Left In Lowell

All right, any article with the sentence, “Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is trying to make California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a carbon girlie man” is going to make the blog’s front page. Hands down.

But the substance of the CNBC article is also really important. To quote:

According to the Eastern Research Group, Massachusetts is on target to cut carbon almost 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, thanks largely to significant programs that improve energy efficiency in factories, buildings, and transportation. Those programs will save money, making Massachusetts more competitive than, say California. Governor Patrick is also doing it with wind and solar energy incentive programs, creating jobs and new domestic energy sources.

At the same time, by participating in the regional carbon cap-and-trade program, Massachusetts earned about $50 million last year that provided the seed money for these programs, along with funding of home heating efficiency retrofits for low-income families and job training for these emerging low-carbon industries.

To be honest, even I didn’t know that was the progress we were making. Everyone always talks about going back to 1990 levels, but very few plans I’ve seen aim for below that - and, in less than a decade from now. Reason number one to reelect Governor Patrick.

Reason #2 is this new Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia independent report on how the 50 states are faring in the recovery (hint: we’re up there). According to an advance email from the Patrick campaign (bold not mine):

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which issues important monthly indexes that measure the economic performance of all 50 states, reports that since the national recession began in December 2007, the Massachusetts economy has performed better than 33 of the 50 states.

In addition, in the last three months the performance of the Massachusetts economy has improved significantly, outperforming 48 of the 50 states!

The results of the index are based on employment, hours worked in manufacturing, the unemployment rate, and wages and salaries paid. The most recent release from the Bank came on January 26th and covers the period through December 2009.

I don’t have a link to the report right now but I’m sure that’ll be available soon.

Now, for the many people still unemployed and underemployed, I’m sure this news does nothing to excite you. But with the state poised to come back strong, it can only mean good things for the job market going forward. There are a lot of other states I’d much rather not live in, thanks!

A lot of the strength of our economy comes from balanced budgets, an administration that is trying to hold the line on basic services and local aid, and many, many initiatives which have been put into place by Governor Patrick working with the legislature. We have a long way to go, especially after the drastic backsliding we did under Mitt Romney (and the devastating cuts he made to local aid and education, among other things) but I think these accomplishments, in three years, speak to a serious government trying to solve the problems of today, as well as position us better for tomorrow. That’s why we need to keep going, and reelect the guy who’s led on these issues.