the Revolution is that of the spinners -- American women who rebelled against the British Crown by spinning their own cloth, boycotting British textiles in the process. Above, you can see several reenactors, including my wife, who help keep this story of colonial resistance alive.

Thanks to its unusual concentration of innovators and leaders, Massachusetts served as the think tank of American independence. Which means our modern track record of outside-the-box problem-solving has a pedigree that stretches back centuries. Now comes the important job of drawing connections between the past and the present, so that Massachusetts remains an inclusive community for everyone tomorrow.

One of my most important jobs is to chair hearings on new ideas aimed at combating climate change. Together with my Vice Chair, Senator Mark Pacheco, I’ve taken testimony from hundreds of Massachusetts citizens on dozens of proposals -- to promote clean energy, end the use of fossil fuels, green the heating of buildings, expand the electric grid, update the bottle bill, and more. Massachusetts has accomplished a lot over the past several years, but there is plenty more to do, and I know Gov. Healey wants to work with the Legislature to see the progress continue.

In nearby Framingham, Eversource is conducting a "networked geothermal" pilot project -- a connected set of ground-source heat pumps capable of warming and air conditioning an entire city block. The project is the brainchild of HEET, a Massachusetts nonprofit led by two brilliant women. A couple of years back, I was able to secure $5 million in state money to get networked geothermal off the ground. Last month, I spoke to a delegation of out-of-state visitors about the pilot and the politics of getting it launched.

Among other things, our towns excel at athletics. This past spring, the boys' track and field team at Lexington High School won the Division 1 state title. They came to the State House to mark the occasion with Gov. Maura Healey, no mean athlete herself. I was happy to join them. I ran high school track myself back in the day, but please do not ask me about my times.

Also in Lexington, both the boys' and girls' tennis teams both came away as Division 1 champs. Girls' lacrosse at Lincoln-Sudbury scored a D1 championship, too, so there’s lots to celebrate.