The Codcast: Business tackles transportation emissions
By 
Alli Gold Roberts says the business community is a bigger supporter of addressing climate change than you might think.
A senior manager for state policy at Ceres, which works with Fortune 500 companies and other business groups in addressing sustainability issues, Roberts said many businesses view climate change from a perspective of self-interest. Transportation, for example, accounts for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions in New England. Business leaders want to reduce those emissions, but they also want to reduce congestion and improve public transit so their employees can get to work and their products can get to market.
Roberts joined James Aloisi, a board member of TransitMatters, and Stacy Thompson, executive director of the Livable Streets Alliance, on this week’s Codcast. They discussed the role businesses and their employees can play in addressing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector.
Employees should encourage their employers to get involved with the climate change effort and customers should support businesses that are trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Gold said. She noted Clif Bar & Company of Emeryville, California, offers its employees $6,500 toward the purchase of an electric vehicle and Target is installing electric vehicle charging stations at many of its stores.
Roberts said there has been a lot of progress in New England in reducing emissions from the power sector, but little attention has been paid so far to transportation. She noted 12 states plus the District of Columbia are currently exploring the development of a Transportation Climate Initiative that would attempt to attack the problem regionally, using the same playbook the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has followed in addressing emissions in the power sector.
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
The House’s Trump working group hasn’t done that much, says Jonathan Cohn. (CommonWealth)
Lisa Riccobene took a pay cut, served a suspension, and lost her title as chief of staff in the state medical examiner’s office after it was discovered she lacked a masters degree she claimed to have, but now that she’s back to work she still has most of the same duties. (Boston Globe)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell is pushing a measure to allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections. (Boston Herald)
Worcester is trying to crack down on litter — both the type discarded by residents and the waste dumped by out-of-towners. (Telegram & Gazette)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was chased from a Louisville, Kentucky, restaurant by protesters while a Virginia bookstore owner called police when a woman confronted former White House advisor Steve Bannon, calling him a “piece of trash.” (Washington Post)
Since 2000, a dozen states, including Massachusetts, have seen the number of Hispanics grow to more than 10 percent of the population. (U.S. News & World Report)
A Boston Globe editorial criticizes the buy-American initiative that will spur sales of helicopters made in Connecticut but at a high cost for taxpayers and Afghan recipients.
Alan Dershowitz urges people to disagree — that’s how he (and we) learn and refine our ideas and positions. All too often, he says, people only want to hear what they think is the truth. (Boston Globe)
Two nonprofit groups accuse Amazon of selling products that propagate white supremacy and racism. (New York Times)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy says the game of professional baseball is in trouble.
AT&T official suggests to HBO employees that their company needs to become a bit more like Netflix. (New York Times)
A Hingham sexual assault survivor has given up her crown as Miss Plymouth County in protest after the emcee of the Miss Massachusetts contest made a joke about the #MeToo movement. (Patriot Ledger)
Fitness centers are moving into the Liberty Tree and North Shore malls as once-incompatible businesses are now finding common ground. (Salem News)
Full-body sea burials are becoming more popular as alternatives to spreading ashes or being interred. (Cape Cod Times)
ARTS
Beyond Walls is gearing up for its second summer mural festival in August, after which it plans to develop programming at a waterfront park. (Daily Item)
EDUCATION
Julie Mejia and Michael Maguire, who were on opposite sides of the charter school debate, agree that another McDuffy case challenging the state’s funding formula for schools is needed. (CommonWealth)
Andover hiked its annual sports fee from $380 to $450 to close a $60,000 deficit in the school system’s sports budget. (Eagle-Tribune)
While many of the nation’s top colleges have pledged to become more diverse, legacy admissions that favor children of alumni may hamper those efforts. (Wall Street Journal)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
US diplomatic officials, pushed by infant formula industry representatives, tried to derail a United Nations resolution encouraging breast-feeding and saying mother’s milk is the healthiest for children. (New York Times)
TRANSPORTATION
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack acknowledged the T’s computer model for predicting ridership is deeply flawed, at least as far as West Station is concerned. (CommonWealth)
The MBTA’s legislative exemption from many of the requirements of the Pacheco law, which governs outsourcing, ended on July 1. (Boston Globe)
A broken wire caused two ferry trips to be canceled from Martha’s Vineyard, the latest mishap for the beleaguered Steamship Authority, which has experienced hundreds of cancellations this year. (Cape Cod Times)
The Army Corps of Engineers will study the state’s request to fill in a half-acre of wetlands along the South Coast Rail route. (Herald News)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
A new stormwater permit will cost Gloucester $100,000. (Gloucester Times) For more on the new permitting process, and the new fees accompanying it, check out this CommonWealth feature.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
Addicts who end up in jail in Massachusetts rarely have access to medications that ease drug cravings, so when they get out overdoses tend to be fatal. (Boston Globe)
Boston Police headquarters was hit by bullets when a man being shot at took cover at the Roxbury building. (Boston Herald)
A Wellesley man was arrested and turned over to federal Homeland Security officials for attempting to buy sensitive military materials for China. (Wicked Local)
MEDIA
An author and former journalist from Shutesbury was arrested after police said she emailed a “specific” threat of violence against a reporter and editor at the weekly Walpole Times. (MetroWest Daily News)
Well-known Cape journalist and radio personality Francis Broadhurst has died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 82. (Cape Cod Times)