The legislative workaround resolves a particularly nasty fight between the two branches that resulted in an unusual committee standoff, with House members holding hearings separately from Senate members and witnesses forced to testify before both groups.
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 inEnergy
Beacon Hill is eyeing utility bill equity upgrades
But there are broader structural problems with utility rates that also need to be addressed, including one related to solar power development.
Posted inEnergy
Feds offer bonus tax credits for offshore wind
The new guidance expands eligibility for a bonus that would increase the investment tax credit for eligible offshore wind projects from 30 percent to 40 percent.
Posted inPolitics
Sen. Edwards apologizes for Milton comments
“The measure of our character and professionalism is not in the fervor with which we hold our positions, but in the respect and civility with which we express them. In this instance, I failed to uphold these standards.”
Posted inState Government
Lobbying activity picking up on Beacon Hill
Health care is where the big money gets spent in state government, and that’s where lobbying money is spent as well
Posted inCourts
Full SJC to hear Milton rezoning case
Justice Serge Georges Jr. said the case against Milton, which centers around how to enforce the MBTA Communities Act, “raises novel questions of law which are of public importance and which are time sensitive and likely to recur.”
Posted inHousing
Milton special counsel steps down; MBTA alleged conflict
Tad Heuer, a partner at Foley Hoag, joined Milton’s legal team as a special counsel on Tuesday night and appeared at a hearing before a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday. But later that day state officials apparently raised concerns that Heuer had a conflict of interest because Foley Hoag in other capacities represents the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the MBTA.
Posted inCourts
On zoning law, Campbell seeks legal shot across the bow
Campbell wants to skip a trial in Superior Court and go straight to the SJC in May in an effort to establish clearly that Milton and other communities in the state are subject to the law and her office has the authority to enforce compliance.
Posted inHousing
A divided Milton heads into court
Milton seems unprepared, partly because of the fast-moving pace of legal action and mostly because town officials are as divided as the town they represent.
Posted inTransportation
I-90 Allston project gets $335m in federal funding
No official announcement has been made, but US Sen. Edward Markey tweeted on Monday afternoon that the money will help reunite the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods of Boston.
Posted inCourts
SJC upholds Brookline’s phased tobacco ban
The retailers argued that the 2021 Brookline bylaw was pre-empted by a state law approved in 2018 that raised the minimum age for purchasing a tobacco product from 18 to 21. The retailers pointed out that the Brookline bylaw effectively means someone born after January 1, 2000 will not be able to purchase a tobacco product regardless of their age.
Posted inHousing
Milton Planning Board eyes two zoning plans
Town officials haven’t said how they will deal with the attorney general’s lawsuit, but the debate at the Planning Board meeting suggested the town will seek to be reclassified as an adjacent community rather than a rapid transit community and in the meantime develop zoning plans to comply with both contingencies.
Posted inHousing
Emergency shelter system morphing into something new
Gov. Maura Healey placed a cap on shelter families. Now the House is proposing time limits on stays in the shelter system.
Posted inEnergy
Solar changing the way the power grid works
For decades, demand for power from the grid has grown during the afternoon and early evening and then tapered off overnight as people go to sleep. But increasingly, on more and more days, demand for power from the grid is higher at night than it is during the day.
Posted inEnergy
National Grid says Biden-backed transmission line ‘not viable’
The Twin States Clean Energy Link was considered a novel transmission line because it sought to transmit electricity in both directions – energy going from New England to Quebec when the region had a surplus and electricity flowing to New England when Quebec had a surplus.
Posted inTransportation
Eng says MBTA ridership will bounce back as service improves
Eng is focused on service improvement, aggressively ramping up hiring and moving to eliminate slow zones on all of the subway lines by the end of this year.
Posted inState Government
Lawmakers trying something new with ballot questions
House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka announced the new approach at the end of January and the first hearing – on a question seeking to abolish the MCAS graduation requirement – is scheduled for Monday.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook
WHEN STEVE LYNCH paints congressional Republicans as an extremist band of ideologues detached from reality it carries a bit more weight. The one-time Southie ironworker is nobody’s idea of a […]
Posted inEnergy
Brayton Point offshore wind plant hits snag
Prysmian Group, which is seeking to build a $300 million subsea cable manufacturing plant at Brayton Point, did not respond to a request for comment. But Jamison Souza, the chair of the town’s Select Board, angrily condemned the filing and the “false statements” it contains.
Posted inEnergy
Offshore wind power prices take big leap
A press release issued by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated the average cost of the two contracts in New York is $150.15 per megawatt hour. The press release said the price “is on-par with the latest market prices,” but it’s a sticker-shock leap from the $76.73-per-megawatt-hour price that Massachusetts negotiated with Avangrid in March 2023.
Posted inHousing
Milton Select Board divided on next steps
Milton officials now find themselves in the awkward position of trying to comply with the law in an angry community that soundly rejected their earlier effort at compliance.
Posted inPolitics
Fires everywhere for Healey administration
Now, with more and more things going wrong at the same time, Healey is more willing to mix it up, lofting verbal volleys at those she regards as troublemakers. Her chief targets have been former president Donald Trump and Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre, although in both cases she often refuses to call them out by name.
Posted inHealth Care
Healey calls Steward ‘house of cards’ and a ‘charade’
After a meeting on Monday with top legislative leaders at the State House, Healey said the company’s failure to provide audited financial statements beyond 2021 in response to a demand letter from the governor is evidence that the company’s books are in disarray and no auditor will sign off on them.
Posted inHealth Care
Steward: A cautionary tale complete with Snidely Whiplash
“What we have right now in Massachusetts for the nation is we have a new poster child of private equity and his name is Dr. Ralph de la Torre,” said John McDonough.