conservation

Editor’s note: This letter is in response to a Dec. 6, 2015 letter by Democratic Town Committee chair Gary Davis about the DTC’s endorsement of a bill proposed by Sen. Michael Barrett.

To the editor:

Lincoln’s state senator, Michael Barrett, has proposed a bill to impose a carbon tax to combat climate change. The tax will have no discernible effect on carbon emissions or climate change, but will substantially increase the cost of living and doing business in Massachusetts.

Editor’s note: this letter is in response to a letter published on January 12.

To the editor:

Michael Coppock’s questions and complaints about the Leaf Blower Study Group’s activities answer themselves, by and large. He notes the cost of the flyers mentioned in his letter (January 12, 2016) came from the Selectmen’s printing budget. Simply put, this expenditure, authorized by elected officials and/or persons appointed by them, reflected the interest of the town’s governing bodies in a subject that addresses both quality of life and health issues affecting Lincoln residents. The extent to which leaf-blower emissions and noise are seen as a public health problem is reflected by the existence of hundreds of local laws, ordinances and regulations regarding use of these machines in counties, cities, towns, and villages across the land and around the world. To be sure, these measures have proved difficult to enforce, for a number of reasons—but that does not diminish the public’s interest or the nature of the problem or the Board of Health’s responsibility to address it.

To the editor: Michael Coppock has recently written a letter to the editor (Lincoln Squirrel, Dec. 20, 2015) that ascribes rather dark intentions to the Lincoln Leaf Blower Committee. He says that it’s clear to him that this presages our introducing legislation at the next town meeting. In fact, the opposite is true—we decided last spring…

To the editor: State Senator Michael Barrett’s bill S1747–An Act Combating Climate Change as previously endorsed by the Lincoln Democratic Town Committee was recently presented to the Senate Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities & Energy. The hearing room was packed, showing broad bipartisan support by business, civic, environmental, and academic communities. Senator Barrett and the Lincoln…