Climate Czar David Ismay Resigns
By Tom Joyce | February 11, 2021, 12:31 EST
David Ismay is no longer a member of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s administration.
The controversial undersecretary for Climate Change sent his letter of resignation to the governor’s office on Wednesday, February 10 to the delight of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which publicized damaging remarks Ismay made during a January 25 Zoom call with the Vermont Climate Council.
“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,” Ismay wrote in his resignation letter, in part.
Last month, Ismay said that the state needed to “break their will” when it comes to ordinary people’s use of home heating and driving gasoline-powered cars. He said everyday activities account for 60 percent of carbon emissions in the state. And when speaking about the fishing industry in the same video, he said, “Something has to give,” since fishermen argue that wind turbines in the ocean harm their industry.
MassFiscal put out a statement in the wake of the news on Thursday morning. Paul Craney, spokesman for the organization, said:
MassFiscal is pleased to learn that the Baker and Polito administration’s controversial climate official has stepped down from his powerful position. Unelected officials with that much power should never hold these types of views.
MassFiscal will continue to hold state officials, both elected and unelected, accountable to their words and records. For the past year, we’ve continually warned the public regarding the dangerous amount of power being handed over to unelected bureaucrats through various climate initiatives such as the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) and the pending climate bill. While we will likely see more and more stories like this moving forward, today’s news is a positive testament of the important work MassFiscal does. We hope the general public will remain vigilant in holding the people in power accountable.
The Baker and Polito 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.
The resignation came a day after eight Massachusetts lawmakers, seven Republicans and one Democrat, called on the Baker administration to fire Ismay from the position.
An image of Ismay’s resignation letter is below: