Environmental challenges for next governor
MASSACHUSETTS HAS long been a leader on environmental issues, from its early passage of the bottle-return bill to its pioneering reduction of toxic chemicals. The state's residents rank clean air and water high on their list of concerns and expectations from election candidates, and it is rare to find a candidate here openly hostile to the environment.
Yet, Massachusetts is falling behind its New England neighbors in making further progress on environmental issues. Other states have enacted legislation to reduce toxics such as mercury and arsenic, slowing climate change, and containing and reducing toxins from electronic waste, but similar measures have stalled in the Massachusetts Legislature.
Meanwhile, Boston public housing projects have asthma rates of 25 percent or higher. Sprawling development continues to gobble up open space and farmland and gridlock the roads. For more than 20 years, legislation to provide economic incentives for landowners who protect their property from development has failed to pass. According to a report by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the state is losing 40 to 78 acres of open space to development per day. To turn this and other erosive trends around, the state needs strong environmental leadership from the corner office. For this reason, it is important to know where each gubernatorial candidate stands on such critical issues.
Governor Mitt Romney campaigned on environmental measures, including support for tax breaks on hybrid vehicles and disincentives for gas guzzlers. He also pledged to enforce emissions standards aggressively. For the last four years, however, his administration has missed leadership opportunities on global warming, energy conservation, and fixing the parks, to name a few. Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the only states not to sign the recent Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. After initially leading the effort for a regional compact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Romney pulled out at the last minute. Global warming is not a partisan issue; three of the seven signing governors are Republicans.
The administration's neglect of deteriorating parks is a misstep. The parks are woefully underfunded, with a $750 million maintenance backlog that has begun to threaten the safety of visitors. The state ranks 49th nationally in per-capita spending on parks, despite Romney's pledge to make them ``a world class system." The state deserves better.
The next governor will face a variety of environmental challenges, including the siting of liquefied natural gas terminals and the control of sprawling development and traffic. As the gubernatorial candidates crisscross the commonwealth, it is time to ask them for solutions to environmental problems. How will the next governor deal with the escalating asthma rates in cities? What is each candidate's energy plan to encourage conservation and alleviate the strain on consumers? How will each address global warming? Rather than reflecting special interests or secondary concerns, these questions affect citizens' daily lives and are tied to the state's long-term growth and well-being. These are basic quality-of-life issues that affect everyone. Climate change is a case in point. As global temperatures and energy prices continue to rise, the effects will be seen at home in higher energy prices and a degraded environment. The impact of rising sea levels on Cape Cod beaches alone would be an irrevocable ecological and economic blow to the commonwealth.
It is time to take stands and implement change, to promote energy-conserving technologies at local and state levels, and to develop a coordinated and long-term effort to foster renewable energy technologies. Doing so could curtail high energy prices, and would create hundreds of jobs in the energy sector. But it would also require long-range vision from our next governor.
All of the major gubernatorial candidates, except Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, plan to participate in a public forum on environmental issues on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Look for them to present their best ideas.
Lora Wondolowski is executive director of the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters. 
