The former head of the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation told the MBTA board of directors on Thursday that a political coalition is needed to tackle the T’s problems, but the natural leader of such an effort, Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, who stirred controversy with recent comments about ways to raise revenue, was conspicuously silent during the meeting.
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
MBTA extends Keolis commuter rail contract again
Keolis Commuter Services was originally hired in 2014 and is currently operating under a four-year extension that ends on June 30, 2026. The latest extension, which would run through the end of June 2027, would give Keolis an extra $5 million a year over the next three years on top of the roughly $365 million annual fee the company already collects.
Posted inHousing
Milton asking state to restore its grant funding
The Milton Select Board voted 3-2 Tuesday night to send letters to Gov. Maura Healey and other officials asking them to reverse course and restore state grants that were cut off because of the municipality’s noncompliance.
Posted inTransportation
Tibbits-Nutt’s remarks rile transportation task force
Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt, the chair of the task force, told the group that the task force is looking at tolls along the state’s borders, a hike in the payroll tax, and new fees on Uber and Lyft rides and package deliveries. But Rooney said none of those issues had been discussed previously within the task force.
Posted inTransportation
Aloisi comes to defense of Tibbits-Nutt
“I understand why there’s a kerfuffle because I’ve been in that position,” said Aloisi, a former transportation secretary himself under Gov. Deval Patrick. “It did remind me a little bit of me.”
Posted inTransportation
Healey nixes Tibbits-Nutt border toll idea
“The Secretary’s comments do not represent the views of this administration, and to be clear, I am not proposing tolls at any border,” Healey said in the statement. “I have spoken to the Secretary and made that clear, and that I have confidence in her leadership moving forward in this important time as we work to ensure a strong and robust state transportation system.”
Posted inEnergy
3 New York wind farms scrapped
The three wind farms proposed for the coast off New York were all tied to a plan by GE Vernova to start producing giant 18-megawatt turbines at a facility on the Hudson River to be subsidized by the state.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Something Fish-y, civics swipe, charter fall
Rep. John Rogers apparently never talked to officials at Mass General Brigham, but he said in a Facebook post on April 11 that he did talk to Gov. Maura Healey, Medical Properties Trust, and “members of the MGB board of directors who love the Norwood project and want the deal done.”
Posted inTransportation
Transportation secretary gives ‘unfiltered’ take on challenges
The secretary said speeding is a problem on Massachusetts roadways because law enforcement officials aren’t writing enough citations.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Mass. residents say ‘immigration/migrants’ top issue facing state
Sixty-seven percent of those polled said the migrant situation was either a crisis (28 percent) or a major problem (39 percent).
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Worcester envy turns to relief | Another Mariano missile | Doughty off to Argentina
Fifteen years ago, Worcester looked at Boston with jealousy as cranes dotted the capital city’s skyline, adding new office towers. But now, with more and more people working from home post-pandemic, jealousy has given way to relief.
Posted inTransportation
Healey, House at odds on low-income fare cost
The MBTA says it needs between $27 million and $30 million to give low-income riders a half-off fare discount, but the House budget plan, despite throwing a record amount of money the T’s way, ponies up only $20 million.
Posted inImmigration
Mariano patience running thin on emergency shelter funding
Mariano and his budget chief, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston, acknowledged the House’s proposed funding for the coming fiscal year is probably about half what is needed, but they indicated they wanted to force a reevaluation of the situation after roughly six months.
Posted inEnergy
Magical eclipse created temporary solar power void
Officials at ISO New England estimate roughly 4,000 megawatts of electricity, or about a third of total electricity demand at the time, was being generated by solar just prior to the eclipse.
Posted inTransportation
House budget plan seeks major boost in MBTA funding
The House budget is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, but a sneak-preview released Tuesday morning suggests the chamber’s leaders want to pour $738 million into the MBTA and the regional transit authorities — $281 million from the state’s general fund and $457 million from money collected from a 4 percent surcharge on income above $1 million.
Posted inEnergy
Campbell takes another swipe at electricity retailers
In the eighth year, running from July 2022 through June 2023, the retailers saved their customers a total of $30.4 million, but Campbell’s report said she expected the savings to be much higher.
Posted inEnergy
New Bedford mayor’s take on offshore wind bids
Mitchell likes the fact that the three offshore wind developers vying for business in Massachusetts have either stated publicly or told him privately that they want to use the port of New Bedford as an operations and maintenance base. The mayor says operations and maintenance work is attractive because it involves a good number of jobs for the entire life of the project, typically 20 to 25 years.
Posted inEnergy
Commission pushes speedier approval process for clean energy infrastructure
The tone of the report is balanced, but the recommendations would concentrate more power in the hands of the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board.
Posted inHousing
Political Notebook: MBTA panel clash | A fare deal | Call him Charlie
Tension over the MBTA Communities Law was on display Wednesday night at a CommonWealth Beacon panel in Quincy as a state legislator who voted for the law – and feels it did not go far enough – clashed with a city council president who expressed reservations with the top-down nature of the state telling cities and towns what to do.
Posted inTransportation
MBTA board approves low-income fare
The amendment by Tibbits-Nutt was unusual in that she publicly overruled T staff, who had argued against including premium service in the discount, and did so without any debate over the extra cost.
Posted inTransportation
MBTA hits ‘reset’ on deal with subway car manufacturer
The MBTA board voted on Thursday to waive $90.6 million in penalties and possibly nearly $40 million more if the cars are delivered on the new timetable. The T also agreed to pay CRRC, the world’s largest rail car manufacturer, $148 million to cover unexpected cost increases brought about by the pandemic and hefty tariffs on the cars imposed by the US government.
Posted inEnergy
New England’s last coal-fired power plant to close
Granite Shore Power said it reached an agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency to close Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, as well as Schiller Station in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and transform them into what the company called “renewable energy parks.”
Posted inHousing
Milton says Campbell overstepping on MBTA Communities Act
In a filing with the SJC, Milton argues that it should not have to take any further action because the law’s guidelines were not promulgated properly and, even if that issue was rectified, the Legislature didn’t grant the attorney general the power to enforce the law.
Posted inEnergy
4 developers submit offshore wind bids in multistate procurement
Five companies own offshore leases off the southern New England coast. Avangrid, Ocean Winds, Orsted, and Vineyard Offshore submitted bids totaling 5,455 megawatts on Wednesday, while the fifth company, bp, decided to remain on the sidelines.