The Saturday Send
A Mass Save reform generating consensus among lawmakers is drawing blowback from advocates
By Jordan Wolman
The change under consideration by the Legislature would impose new income verification requirements on only the moderate-income customers in the state’s 21 designated equity communities.
SJC sides with solar developer in dispute with Petersham officials
By Jordan Wolman
The case before the justices laid bare the rising tensions over local control between solar developers and small communities across the state that are potential prime spots for large solar arrays thanks to their relatively cheap and abundant land.
Complicated decisions ahead as lawmakers crystallize Big Tech response
By Chris Lisinski
With a bevy of bills in play, legislators need to figure out not just which policies they want to advance to protect user data and shield minors from addictive feeds, but which vehicles will host the proposed reforms.
In the face of a state housing shortage, could single-family zoning be on the chopping block?
By Jennifer Smith
The Senate’s economic development bill, which lawmakers have teed up for a vote next week, includes a provision that would require municipalities to allow duplexes as-of-right on all residentially zoned lots.
‘We are America’: Chelsea named All-America city for the second year in a row
By Hallie Claflin
Nearly half of Chelsea’s predominantly Latino population was born outside of the United States — the largest foreign-born population of any community in Massachusetts. The city’s award application highlighted its community-centered policing, food distribution system, and youth development initiatives – efforts that have helped strengthen residents’ trust in local government amid a federal immigration crackdown that has had Chelsea in its crosshairs, according to city officials.
Why gas companies are spending big in ‘fossil fuel free’ communities
Starting in 2024, a group of 10 Massachusetts communities kickstarted a first-of-a-kind experiment by pledging to go fossil fuel free. But moving off gas for new buildings doesn’t preclude the utilities from needing to spend tens of millions of dollars each year upgrading the existing infrastructure by replacing pipes. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporters Hallie Claflin and Jordan Wolman discuss Wolman’s latest piece uncovering how gas companies have spent $100 million on natural gas infrastructure in nine of those 10 communities, roughly since they adopted their fossil fuel-free ordinances.
Published by MassINC