Illustration by Peter Horjus ONCE A MONTH, the MBTA’s Laurel Paget-Seekins jumps on a conference call with her counterparts at half a dozen transit agencies in Chicago, Los Angeles, San […]
Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl oversees the production of content and edits reports, along with carrying out his own reporting with a particular focus on transportation, energy, and climate issues.
He previously worked at the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper.
Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Posted inDrug Addiction
Treating addiction as a chronic illness
You’ve shaped drug policy at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, at the White House, and now as executive director of the Grayken Center at Boston Medical Center. But it […]
Posted inUncategorized
Free news isn’t free
WHEN I CAME to work at CommonWealth in late 2008, we had four reporters putting out a print magazine four times a year. Today, nine years later, the print magazine […]
Posted inEnvironment
DPU oks new fees on solar, wind installations
EVERSOURCE ENERGY CUSTOMERS who install new solar or wind installations on their property after December 31 of this year will face higher monthly charges under a ruling last week by […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Control board wants to streamline meetings
AT ITS 188th MEETING on Monday, the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board began exploring ways to streamline meetings and reduce time demands on the transit authority’s staff. The control board […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA praised for cold-weather performance
THE STATE’S TOP TRANSPORTATION OFFICIAL on Monday gave the MBTA’s subway and bus operations high grades for rebounding in the wake of last Thursday’s winter storm, but said commuter rail […]
Posted inEnvironment
Pilgrim nuclear plant goes offline
PILGRIM STATION, the nuclear power plant in Plymouth, took itself offline Thursday afternoon, adding uncertainty to efforts by the New England power grid operator to meet electricity demand as a […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Is anyone home at Millennium Tower?
WEALTHY PEOPLE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD have bought condos at the ultra-luxury Millennium Tower in Downtown Crossing, but not many of them live there full time. City of Boston […]
Posted inEnvironment
Cold snap putting squeeze on oil-fired power plants
NEW ENGLAND’S POWER GRID OPERATOR said on Tuesday that the system is “operating under normal conditions,” but warned that the prolonged cold snap is driving up wholesale electricity prices and […]
Posted inEnvironment
Frigid weather causing spike in natural gas prices
FRIGID LOW TEMPERATURES are pushing up energy demand across New England, sending the price of natural gas soaring and prompting many of the region’s power generators to switch from gas […]
Posted inThe Back Story
How John Henry ended up buying the Globe for nothing
IT TOOK A LITTLE LONGER than he planned, but John Henry managed to purchase the Boston Globe and a new printing facility in Taunton for nothing. Henry, a billionaire who […]
Posted inThe Back Story
West Station vs. Boston Landing
SOMETHING SEEMS AMISS with the state’s ridership numbers for the proposed West Station in Allston. The draft environmental impact report for the Allston Interchange forecasts 250 daily commuter riders and […]
Posted inEnvironment
Offshore wind: Start big or small?
THE THREE COMPANIES VYING to build the first major offshore wind farm in the United States filed their proposals on Wednesday with Massachusetts officials. Each of the firms kept their […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Bus lanes do save time
MBTA OFFICIALS ON MONDAY said initial results from two experiments in Boston and Somerville showed dedicated bus lanes could dramatically cut route times. Jeffrey Gonneville, the T’s deputy general manager, […]
Posted inTransportation
More hurdles for bus maintenance outsourcing
THE MBTA’S POLITICALLY CONTROVERSIAL PLAN to outsource three bus maintenance garages encountered more obstacles on Monday as the agency grappled with negative fallout from two past privatization efforts and learned […]
Posted inTransportation
Worcester Line performance improves dramatically
T OFFICIALS SAY A NEW APPROACH to dealing with commuter rail delays improved performance dramatically on the Worcester Line, which in November had its best month in terms of on-time […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Checking in on T control board at halfway point
THE MBTA’s FISCAL AND MANAGEMENT CONTROL BOARD is halfway through its five-year term, which seems like a good time to review its progress so far. The law creating the control board said […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Agency cuts bus maintenance costs on its own
MBTA OFFICIALS, who have been considering privatization of three bus maintenance garages to cut costs, say they reduced spending on bus repairs by 16 percent over a four-month period through […]
Posted inTransportation
Pollack defends 2040 date for West Station
AMID STRONG PUSHBACK from neighborhood activists and others, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack on Monday defended the Baker administration’s decision to put off until at least 2040 the construction of a […]
Posted inPolitics
US Atty: Joyce ran office as ‘criminal enterprise’
FORMER STATE SEN. BRIAN JOYCE was arrested Friday and indicted for engaging in multiple influence-peddling schemes which netted him up to $1 million in fees that he went to elaborate […]
Posted inThe Back Story
MBTA parking contract said to be in disarray
THE MBTA’s DIRECTOR OF PARKING resigned last week after distributing a 30-page statement detailing how the agency’s parking contractor is not living up to the terms of its contract and […]
Posted inEnvironment
Baker tries to kickstart energy storage business
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Thursday handed out $20 million in energy storage grants, an attempt to kickstart an industry that holds promise in reducing peak electricity demand and increasing the […]
Posted inTransportation
Barr funds 3 bus rapid transit pilots
THE BARR FOUNDATION awarded three $100,000 grants for pilot bus rapid transit projects scheduled to run next year in Arlington, Everett, and Cambridge and Watertown. In Arlington, the MBTA and […]
Posted inEnvironment
Maine utility: Our hydro project has lowest cost
IN THE PUBLIC JOCKEYING for a multibillion-dollar clean energy contract with Massachusetts, Central Maine Power on Wednesday said its project would deliver the largest amount of hydroelectricity from Quebec at […]