We’re not even going to talk about the election. There’s a much more pressing matter for the residents of Massachusetts this week. A ghastly resurgence of Covid-19 now threatens the lives and livelihoods of all of us here in the Bay State. We were hoping to be done reporting on this months ago.
One of the institutions hit hardest by pandemic-related emergency measures is the MBATA — which is considering massive cuts to services early next spring that will inevitably and adversely affect untold numbers of commuters and the carless.
Meanwhile, over at the Boston Herald, contributor David Gahl has pointed out a major loophole in the state’s hallmark climate bill, ‘Creating a 2050 Roadmap to a Clean and Thriving Commonwealth.’ Language in Section 15 could be exploited to end the longstanding separation of utilities and power generation companies — with potentially dire consequences.
On a debatably brighter note, the state recently passed the $1 billion mark in legal cannabis sales bringing in over $200,000 in tax revenue. However, that news is sullied by the fact that the state’s social equity programs are sorely lagging.
Let’s talk about these things...
A Grim Milestone: 10,000 Covid-19 Deaths
Back in late winter and early spring when everyone was freaking out about the specter of the “novel coronavirus,” who would have guessed that ten months later the problem would be far worse but that far less would be being done about it? It seems more is being done to manage the economic and financial fallout than is being done to prevent a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Massachusetts is screaming past 175,000 as you read this. And 10,000-plus Mass. residents are now dead since the first confirmed passing back in mid-March — an 87-year-old veteran. This past April, around 2,000 people a day were being diagnosed with the virus. After a brief summer downturn, that number has since doubled to 4,000 statewide.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is warning that a second shutdown of the economy would be "far worse" than the first. Here’s what he had to say:
"What we're seeing in Tennessee and other parts of the country and other parts of the world, honestly, we cannot afford to have that in Boston. If we do, we're going to have to shut everything down again. The first one was bad on business. I think the second one will be far worse."
Boston.com has some Mass. Covid-19 charts and graphs for those who are interested in following along as the crisis continues to unfold.
MBTA Slashing Services as Funds “Fall Off Cliff”
Over the past couple of weeks, this column has bemoaned the MBTA’s budget woes and pondered possible courses of action. Fare revenues have been razed by pandemic response measures. And now the agency is proposing to cut $142 million from its spending by summer 2022.
As reported by the Boston Globe, here are just a few of the changes being proposed:
All bus and subway service would end at midnight rather than 2am.
Subway frequency would decline by about 20 percent.
The most frequent bus routes would be reduced by an average of 5 percent.
A number of bus routes would be consolidated or shortened.
25 bus routes would be eliminated.
Ferry service between downtown Boston and Hingham, Hull, and Charlestown would stop operating as soon as March.
Commuter rail service would no longer operate on weekends.
Six commuter rail stops would be closed.
Needless to say, not everyone agrees on whether or not these changes are a good idea, but the consensus seems to be that there is no other choice.
Just take a look at some of these headlines:
Boston Herald: MBTA's austerity measures the right route to take
CBD Local - Walsh: Major MBTA Service Cuts Could 'Damage Our Recovery'
Boston Globe Proposed MBTA cuts would make nagging concerns even worse
Information about changes to specific routes is available online at mbta.com/forging-ahead. The MBTA’s plan will go out for public comment over the next month, before the agency’s oversight board votes in December.
Solar Industry Wary of “Poison Pill” provision
In a Boston Herald op-ed by David Ghal, “Poison pill provision undermines Massachusetts climate legislation,” that deserves to be quoted at length, the author writes:
“Buried deep within a hallmark climate bill, ‘Creating a 2050 Roadmap to a Clean and Thriving Commonwealth’ (H.4993), is an anti-competitive provision that would allow electric and gas utilities to construct, operate and own solar projects. On its face, it appears helpful but in reality, it’s a time machine back to the 1990s when utilities had a monopoly on energy services and left customers with inflated, artificially high energy bills.”
Gahl goes on to state that the current law enabled solar to go from .002% of the Commonwealth’s in-state electricity generation in 2010 to over 17% today with powering being generated by more than 400 solar companies that employ over 10,000 Massachusetts residents.
According to Gahl:
“The [existing] law was specifically designed to separate the duties of electricity generation from power delivery. Utilities would focus on delivering power, while encouraging private companies to compete in electricity markets to supply power to residents, helping us incorporate clean energy sources while also building a local economy to support these businesses.”
Gahl then makes an even better point: Section 15H of the climate bill would end the longstanding prohibition on utilities owning power plants and permit them to “get back into the power plant business under the auspices of serving local governments.” The move, says Gahl, could allow profit-motivated utilities to “resume their reign over both electricity delivery and production.”
According to Gahl, there is no evidence that utilities can serve municipal customers better than the independent market. “In fact,” says Galh, “the utility industry’s record is the exact opposite… and that there is already a successful program in place that “encourages independent solar companies to serve local governments by offering them low-cost clean power to meet their energy goals.”
Unlike nearly all of the bill’s major provisions, says Gahl, Section 15H “was never part of stand-alone legislation; nor was it subject to a hearing or testimony from stakeholders. Instead, it takes advantage of the pandemic to tacitly reintroduce vertically integrated monopolies at the expense of our local solar industry and Commonwealth residents.”
Gahl is calling on lawmakers to drop Section 15H, from any final legislation.
You can read the entire op-ed here, but our summary does it justice.
Cannabis Sales Blast Past the $1 Billion Mark
While much of the state’s economy is feeling the crush of Covid, there is arguably at least one bright spot. Massachusetts has officially surpassed $1 billion in adult-use cannabis sales. And, so far, legal marijuana has brought in about $200 million in tax revenue.
Exactly four years after Mass. voters chose to legalize marijuana for medicinal use, and two years after retail pot shops opened, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission reported exactly $1,000,521,905 in sales.
Commission Chairman Steven J. Hoffman had this to say about the momentous milestone:
“This sales milestone represents licensees’ ability to successfully support a safe, accessible and effective adult-use industry, and I am pleased the resulting tax benefits will have a significant impact on communities throughout the commonwealth. These numbers also speak to commission licensing and enforcement staff working around the clock to make sure these businesses and their products comply with all of our regulations, especially the health and safety provisions.”
However, not all aspects of the state cannabis program are full steam ahead. One of the most important pieces of the puzzle — social equity programs — are severely lagging behind goals set by the Mass. legislature and the CCC.
Still, to this day, people of color and people from communities disproportionately harmed by the Failed War on Drugs are grossly underrepresented in the state’s cannabis industry. That is according to Shanel Lindsay, who has served on the Cannabis Advisory Board and is the CEO of Ardent Life. Lindsay said:
“Despite the fact that we worked tirelessly for over five years, minority ownership is almost non-existent. So yes, we should be angry and offended when, as we’re starting to make small steps towards equity in these delivery licenses, that like clockwork the same corporate interests focused only on preserving their unearned monopoly come in to push back on equity and to crush us.”
VIDEO: Equity advocates tired of waiting on marijuana delivery framework
The state’s adult-use cannabis industry has employed nearly 6,000 workers making Massachusetts one of the leading states for cannabis employment. Nationwide, legal cannabis operations now employ nearly a quarter of a million Americans.
On Election Day 2020, another four states joined the ranks of those with recreational marijuana programs bringing the total number of states with legal cannabis to 15. Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota all passed adult-use cannabis ballot initiatives. Mississippi joined the ranks of the now 34 states with medical marijuana programs.
Also this week, Gallup released a poll that showed that 68% of Americans now support state and federal marijuana policy reforms. How long will it be before the Federal government stops dragging its feet on this issue? Someone needs to tell Senate Republicans to concede on this matter. Let’s face it. They lost the war on drugs. And at great cost to the American people.