State Rep. Lori A. Ehrlich’s focus will shift from the three communities she represents in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to all of New England when she starts work as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Region 1 administrator on Jan. 31.
But Lynn, Marblehead and Swampscott will be among the communities affected by the FEMA climate-change preparation efforts Ehrlich will help oversee. The federal agency is best known for rushing to help communities clobbered by hurricanes and tornadoes.
Climate change is rapidly eclipsing that traditional FEMA workload for the simple reason that warming temperatures and rising sea levels don’t just impact communities; they impact regions.
Ehrlich brings experience to the challenges of planning for climate change. She’s no stranger to fielding calls from town officials and residents when storm surges overtop the Marblehead Causeway and sweep into coastal homes in Swampscott and Marblehead.
At first glance, Ehrlich seems like an unusual choice to manage a large region for a major federal agency. Her public service centered on her 14-year legislative career with legislation that included, in 2014 and 2016, bills filed by Ehrlich creating the Gas Leaks Classification System and repair mandates for remedying serious gas leaks.
But the announcement detailing President Biden’s decision to pick Ehrlich for the FEMA job gave equal weight to her environmental activism prior to her first election to the Legislature.
Ehrlich founded a nonprofit organization that successfully fought to close the former Salem coal-burning power plant and then formed another group to coordinate cleaning up the Wenham Lake watershed.
She is someone who isn’t daunted by big challenges and coordinating plans to overcome them.
In her public statement acknowledging her FEMA appointment, Ehrlich thanked U.S. Sens. Elizabeth A. Warren and Edward J. Markey, who are sounding the climate change alarm in Congress and are steadfast proponents of the Green New Deal and its major environmental-spending mandate.
“Responding to the needs of my constituents during the pandemic and working to help communities become resilient to intensifying climate change prepared me particularly well for some of FEMA’s primary and essential functions. I should also note that, with climate change bearing down on our region and a pandemic that just won’t quit, our work together will surely continue,” Ehrlich said in her statement.
During a 2019 press conference called to discuss another round of natural-gas-regulation bills she filed with legislative colleagues, Ehrlich linked the largely local importance of making sure gas lines are safe with the global climate-change challenge.
“Natural gas contains methane, which is 86 times more potent than greenhouse gas, as CO2, and the heating sector remains the biggest portion of emissions in the state that has yet to be addressed as part of Massachusetts’ Global Warming Solutions Act goals, which aim to reduce emissions 80 percent by 2050,” she stated.
It is that big-picture thinking, as much Ehrlich’s dogged activism, that helped highlight her for selection as FEMA Region 1 administrator.
We wish Rep. Ehrlich good luck in her new job. She’s a perfect fit.
