Senior Policy Advisor

• Beth Card has recently concluded her role as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. This cabinet level position serves as the Governor’s chief advisor on energy and environment and directs efforts that protect, preserve, and enhance the Commonwealth’s environmental resources while ensuring a clean energy future for the state’s residents. This role oversees the work of the Commonwealth’s environmental, natural resources and energy regulatory agencies. This involves developing policy and legislative initiatives, leading programs and projects, creating budget pathways for implementation, and serving as the front-line communicator with the press and public. In addition, the Secretary serves as the Chair the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. In this role she engaged with federal agencies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers on priority matters and funding pertinent to Commonwealth programs.
  As Secretary, a key focus of her work was the development of approaches to invest in environmental infrastructure under the American Rescue Plan Act and implementation of the Administration’s comprehensive climate change law. During her tenure, the Administration successfully established an approach to investing in the Commonwealth’s water and sewer infrastructure, environmental infrastructure and state parks. Further she and her team have worked on successfully permitting two offshore wind projects in a way that balances the need for renewable energy projects with careful mitigation of fishing industry impacts. Beth has also played a key role in advising on implementation of the environmental justice initiatives in the Commonwealth.
  Beth has more than twenty-five years of service in state agencies and quasi-governmental organizations where she has been a leader on environmental policy development and implementation of regulatory programs. Prior to joining the Baker-Polito Administration, Beth served as the Director of Environmental and Regulatory Affairs for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA). During her time at MWRA, Card developed and oversaw the implementation of environmental policies on behalf of the Authority that provides water and sewer services to 3.1 million people and more than 5,500 large industrial users in 61 metropolitan Boston communities. Before joining MWRA, Beth worked at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) for over six years as both Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Planning and Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Water Resources. Her portfolio as MassDEP included programs that manage water and air resources as well as waste management. She was instrumental in work related to implementation of the global warming solutions act, the lead in schools initiative, wastewater planning on Cape Cod, and revising water management act requirements.
  Card received a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Environmental Conservation and Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire and a J.D. from the Massachusetts School of Law.Ms. Card lives in Newburyport, Massachusetts with her husband and young son.