MA Climate Official Resigns After Citing Need to ‘Break’ the Will of Average People to Reduce Emissions

A Massachusetts climate official has resigned from his post after making controversial remarks during a Vermont Climate Council meeting last month, where he acknowledged 60 percent of emissions in his state come from average people and cited the need to “break” their will — a comment he acknowledged would not resonate well publicly. He has since apologized for his remarks, partially attributing them to his “inability to clearly communicate” during the meeting.

“It is with great regret that I submit my resignation, effectively immediately, from the position of Undersecretary for Climate Change in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs,” David Ismay, who served under Gov. Charlie Baker’s (R-MA) administration, submitted in a Wednesday letter after the fallout over remarks he made during the January 25 meeting with Vermont climate advocates.

During the virtual meeting, Ismay explained that average people, “the person across the street, the senior on fixed income,” are responsible for 60 percent of emissions in his state.

There is “no bad guy left, at least in Massachusetts, to point the finger at, to turn the screws on, and you know, break their will, so they stop emitting,” he told the climate advocates, reminding them that emissions need to be reduced from “you,” or average people.

“We have to break your will. Right? I can’t even say that publicly,” he added as the clip ended in a video the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance highlighted. At the time, Breitbart News noted it remained unclear if Ismay provided further context to his remarks and purported desire to “break” the will of average people to achieve his climate goals:

Ismay did, however, apologize for his remarks, citing his “inability to clearly communicate.”

“I would like to apologize, again, for my comments at last month’s Vermont Climate Council meeting. My inability to clearly communicate during that discussion reflected poorly on the governor, on you, and on our hardworking staff,” he said, adding that his comments “were interpreted by some as placing the burden of climate change on hardworking families and vulnerable populations.”

“In the entirety of my remarks, and as I have elsewhere, I was urging caution in order to minimize such impacts out of a sincere concern that overly aggressive emissions targets may have unintended and harmful consequences on those we most need to protect,” he claimed.

In another clip of the meeting which the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance published, Ismay also stated that “something’s got to give” in regards to their pursuit of clean energy.

“Some of the things we’re finding out of our roadmap study is that, even if we put in solar panels, we would still need more and we would need more transmission lines, right? And we need offshore wind and yes, there’s fishing out in the ocean too, but you know, there’s — we can’t have no offshore wind, no transmission, no solar, and have clean energy right?” he said.

“Something has to give. There has to be some mechanism that we trust to find a place to site a transmission line and some way to work with other states,” he continued:

Baker, as well as other officials, have criticized Ismay’s remarks. On Monday, eight state lawmakers sent a letter to Baker, calling on him to fire Ismay over his comments, calling them “callous, insensitive, and point to a major, insurmountable disconnect between this appointed member of your administration and the very public he is supposed to be serving.”

They wrote in part:

In the midst of this terrible pandemic, with record unemployment plaguing our state and major economic upheaval threatening our very way of life, the last thing this administration should be doing is ‘turning the screws’ on the ‘senior on fixed income’ and ‘the person across the street.’ The general public is lucky to have an opportunity to glean insights into his true feelings on these issues before further harm could be done.

Baker did not defend Ismay’s remarks, stating “no one who works in our administration should ever say or think anything like that.”

“Secondly, Secretary [of Energy and Environment Kathleen] Theoharides is going to have a conversation with him about that,” Baker said, adding, “And third, one of the main reasons we didn’t sign the climate bill when it got to our desk was because we were specifically concerned about the impact it was going to have on people’s ability to pay for many of the pieces that were in it, which means it also doesn’t represent administration policy or position.”

Paul Diego Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, released a statement following the news of Ismay’s resignation, stating “unelected officials with that much power should never hold these types of views” and vowing to “continue to hold state officials, both elected and unelected, accountable to their words and records.”

“The Baker and [Lt. Gov. Karyn] Polito [R-MA] administration now have an opportunity to select someone more in line with the thinking of the vast majority of Massachusetts residents to fill this powerful position, someone who doesn’t prioritize ideological and bureaucratic goals over ordinary citizens,” Craney said.