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Print Edition StoriesFriday, August 8, 2008
Letter to the Editor
Legislature going overboard on greening of Bay State
MHT's Cleantech Forum
To the Editor:
The 185th session of the Massachusetts General Court, just concluded, was the most anti-employer, anti-jobs session in recent memory. In a faltering economy, legislators piled new costs on the employer community, devastating business confidence and making it virtually impossible to retain, let alone to create, jobs in the commonwealth.
A prime example of “piling on” is the so-called global warming bill enacted in the final hours of the session. Climate change is a real issue; but it is a global issue demanding global solutions. Massachusetts contributes a fraction of one percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions and is already doing more than its share to control emissions through stringent regulations on business and industry. Our costs already reflect the burden that environmental regulation imposes on Massachusetts — we have the highest electric rates in the country.
The greenhouse gas reductions goals laid out in the new law are exceedingly aggressive, perhaps to the point of being unattainable, and certainly cannot be achieved without greatly increased costs for consumers and for employers. State bureaucrats are empowered to impose costly new regulations for electricity generation, fuel supplies, heating and cooling of buildings and vehicles emissions, touching every consumer and every aspect of the state’s economy.
This Legislature and this administration had already acted to address environmental issues with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the Green Communities act, and the Bio-fuels act. Enough is enough!
Will the last employer in Massachusetts to close please turn out the lights?
-- John R. Regan, executive vice president, government affairs, Associated Industries of Massachusetts, Boston
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