The Cape Ann Climate Coalition is sponsoring a webinar with state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr when he will describe the major climate legislation and related funding that he helped shape and pass in recent months.
The public is invited Wednesday, Dec. 14, at 4 p.m., to hear what this all means for Cape Ann residents and businesses. A question-and-answer segment will follow with an opportunity for attendees to ask questions of the senator.
The Massachusetts Legislature has passed two large Omnibus Climate Bills in two consecutive legislative sessions. This focus on climate reflects the growing awareness and the state’s response to the reality of the threats created by climate change. The stat Legislature has taken action, with the passage of An Act Driving Clean Energy and Off-Shore Wind, in 2022, which followed The Next Generation Roadmap Bill passed in early 2021.
Tarr represents Cape Ann and other communities on the North Shore. He sits on the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee (TUE) that reviews most of the climate bills the Legislature proposes, the influential Ways and Means Committee, and was one of six senators and representatives appointed to the Conference Committee that reconciled the final version of the most recently passed climate legislation.
He will be influential, as minority meader, in deciding how the state can benefit from the recent federal funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, according the coalition. There are major provisions incentivizing a clean energy transition in Cape Ann’s buildings and transportation sectors, and in the electric grid, and these will help the City of Gloucester implement its new Climate Action and Resilience Plan.
Tarr also supported funding for restoration of Cape Ann’s coastal marshes and forested uplands and proposed a state Fisheries Commission to provide input to the development of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.
A link to register for this webinar is provided on the Cape Ann Climate Coalition website, capeannclimatecoalition.org.