State climate czar hopes to be model for country

Rachel Frazin
·4 min read
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The Big Story 

Melissa Hoffer is the country’s first state-level climate czar, but she hopes she won’t be the last.

© Office of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey

Hoffer advises Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) on climate change issues and is also in charge of reviewing climate-related staffing and policy for Healey’s entire Cabinet.

 

“Whether you are a state or local or federal government, or whether you run an institution or a business, you need to begin to have a formalized structure in place to consider climate change,” Hoffer told The Hill in a recent interview.

 

“So our hope is that this will be a replicable model that could be used by other states that it could also be adapted to other local governments,” she said. 

 

Hoffer said Healy’s administration is working to incorporate  considerations into areas where the climate overlap may sometimes be overlooked, such collecting climate data as part of public health policy development.

 

“And what we’ll be able to do with these data are [to] get a finer point on things like, potentially, the interaction of prescription drugs with higher temperatures or heat events,” she said. 

 

Unlike many politicos in Washington, Hoffer says she hopes her job is a temporary one. 

 

“The best-case scenario is, after one or two terms of office, we don’t need [the climate chief position] anymore,” Hoffer told The Hill. “That’s the best-case scenario, where climate change as a consideration is fully integrated into all the other executive branch agencies.”  

 

Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

Welcome to The Hill’s Energy & Environment newsletter, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains.

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