2018 MA Governor's race: on Environment

Jay Gonzalez: New revenue to fix our broken mass transit system

We need new revenue to fix our broken MBTA system. We can't keep asking residents to pay more and get less. Governor Baker has jacked up fares on riders and threatened to cut commuter rail service for weekend riders, seniors and the disabled. And his proposed timeline for getting the MBTA into a state of good repair is unacceptable, thanks to his refusal to acknowledge and support the need for new revenue.

We also need to invest more in Regional Transit Authorities that serve the rest of the state. We need to do the South Coast Rail project the right way from the beginning--electrified via the Stoughton route. And that's why we need to seriously explore high-speed rail to Springfield, the North-South Rail Link and the Blue Line extension to Lynn.

Jay Gonzalez: Address water pollution despite Trump administration

"President Trump's disregard for our environment is yet another example of the ways in which he is taking this country backwards. Rather than aligning himself with President Trump and subjecting our Commonwealth to these dangerous policies, Governor Baker ought to demonstrate real leadership by pressing ahead with plans that will protect our environment. Governor Baker's decision to follow Trump's lead and punt on environmental protection is disappointing and indicative of the kind of lead-from-behind governance we've come to expect from him."

Bob Massie: Climate injustice is another form of social injustice

A: [Climate] is often seen as a white, middle-class issue, and not directly connected to social-justice questions. That is a mistake. First of all, the people who are being harmed, and will be harmed, by climate change are overwhelmingly poor people and people of color, around the world and in the United States. All of the problems that poor communities are already facing are going to become dramatically worse. And yet, it will be the relatively privileged groups that will go to the legislature and say, bail us out first. So this tension is between people who say, rescue us from climate, and those who are under the severe impact of disenfranchisement and low income, who say, this is a social-justice issue that is just going to get worse, unless we address it now.

Bob Massie: Integrate thinking: environment, transportation, & housing

A: One is, you can invest in local neighborhoods and make them more energy efficient, and plant more trees, and make them more resistant to flood damage-- and that also increases their social resilience because you're making safer communities, you're making more beautiful communities. The 21st century must entirely be about integrated thinking, the relationship between all of these pieces--employment, education, job creation, wages, environment, climate change, transportation, housing, all of these pieces, they all fit together--and as long as you keep them in different boxes and pursue policies that are unaware of each other, you are going to lose the thread and start doing things that are even counterproductive.

Setti Warren: Reinstate Lynn ferry service and extend the Blue Line

On the long-awaited 4.5 mile Blue Line extension from Wonderland Station in Revere into Lynn, Warren said it's a project that's time has come. "The Blue Line extension has been under discussion for more than four decades and we've got to make sure it happens," he said. "When the transit line is extended, that will expand Lynn's economy. A few miles away in Boston, there are cranes on the city's skyline and we need to make sure that spreads to Lynn."