We’re not going to talk about COVID-19 this week -- the saturation coverage of the vaccine roll out is probably enough for you -- but cases are trending in a positive direction. With infection rates steadily decreasing, communities in the high-risk category dropped by 153 from early February.

For those who need more on COVID-19, WCVB has some really nice graphics of COVID-19 data.

This week we’re looking into the Reimagining Massachusetts Committee proposed by Senate President Karen Spilka. We’re also wrestling with the fact that manufacturers are struggling to find workers at the same time unemployment is high in the Bay State.

And did you know that the air in Boston’s subways is massively polluted and might actually shorten the lifespan of riders and workers alike? Sad but true.

All this and more in this week’s episode.

Politics

Senate Forms Committee For Post-COVID Policy

What will become of Massachusetts after the COVID-19 emergency has run its course? In an effort to answer that question, Senate President Karen Spilka has announced the formation of the Senate Special Committee on Reimagining Massachusetts: Post-Pandemic Resiliency.

The purpose of the committee, according to MassLive.com, is “to act a clearinghouse of policies, practices, and ideas that could prepare Massachusetts for whatever waits on the other side of the pandemic,” and will be tasked with “examining the short- and long-term challenges that could follow the pandemic response.”

Spilka said the committee could serve as a “funnel” for the issues and proposals that will require attention post-COVID.

Speaking to the State House News Service on Thursday morning, Spilka had this to say:

“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has totally upended all of our assumptions about the way we live, we work, travel, play, spend time, [and] it’s also, as we acknowledge, laid bare the longstanding inequities in aspects of our economy and communities. So I really believe that as we look to the future and as we recover from this pandemic, we have a rare opportunity as well as a responsibility to question the status quo and reimagine the path towards continued vibrancy for our commonwealth.”

The committee expects to hold “virtual listening sessions” and to solicit testimony from residents and industry-specific stakeholders.

One of the specific missions mentioned by Spilka is coming up with ways to keep downtowns across Massachusetts vibrant as fewer people travel to them for work. The panel, which has yet to be named, will also examine the shifts that remote work might have on the state’s housing market.

Also, mentioned in the MassLive.com report, Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano plan to create three additional committees aimed at providing ‘sustained attention and policy expertise’ in the areas of COVID-19 oversight and emergency management, racial equity, and cybersecurity.” These include:

The Joint Committees on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity
COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management
Racial Equity, Civil Rights and Inclusion

“While the joint COVID-19 committee that the House and Senate are creating is focused on today and the pandemic response, the Senate Special Committee on Reimagining Massachusetts is focused on tomorrow and the next day, and the next day, and so forth,” Spilka said.

More Politics

Business

Massachusetts Businesses Struggle To Fill Job Openings. Really.

Although restaurant owners are grateful for increased capacity limits on Valentine's Day Weekend, local business owners still struggle to get customers in their door. More importantly, however, many manufacturing businesses in the state are having a hard time getting employees in the door over the course of the pandemic.

That might sound strange considering massive unemployment in the Bay State. By June, the Mass. unemployment rate had skyrocketed to 17.7% — the highest since the Great Depression, according to a report at MassLive.com.

Responses to employment ads placed by staffing firm United Personnel have fallen by 90% since the emergency measures were first implemented last March. As of late December, United Personnel had 200 job listings running. The company was also forced to lay off some of its own office staff and shorten the workweek early on.

The fact that employers are struggling to find candidates might be attributed to extended unemployment benefits and two rounds of federal stimulus checks that have been buoying many Mass. residents during the pandemic. Another major contributing factor, however, is that many parents are doing everything they can to stay at home and watch their kids as well as for fear of bringing the virus home.

While the state unemployment rate is still relatively high, it has gone down ten points since June.

MassLive.com has an extensive report on hiring challenges.

More Business

Energy

Deadline Coming Up Fast For Submitting Comments on DOER Clean Peak Energy Certificate Program

The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) recently released a proposed procurement process for clean peak energy certificates. This was back in late January. According to a recent report by JD Supra, the objective of the program is to “spur new and incremental clean peak resource development, provide revenue certainty for clean peak resources to enable financing, and provide cost-effective clean peak energy credit supply (CPEC).”

The deadline for submitting comments on the proposed procurement process is Friday, February 19, 2021.

Here are some more details directly from the JS Supra report:

DOER proposes that EDCs issue requests for proposals (“RFP”) twice-per-year to select winning bids from resources that produce CPECs. Awarded bids will be enrolled in a tariff for payment. That tariff will provide $/CPEC as awarded for a 6-year term. DOER intends to exclude new projects receiving SMART incentives, 83C contracted offshore wind resources, new energy storage projects receiving a SMART adder incentive for energy storage, and connected solutions Energy Storage Systems (“ESS”) because these projects already receive long-term revenue from other state programs. DOER proposes that, initially, only 30% of the EDCs’ procurement target will be met through the RFP and tariff process. DOER plans to count CPECs from EDC owned CPS resources, SMART Solar Tariff Generation Units, and Section 83C offshore wind towards the remaining procurement requirements but will not include these resources in the procurement or compensate them through the tariff.

DOER is authorized to adjust the tariff size up or down depending on market conditions.

DOER hopes to have the EDCs file its tariffs and draft the initial RFPs, in consultation with DOER, this spring and release the first RFPs by the end of 2021.

JD Supra also has detailed information on clean peak standard final regulations and implementation. And a DOER summarized Questions and Answers document is available here.

More Energy News

Transportation

Toxic Pollutants in Subways More Than Eight Times Higher Than Outdoor Air Quality

A recent study from New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine has found that subway air in Boston is gross and is exposing both transit workers and riders to high concentrations of toxic pollutants. The polluted air makes Boston’s subterranean travelers more susceptible to long-term illnesses such as asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease.

Researchers took more than 300 air samples during rush hour at nearly 70 stations across the country and found at least twice as many airborne toxins in subway air as in fresh air. That is according to a recent report in the Washington Post.

The air in Boston’s subway stations measured up to 140 micrograms per cubic meter. By comparison, aboveground air averaged 16 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter — or less than 1/8 that of above-ground air. According to the story, iron and organic carbon made up three-fourths of the pollutants found.

Lisa Battiston, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said in a statement: “The health and safety of riders and the workforce is a top priority for the MBTA, including issues that involve ventilation and air quality within its stations and on platform areas.”

Major ventilation improvements are underway at Back Bay Station in Boston. However, the study shows that Boston needs to put far more effort into reducing pollutants in underground public transit systems.

Read all about it at The Washington Post.

More Transportation News

Real Estate

Court Sides With Tenant In First-Of-Its-Kind “Frustration of Purpose” Case

Superior Court Judge Kenneth W. Salinger ruled last week that Caffé Nero did not have to pay rent to Newbury LLC (dba UrbanMeritage, one of the Back Bay’s bigger commercial landlords) for the nearly three months that the diner was prevented from serving customers indoors. Moreover, the eviction and default notices served during the time frame were invalid according to the ruling.

According to Salinger a legal doctrine known as "frustration of purpose," says that rent payments are to be excused when "performance becomes impossible through no fault of either party." The case is believed to be one of the first of its kind.

In a note to clients, attorneys at Prince Lobel said the ruling might be overturned on appeal but that frustration of purpose provisions are found in most "well-drafted" commercial real estate leases. Given that fact, the ruling could give leverage to other small businesses trying to negotiate rent reductions with their landlords.

Having closed its doors in October, the Downtown location in question was the only one of 30 Caffé Nero locations to shut down as a result of the pandemic. Back in June, of 2020, UrbanMeritage sued Caffé Nero for more than $300,000 in back rent, damages, and legal fees. (Caffé Nero's monthly rent was about $13,000 per month.)

Patch.com has more on this story.

More Real Estate

Cannabis

New York and Connecticut Both Gunning For Share of Legal Pot Markets

Any discussion of the future of the cannabis industry in Massachusetts must also include discussions of neighboring states such as Vermont and New Hampshire and in particular upcoming policy reforms in New York and Connecticut where markets could be much more robust.

Legalization in New York and Connecticut, in particular, might affect cannabis operations in more ways than one. For starters, a good chunk of the business being done at Massachusetts dispensaries is made up of out-of-state buyers. Moreover, depending on how the markets are structured, legalization in border states could mean additional opportunities for Mass.-based companies.

During his budget address on Feb. 10, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont tabled a 163-page legislative proposal for a comprehensive framework for the cultivation, manufacture, sale, possession, use, and taxation of recreational cannabis. Under the proposal, sales would begin in May 2022.

Lamont said in his address:

“Massachusetts dispensaries are advertising extensively here in Connecticut. And rather than surrender this market to out-of-staters, or worse, to the unregulated underground market, our budget provides for the legalization of recreational marijuana.”

Lamont’s cannabis legislation package is titled “An Act Responsibly and Equitably Regulating Adult-Use Cannabis,”

Under the proposed legislation, adults 21 and older would be allowed to possess 1.5 ounces of marijuana or equivalent amounts of other cannabis products. Home growing would be prohibited.

According to a report by Cannabis Dispensary, recreational marijuana tax revenue would generate roughly $100 million by fiscal 2026. More information on Gov. Lamont’s legalization proposal can be found here. And for more information on proposals being considered in New York, check out this article at PIX11.com.

Looking Toward the Future of Massachusetts