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BOSTON (State House News Service) — Massachusetts stands at an "inflection point" as it balances the dual pressures of climate change and economic growth, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said Monday.
Addressing lawmakers who represent cities and towns along the Bay State's scenic coasts, Driscoll said policymakers need to think about how best to deploy public resources to make communities more resilient in the face of climate change and transition to clean energy while also encouraging new jobs and innovation.
"What are the ways we can prepare our communities for those threats from sea level rise, erosion and more, and still have the economic growth that we know that we need?" Driscoll told the Legislature's Coastal Caucus at a virtual meeting. "I think both Governor Healey and I believe we're at this inflection point. So much of what's underway right now is looking at: how do we support the change and growth that we know we need?"
The lieutenant governor touted two executive orders Gov. Maura Healey signed last week, which banned state agencies from purchasing single-use plastic bottles and established biodiversity conservation targets, as significant climate achievements.
Driscoll, who spent 17 years as mayor of Salem, recalled that her hometown once hosted "one of the Filthy Five coal plants on its shoreline," a reference to the Salem Harbor Station that stopped burning coal in 2014.
Now, Driscoll said, Salem has a "quick-starting natural gas facility with a hard stop in 2050" and is set to host a "marshaling yard" for the nascent offshore wind industry.
"That [transformation] happened in, like, one lifetime," Driscoll said. "So we think we need to be thinking about the resources we need to bring to bear to our communities, and that's going to take partnership, and that's why things like the coastal caucus are really important."
Written by Chris Lisinski/SHNS
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