Sen. Pacheco holds hearing on clean energy

From the Taunton Gazette

TAUNTON — The Benjamin A. Friedman Middle School will be the site of a public hearing next week focusing on clean energy and hosted by state Sen. Marc Pacheco.

Senate President Pro Tempore Pacheco, D-Taunton, is founding chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming Change.

A week before kicking off his Massachusetts Clean Energy Future Tour, Pacheco, his staff and other members of his committee on May 1 visited The U.S. Geological Survey’s Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center.

The public hearing tour, which began May 8 in Mashpee, incudes nine stops ranging from Melrose and Springfield to Pittsfield and Boston.

The hearings, Pacheco said, provide constituents and experts alike a chance to voice opinions and ask questions on the subject of climate change and clean energy.

“Our residents want a strong economy, clean air, clean water and decent surroundings,” Pacheco said in a statement. “Most of all they want a future for their kids (and) we need to craft legislation to reflect that.”

Pacheco cites data from the state’s Clean Energy Center’s annual Clean Energy Industry Report as evidence of job growth within the clean-energy sector.

That report, he said, says that the state’s clean-energy sector now employs at least 105,200 workers, which represents a 75 percent increase, equaling 45,000 jobs, since 2010.

Wayne Klockner, Massachusetts director of Nature Conservancy, said: “The Nature Conservancy is encouraged to see Senator Pacheco convene public hearings to continue the progress and leadership by Massachusetts on a clean energy future.”

Tuesday night’s public hearing is scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.