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A Better City Extreme Heat Working Group Meeting Recap
January 09, 2025

On December 12^th, A Better City hosted an Extreme Heat Working Group meeting exploring extreme heat policy design and implementation considerations for Massachusetts. A Better City approaches such policies in two ways: 1. Policies that help to address and guide short-term heat emergency preparedness and response (what to do during isolated extreme heat events), and 2. Long-term heat resilience policies, which help to promote cooler buildings, workplaces, commutes, and neighborhoods, thereby making our communities more resilient to increasingly intense, more frequent, and longer-lasting heat overtime. Many extreme heat policy conversations are already underway, including:

• [city] Boston City Council: considering a tree protection ordinance as well as worker protection policies in extreme heat.
• [state] Massachusetts State Legislature: in the 2023-2024 legislative session, the Legislature considered bill language for heat worker protections, as well as the opportunity to leverage LIHEAP funding, typically used to subsidize Massachusetts residents’ heating bills in the winter months, to also subsidize cooling energy bills in summer months. There is also growing interest in a possible extreme heat Executive Order from the Healey-Driscoll Administration (ABC submitted written comments with recommendations for heat action statewide).
• [federal] Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): rulemaking is currently underway to develop a heat safety protocol that would help protect both indoor and outdoor workers during workplace exposures to extreme heat.

Presentations

The Working Group was fortunate to have two expert presentations relevant to heat policy . . .

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Event Recap: Investing in Our Commuter Rail: A Path to a Decarbonized, More Competitive, Affordable, and Equitable Region
December 18, 2024

On December 17, 2024, A Better City convened over 100 leaders from the business, public, and advocacy sectors at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for "Investing in Our Commuter Rail, Investing in Our Future." This event underscored the urgent need to transform Greater Boston's commuter rail network into a high frequency, decarbonized, regional rail system. This transformation will not only tackle challenges like traffic congestion and climate change but also promote equity, expand access to affordable housing, and strengthen the region's economic competitiveness.

The event featured insightful presentations and discussions, including opening remarks from Tom McGee, MBTA Board Chair, and an overview of MBTA commuter rail modernization efforts from Mike Muller, Executive Director of Commuter Rail, MBTA. Abdellah Chajai, CEO and General Manager of Keolis Group Commuter Services in Boston, highlighted the plan to decarbonize the Fairmount Line and improve service delivery with 20-minute headways.

A panel of industry experts from A Better City member companies provided valuable perspectives on key aspects of modernization:

• Jay Duncan, Global Transportation Planning Director, AECOM
• Dani Simons, Vice President of Communications & Public Affairs Americas, Alstom
• Jeffrey Tubbs, Principal, Arup
• David Diaz, Senior Vice President, National Rail & Transit, HNTB

To achieve this vision for a 21st-century commuter rail system, the event highlighted three key priorities:

Key Priorities for Modernization:

Transitioning to a regional rail model: This involves increasing service frequency, expanding service hours, and improving . . .

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ABC Celebrates the Passage of the 2024 Climate Bill
November 22, 2024

When the 2023-2024 legislative session officially ended on July 31^st, 2024, there was deep frustration among members, partner organizations, and environmental advocates that the Massachusetts Legislature was unable to deliver an economic development bill or climate bill to Governor Healey’s desk by August. Thanks to the determination of state Senate and House leadership, both chambers passed rules to enable their legislators to return to Beacon Hill and move bills forward outside of the official legislative session. The 2024 climate bill (S.2967) was passed through the Legislature on November 14^th and signed into law by Governor Healey on November 20^th.

Key Takeaways from the 2024 Clean Energy Siting & Permitting Bill S.2967

As the third omnibus climate bill to pass through the Legislature in two sessions, the new Act Promoting a Clean Energy Grid, Advancing Equity, and Protecting Ratepayers (2024 Climate Bill) implements many of the recommendations from the Commission and Clean Energy Permitting and Siting, which was formed as a result of the 2022 Climate Bill and was tasked with addressing significant delays in clean energy projects.

Key aspects of the 2024 Climate Bill include:

• Permitting Deadlines: This bill significantly streamlines and accelerates clean energy project permitting, with the creation of a consolidated permit option to combine all state, regional, and local permits into one master permit. It also sets a deadline for decision-making by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) for small permits (25MW or less electricity generation or 100MWh or less of energy storage) to be completed within 12 months, and for large permits to be completed within 15 months. For all projects, applications would automatically receive approval upon passage of the deadline . . .

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A Better City Celebrates the Passage of the Economic Development Bond Bill H.5100 (Mass Leads Act)
November 21, 2024

Earlier this month, the Legislature passed a $3.96B economic development bond bill An Act Relative to Strengthening Massachusetts’ Economic Leadership, also known as the Mass Leads Act, providing substantial capital bond authorizations alongside policy changes for economic growth in Massachusetts. On November 20^th, Governor Healey signed the Mass Leads Act into law. This bill is intended to implement the recommendations of the 2023 economic development plan led by Secretary of Economic Development, Yvonne Hao, also referred to as Team Massachusetts.

Key authorizations within the Mass Leads Act include:

• Climatetech: $400M in capital to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) over the next 10 years.
  • This includes $200M for innovation and the deployment of climatetech in Massachusetts via the Clean Energy Investments Fund, and $200M for the offshore wind industry via the Wind Industry Investment Trust Fund.
  • The bill also includes a new tax credit for climatetech companies through a new program at MassCEC to invest in research, development, innovation, manufacturing, deployment of climatetech, and commercialization in the climatetech sector. The credit will be subject to a $30M annual cap.
• Life Sciences: reauthorizes the Commonwealth’s life sciences initiative through the allocation of $500M over 10 years to the Life Sciences Capital Fund.
  • With the reauthorization of the life sciences initiative, also referred to as “Life Sciences 3.0,” the bill expands the mission of the Life Sciences Center to also include health equity, digital health, and artificial intelligence.
  • The bill also increases the statutory cap for the existing Life Sciences Tax Incentive Program from $30M to $50M, with program extension through 2033.
• Public Infrastructure: $400M for the

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Kick-Off to Powercorpsbos Building Operations Cohort #3 In-Service Learning and Lessons Learned Report
October 22, 2024

On September 20^th, 15 PowerCorpsBOS building operator trainees from Cohort #3, their A Better City member building partners, and staff, all met for a morning mixer and DEI training at A Better City’s office. It was a great kick-off to the in-service learning to employment phase of the program with in-service learning starting in early October and continuing until early March 2025. Concurrently, trainees will be in building operations technical training. Thank you to Cohort #3’s building partners: Beacon Capital Partners; BioMed Realty (C&W Services); Boston Medical Center; Brigham and Women’s Hospital; BXP (C&W Services); Equity Residential; LC Anderson; MIT; Northeastern University; Related Beal; Schneider Electric; and WS Development (C&W Services).

Also launched at this event was a report Building Our Future: Lessons Learned from Partnering with the PowerCorpsBOS Building Operations Training Program synthesizing lessons learned from the past two and a half years, A Better City and its members have partnered with the City of Boston’s workforce development training program, PowerCorpsBOS. The report details the development and implementation of the building operations program track that aims to develop a viable pathway for 18-30 years old Boston residents to train, intern, and gain employment in Boston’s large buildings—filling a critical workforce gap in large building operations and . . .

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Draft 2025-2027 Three Year Energy Efficiency Plan and How it Relates to a Better City’s November 2024 Recommendations
October 18, 2024

Written by: Yve Torrie, Director of Climate, Energy and Resilience, and Grayson Bryant, Senior Associate, Cadmus

In April 2024, the Massachusetts Program Administrators (PAs) submitted the draft of the 2025-2027 Three-Year Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization Plan to the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (EEAC) for comment and further refinement.  EEAC councilors and the Council Consulting Team held multiple focused working sessions to propose and discuss the adoption of enhancements and modifications to the draft plan, resulting in the issuance of a council resolution proposing specific recommendations in June 2024. The PAs followed up with a detailed memo and supporting spreadsheet in August 2024 which detailed each recommendation and the degree to which it was incorporated into their final draft plan. 

The PAs will formally file the 2025-2027 Three Year Plan with the Department of Public Utilities at the end of October and on October 23, at its monthly meeting, the EEAC adopted a resolution that recommends approval by the Department.

A Better City has been engaged throughout the development process, attending the initial workshops which began over a year ago, soliciting feedback from its members, and submitting recommendations to the EEAC in November 2023. A Better City staff also sit on the Commercial & Industrial Working Group (C&IWG) and the HVAC taskforce where they have identified improvements to the PAs current processes and procedures for project development.

A Better City has reviewed the plan with an eye toward how and to what degree the PAs have addressed A Better City’s recommendations made last year, continuing to advocate for changes that will benefit its members and the Commonwealth.

A link to the final draft of the Three-year Plan as it was provided to the EEAC by the PAs on September 25th is available here:

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Virtual Briefing Recap: MBTA Track Improvement Program Progress & Next
September 19, 2024

On September 17, 2024, A Better City welcomed MBTA Chief of Staff, Katie Choe, and Senior Director of Alternative Service, Laura Riegel, to a virtual member conversation on the year-long Track Improvement Program (TIP) results and remaining work. Chief Choe outlined how the MBTA continues to make strides with faster and more frequent service delivery due to the success of the TIP, including the removal of all speed restrictions on the Blue Line and Green Line (central tunnel excluded) and considerable progress is apparent on the Red and Orange Lines. As of August 25, 2024, scheduled trips are up and wait time/headways are down across all rapid transit lines with an overall time savings to riders at almost 50 minutes. The ongoing and future TIP work on the Red and Orange Lines will remove the remaining 30 minutes riders are losing caused by slow zones. Learn more MORE