On Tuesday Governor Deval Patrick, alongside Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, descended upon the New England Aquarium along the banks of the Boston Harbor to outline a collection of $50 million climate change preparedness initiatives. But in continuing an offensive against Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, the Massachusetts Democratic Party took the opportunity to use the governor’s plan as a club, beating him over the head with it while drudging up Baker’s climate change comments of yore.
Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair Tom McGee released a statement yesterday after the governor and mayor discussed clean energy, climate change and environmental preparedness, in which they called for Baker to take a more defined stance on the issue and claimed that his comments in years past have indicated that the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care essentially denies the repercussions of climate change.
“In 2010, Republican Charlie Baker refused to acknowledge the reality of climate change, claiming he’s ‘absolutely not smart enough’ to know,” said McGee. “Charlie’s had four years to study climate change, so we deserve to know where he stands.”
It’s perfectly reasonable to want to know Baker’s inclinations towards a matter that, as a consequence, has the potential of doling out $65 billion in sprawling damages as was observed with Hurricane Sandy in 2012. But to allude that his indecisiveness equates to denial isn’t necessarily accurate.
Still, when BostInno reached out directly to the Charlie Baker campaign about the recent instigations made by the MassDems we were similarly referred material from 2010 – an interview by local reporter John Keller who had Baker on record noting that “cap and trade is a very expensive way to, quote, solve this particular problem.”
Baker did go on to say in that same interview from 2010, however, that “we should all rely on the fact that most of the science agrees that temperatures are rising, CO2 levels are rising and it’d probably be a good idea to do something about that.”
Indecision, not denial.
BostInno also spoke with Kevin Franck, former spokesperson for Governor Deval Patrick and political consultant for the Environmental League of Massachusetts, who agrees that Baker coming to a conclusive decision on the matter is mandate.
“Acknowledging the existence of global warming should not be a tough call for him,” noted Franck in an email to BostInno.
If he continues to deny the scientific consensus that human activity causes climate change, Charlie Baker will lump himself in with a group of conspiracy theory wackos who think evolution is a leftist plot and Sharia Law is a creeping threat to our democracy. On the other hand, if Baker gives another mealy-mouthed non-answer answer like he did in 2010, we’ll know just how afraid he is of upsetting his Republican base.
