Rick Dimino

As the urgency of the climate crisis looms large, Gov. Maura Healey is following through on the promise to be a global leader in reducing carbon emissions. The recently released report from the state‘s Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer highlights state government’s focus on the strategy for reaching our future climate and energy goals.

This plan contains nearly 40 specific recommendations, but it can be more effective if it also includes accelerated investment plans for project that reduce transportation emissions, strengthen resilience infrastructure and provide the resources necessary to decarbonize large existing buildings.

In the past few years, Massachusetts enacted multiple pieces of legislation related to climate and energy plans that contain important statutory commitments, such as net zero carbon emissions by 2050. These complex laws also set emission reduction targets for 2030 and 2040 as well, giving the illusion that there is time to determine the exact way to reach ambitious emission targets. Chief Hoffer’s report represents a detailed path forward because it identifies trends, barriers, and recommendations related to state funding, state asset management, emissions mitigation plans.

This report is a very important step, but it could do more to jumpstart infrastructure projects. The primary recommendation calls for determining the cost estimates of decarbonization for each sector of the economy. This analysis and impact on the economy is critical, but the assessments should happen while moving forward on major projects identified in recent years, particularly ones related to public transit.

Commuter Rail Electrification Still Necessary

Chief Hoffer’s report points out an alarming figure: “building and transportation fossil fuel combustion jointly account for 72 percent of the Commonwealth’s emissions.”  These two areas require increased attention, resources and close collaboration with the private sector.  The report does highlight the potential for significant carbon reduction through the increased adoption of electric vehicles, but privately-owned EV’s will not solve all problems with transportation emissions, especially if the MBTA commuter rail and bus systems continue to operate with diesel-powered vehicles.

Electrification of the commuter rail system and implementation of more reliable and frequent regional rail service would be one of the most impactful ways to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector.

This transformational investment would also help to promote mode shift out of cars, thereby reducing traffic congestion. Today the commuter rail system serves 80 communities in Massachusetts, but it operates with diesel locomotives that are producing harmful emissions that are negatively affecting environmental justice communities and neighborhoods located along rail lines.

In 2018, the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board voted to “transform the current commuter rail line into a significantly more productive, equitable, and decarbonized enterprise.”  They called for an initial phase of investments in three specific rail lines that would involve cleaner vehicles and expanded service. Five years later, these projects are still not funded in a meaningful way in the MBTA or state capital investment plans.

Adoption of electric buses for the MBTA is another plan that requires significant state investment. The MBTA will require modern bus maintenance facilities to support these new vehicles, but this initiative is also largely unfunded and behind the schedule necessary to meet our 2030 emission goals. Both of these MBTA projects deserve to be more prominent recommendations in the state climate report, but instead they are almost entirely ignored.

Resiliency Planning Should Be Expanded

Chief Hoffer’s report makes a specific recommendation to develop a comprehensive coastal resilience plan, but Massachusetts state government should expand the scope to go beyond just the coastline.

Clearly, sea level rise and storm surge are threats to the Massachusetts coastline, but there should be greater emphasis on cross-jurisdictional regional approaches that cross municipalities inland on issues related to stormwater, inland flooding and extreme heat.

It is also time to move past another planning exercise. The report should be more action-orientated and look to streamline of the permitting process and prioritize the top resilient infrastructure investments that were called for in the 2022 state Climate Change Assessment and ResilientMass Plan.

In terms of achieving investment in buildings, deep emissions reductions will require attention to existing buildings, specifically those in the commercial and industrial sectors. This require additional resources that go beyond the tax credits currently available from federal funding sources.

Chief Hoffer’s report estimates that between 8 percent and 30 percent of the funding needed in Massachusetts will come from federal sources, so the state needs to identify the remaining money that would come from state coffers and help to leverage private sector resources.

Understanding the costs and possible funding plans are imperative, but Massachusetts cannot afford to wait too long to initiate work on these major capital investments. Immediate action on public transit, resilience infrastructure and building retrofits would accelerate progress toward achieving the ultimate statewide climate goals. The time is now to begin this work, protect our communities and build a sustainable and resilient future.

Rick Dimino is president emeritus of A Better City and a member of the MassDOT board of directors.