Hayes Morrison, the undersecretary of transportation, gave an update on the transportation revenue task force’s progress at this week’s MassDOT board meeting that made it sound as if it started pretty much from scratch using a very touchy-feely approach.
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 inTransportation
Tibbits-Nutt comments raise questions about I-90 Allston funding
“I don’t want this to be characterized as an oversight by our staff because it wasn’t,” said Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt.
Posted inEnergy
Senate to go first on climate legislation with wide-ranging bill
Two bills are expected to come up for votes on Thursday, one dealing with nitty gritty aspects of the clean energy transition and another more narrowly focused measure attempting to curb the use of plastics in everyday life.
Posted inEnergy
Threading the region’s electricity needle
“The question of whether or not we will be in good shape or not five to 10 years from now is very much going to be a function of whether we can get that offshore wind industry up and going and interconnected into the system. And there are some troubling signs at the moment,” said Gordon van Welie.
Posted inTransportation
South Coast Rail coming to New Bedford, but not with MBTA assessments
Under state law, communities that are members of both the MBTA and a regional transportation authority can deduct their assessment by the regional transit authority from the assessment of the T. In New Bedford’s case, the city’s $1.4 million assessment by the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority surpasses the MBTA assessment of $750,000, so New Bedford won’t have to pay the T anything.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Regan v. City Hall | Campbell correction | The windfall that wasn’t?
Regan has now moved into the policy arena, signing on with people who are clashing with Wu, such as the North End restaurateurs angry over a ban on outdoor dining.
Posted inTransportation
Some MBTA board members call for more funding
Normally, board meetings are highly choreographed affairs where everyone sticks pretty much to a script. At Thursday’s meeting, however, board members made clear that more money is needed for the T, even though Gov. Maura Healey has shown little enthusiasm for new taxes and fees.
Posted inEnergy
Vineyard Wind 1 trying to pick up pace with good weather
The slow pace of construction isn’t a major problem in the long run, but it suggests building a wind farm off the coast, particularly during the winter months when winds are unusually strong, is not easy.
Posted inTransportation
Beacon Park Yard back in operation
Harvard’s rail venture isn’t about transporting people; it’s about hauling dirt away that has been excavated during the construction of the university’s so-called Enterprise Research Campus.
Posted inEnergy
DPU approves utility deals with Everett LNG terminal
The ruling, released on Friday, approved gas supply contracts between Constellation and National Grid, Eversource, and Unitil that will keep the Everett Marine Terminal running even as its largest customer, the Constellation-owned Mystic Generating Station next door, closes at the end of this month.
Posted inTransportation
Political Notebook: Current and former transit chiefs on comeback trail
We live and work in communities that are just crippled by the congestion on the roads,” said Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt. “It is actually getting worse. People talk a lot about it. Is this a perception thing? No. It’s actually getting worse. And May has been one of the worst months for congestion in a very long time.”
Posted inTransportation
Tibbits-Nutt seems more like her old self in Chamber talk
She engaged in what amounts to a transportation standup routine, blending personal and sometimes funny observations with policy commentary on a wide range of issues.
Posted inTransportation
Are state’s 15 regional transit authorities ready for prime time?
The Senate budget proposes a big hike in funding for regional transit authorities, including money to eliminate fares, but a new report says the state needs to lay out clearer principles to RTA funding.
Posted inHealth Care
Steward landlord denies its rents are excessive
Edward Aldag Jr., the chairman and CEO of Medical Properties Trust, and other members of the firm’s leadership group told financial analysts that the rents the Alabama-based company is charging Steward for its hospitals are not excessive and that they fully expect those rents to remain at or near current levels when the hospitals are sold to “better qualified operators” over the next several months.
Posted inTransportation
New tone for Healey transportation funding task force
The task force met on Wednesday and several members, who asked not to be identified, indicated afterward that the group is no longer going to work on developing a transportation funding plan. Instead, they said, the group intends to focus on developing a “tool kit” that could be used by policymakers to develop a transportation funding plan.
Posted inEnergy
Big electricity shift coming: Are we ready?
Demand for power from the grid is expected to grow by more than 17 percent over the next 10 years, as electrification of vehicles and home heating drives up consumption, more than offsetting growth in energy efficiency and solar installations.
Posted inState Government
Senate budget plan makes community college free, eliminates RTA fares
Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport, the chair of the Senate’s budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, said the budget plan also provides $10 million to launch bus routes connecting regional transit authorities.
Posted inCourts
SJC ponders environmental justice, East Boston substation
A clarification has been added to this story. A PROPOSED ELECTRICITY substation in East Boston has become a test case for how much energy infrastructure an environmental justice community should […]
Posted inAnnouncement
A Message from Editor Bruce Mohl
Dear readers: There has been a lot of change here over the last 15 years and I am writing today with news of more. When I arrived, CommonWealth was a four-times-a-year wonky print […]
Posted inHealth Care
Steward bankruptcy filing presents pros and cons for Mass.
At a State House press conference with aides and local health care union and industry officials, Gov. Maura Healey sought to reassure patients, workers, and community officials that the eight Steward hospitals in Massachusetts would continue to operate normally even as the Dallas-based hospital chain goes through the bankruptcy process in Texas.
Posted inState Government
Political Notebook: Healey’s no-new-taxes talk | Rollins pay adjustment | Who is Jeanne Louise?
Asked by reporters afterwards about a timeframe for the no-taxes talk, Gov. Healey said, “That’s how I see it now and for the foreseeable future. Yeah, no taxes. I’ve been focused on trying to lower taxes.”
Posted inState Government
Lawmakers have no love for ballot questions, particularly the one calling for audit of Legislature
Most of the reports recounted familiar arguments and laid out the committee’s position on the issue. The report dealing with state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s bid for the power to audit the Legislature was more pointed and personal, calling out the auditor for allegedly making misleading statements and showing bias.
Posted inPolitics
Milton ousts Select Board chair who backed rezoning plan
Keohane’s election to the Select Board suggests opposition to the MBTA Communities Act in Milton is not dissipating in the community just south of Boston. The vote would appear to give opponents of the state’s rezoning law narrow control of the Select Board as the town prepares for a court fight with Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who is asking the Supreme Judicial Court to force the town to come into compliance.
Posted inTransportation
Getting the I-90 Allston puzzle pieces to fit
The project envisions eight lanes of Turnpike, four lanes of Soldiers Field Road, four rail tracks, and a pedestrian and bike path – all at grade level. It’s a tight fit, particularly in the so-called throat area between Boston University and the Charles River.