By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
STAFF
jmonahan@telegram.com
BOSTON— Laurie Burt, a veteran Boston
environmental lawyer, was named Commissioner of
the Department of Environmental Protection yesterday
by Gov. Deval L. Patrick.
Ms. Burt, 58, who founded the Boston environmental
law practice Foley Hoag LLP, also has worked for the
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and as an
assistant attorney general in environmental law
enforcement.
She will take over the agency that is charged with
enforcing state anti-pollution and conservation laws
and promoting clean environmental policies. The
department has been hard hit by state budget cuts,
losing more than 25 percent of its work force over the
last six years.
Ms. Burt lives in Newton with her husband, Thomas
Engelman, and has one daughter. She is the vice
president of the Boston Bar Association and prior to
agreeing to serve in the Patrick administration was in
line to become president of the organization next year.
A Connecticut native, she earned her law degree from
Boston College Law School.
In an interview yesterday, she traced her career in
environmental law to the beginning of the
environmental movement when she was editor of the
Environmental Defense Fund’s newsletter as an
undergraduate student.
“It’s something I have been with for a very long time,”
she said. “That was a very different time, when some
of the first environmental laws were being passed at
the federal level,” she said.
As assistant attorney general she represented
Massachusetts on issues involving both the Seabrook
and Plymouth nuclear power plants. She also
represented the Massachusetts Water Resources
Authority in federal lawsuits that resulted in the
cleanup of Boston Harbor and reconstruction of the
Boston Harbor sewage treatment system.
She said she sees DEP providing an important
function in making environmental protection good for
business. She commented on the staff reductions at
DEP, noting that it was the business community that
rallied to curb staff reductions at one point to prevent a
slowdown in environmental permitting.
“If we don’t have well-staffed agencies, it produces
gridlock, and that is bad for the environment and the
economy,” she said.
She said she intends to work for “vigorous
enforcement” of environmental laws, efficient handling
of permits and approvals for industry, and further
development of smart-growth policies. Ms. Burt said
she also hopes to see DEP fill what she sees as “a
huge vacuum” in climate change policies at the
federal level. And she said DEP has a responsibility to
empower cities and towns and local environmental
groups by providing technical assistance on local
environmental issues.
